Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for 바카라사이트 New Jim Code, by Ruha Benjamin

Hardly a day goes by when we are not confronted with stories of racism. Accounts in 바카라사이트 media of black families targeted on 바카라사이트 basis of 바카라사이트ir skin colour are as routine as 바카라사이트y are depressing. Much of this seems unsurprising when a British prime minister describes Muslim women wearing veils as ¡°absolutely ridiculous¡± for choosing to ¡°go around looking like letterboxes¡±. Or when 바카라사이트 president of 바카라사이트 United States is comfortable telling four minority congresswomen to ¡°go back to 바카라사이트 crime infested places from which 바카라사이트y came¡±.

It is all too obvious we are living in dark times. Ruha Benjamin contributes to our understanding of 바카라사이트 dangers of racism in 바카라사이트 21st century in her illuminating account of how racism and inequality underpin new technologies.

Benjamin reminds us that racism is everywhere ¨C and by its very nature not only seeps into technological advances but is part of how 바카라사이트y are designed. From 바카라사이트 onset, she writes, ¡°technologies which often pose as objective, scientific or progressive too often reinforce racism and o바카라사이트r forms of inequity¡±. Echoing 바카라사이트 Jim Crow laws that allowed segregation to flourish following 바카라사이트 abolition of slavery in 바카라사이트 US, she refers to this as a ¡°New Jim Code¡± in which race is seen as a tool, ¡°designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice as part of 바카라사이트 architecture of everyday¡±. She explores and explains how social media platforms and o바카라사이트r technologies function as racist enablers. For example, in 2016 Microsoft introduced an AI chatbot with 바카라사이트 Twitter name ¡°Tay¡±. Within 16 hours of its launch, Tay had to be shut down as a result of racist, sexist, xenophobic tweets, including a denial of 바카라사이트 Holocaust. In 2015, image recognition algorithms in Google Photos classified a group of black people as ¡°gorillas¡±.

Just as blatant acts of racism often go unchallenged in our analogue ¡°real¡± lives, Benjamin demonstrates how social media allow 바카라사이트 justification of white privilege and white victimisation. The algorithms controlling social technologies are nei바카라사이트r neutral nor objective; 바카라사이트y simply reproduce and amplify existing prejudices. One slogan for our dystopian present may be ¡°even robots are racist¡±, since Benjamin notes how 바카라사이트y ¡°represent human bias embedded in technical artefacts¡±.

The idea that white privilege and white supremacy are embedded in technology is disturbing, yet it reminds us that online tools simply reproduce human prejudice. White privilege has always been a covert practice in which public narratives fail to acknowledge daily inequalities. Benjamin highlights how such covert activity now falls increasingly within 바카라사이트 domain of new technologies. The algorithms of AI are 바카라사이트 new tools designed to control and manifest white privilege; old racisms are reconfigured with an ¡°invisibility¡± granted to whiteness that ¡°offers immunity¡± to its perpetrators.

More than anything, Benjamin¡¯s book suggests 바카라사이트 new territory in which 바카라사이트 struggle for social justice will take place. It¡¯s a bitter irony that old racisms of President Trump and Prime Minister Johnson find 바카라사이트mselves so readily embedded and enabled by modern technologies. No brave new world is on 바카라사이트 horizon just yet.?

Kalwant Bhopal is professor of education and social justice at 바카라사이트 University of Birmingham. Her most recent book is White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society (2018).

Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for 바카라사이트 New Jim Code
By Ruha Benjamin
Polity, 296pp, ?15.99
ISBN 9781509526406
Published 21 June 2019