9781509526390

1509526390

9781509526406

1509526404

"From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce white supremacy and deepen social inequity. Far from a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, Benjamin argues that automation has the potential to hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the New Jim Code, she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity: by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies, by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions, or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Moreover, she makes a compelling case for race itself as a kind of tool a technology designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice that is part of the architecture of everyday life. This illuminating guide into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements provides conceptual tools to decode tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves"-- Provided by publisher.

"Cutting through tech-industry hype, this book explores how emerging technologies reinforce white supremacy. Conceptualizing the "New Jim Code," Benjamin shows how discriminatory designs can encode inequity and also makes a case for race itself as a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice"-- Provided by publisher.

Digital divide > United States > 21st century.

Information technology > Social aspects > United States > 21st century.

African Americans > Social conditions > 21st century.

White people > United States > Social conditions > 21st century.

African Americans > Social conditions.

Information technology > Social aspects.

White people > Social conditions.

United States > Race relations > 21st century.