Race To The Future? Reimagining The Default Settings Of Technology & Society – Ruha Benjamin
From everyday apps to complex algorithms, technology has the potential to hide, accelerate and deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racist practices of a previous era. This talk explores a range of discriminatory designs that encode inequity – what Ruha Benjamin terms the “New Jim Code.” This presentation takes us into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms and their many entanglements, and provides conceptual tools to decode tech promises with historically and sociologically-informed skepticism. It will also consider how race itself is a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice and discuss how technology is and can be used toward liberatory ends.
In doing so, this talk challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves.
Zoom registration: https://ufl.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_06AHx6qeREWaneUKpXwnBQ