[MUSIC PLAYING]
RUHA BENJAMIN: "Race
After Technology"
looks at the social
dimensions of the data
sciences, algorithmic
discrimination, machine bias.
And I got interested in it
because a few years ago I
was noticing these headlines
around so-called racist robots.
There seemed to be
surprise around this idea
that technology is not neutral.
And so what the book
tries to do is not
only look at emerging
technologies,
but the longer history
of science and technology
as embedded in a social context.
A few years ago, there
was a viral video
of two friends using an
automated soap dispenser,
and the soap wouldn't come out
with the individual with darker
skin because darker
skin absorbs light.
So if it's infrared
technology, it's
not going to work
as effectively.
And so I used this kind
of lower-tech example
to get us thinking about
more complex systems,
like our criminal justice
system, our health care
system, education system, where
a lot of these institutions
are outsourcing human
decisions and turning
to risk assessment tools.
So by calling attention to
discriminatory design --
that is the human
decisions, assumptions,
values that shape the process
of tech development --
we're able to,
one, see the harm.
We have a language
to identify the harm,
but the hope is not
that we stop there.
The hope is that by seeing
the harm, we feel empowered,
we feel motivated.
And so I wanted to
give the communities
that I care most about the
language, the conceptual tools,
the kind of
intellectual foundation
to be able to both
resist and counteract
these powerful forces.
And one book can't
do all that, but I
wanted to add my piece
into this larger movement.
One of the really
rewarding things
has been the support
that the University has
given to expand this notion of
teaching beyond the four walls,
to understand that
I'm also in service
and an educator for the
communities that I live in.
For some people, they're
kind of confused.
They're like, how can you
be studying technology
in a black studies department?
It's not their view of what
happens in black studies.
But the fact of the matter is,
black intellectual tradition
has always questioned the
narratives around modernity
and progress, because you're
looking at history and society
from the underbelly.
At the same time we're saying
everyone is created equal,
has inalienable rights,
you're looking at it
from the point of view of
people who are held bondage
in that very system
that's giving voice
to these platitudes.
The point is not to throw
up our hands and say,
we don't want technologies.
It's to say, how are we going
to use these technologies?
And so I hope my
work contributes
to that shift in narrative,
that shift in analysis, so
that people who feel currently
disempowered by the status quo
are able to use it in that way.
