Preface
Introduction: The New Jim Code
1 Engineered Inequity: Are Robots Racist?
2 Default Discrimination: Is the Glitch
Systemic?
3 Coded Exposure: Is Visibility a Trap?
4 Technological Benevolence: Do Fixes Fix Us?
5 Retooling Solidarity, Reimagining Justice
Acknowledgments
Appendix
Notes
References
Index
Ruha Benjamin is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University
Winner of the ASA Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Oliver
Cromwell Cox Best Book Award 2020 Awarded Honorable Mention in the
ASA Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology
Section's Book Award 2020 Winner of Brooklyn Public Library's
Literary Prize for Nonfiction 2020 "Race After Technology is a
brilliant, beautifully argued, engagingly written, and
groundbreaking work. Ruha Benjamin is that rare scholar whose
sophisticated understanding of science and technology is matched by
her deep knowledge of race and racialization. Here she guides us
into fresh terrain for understanding and tackling the persistence
of racial inequality. This book should be read by everyone
committed to creating a more just world."
—Imani Perry, Princeton University, author of Vexy Thing and
Looking for Lorraine "Race After Technology is essential reading,
decoding as it does the ever-expanding and morphing technologies
that have infiltrated our everyday lives and our most powerful
institutions. These digital tools predictably replicate and deepen
racial hierarchies — all too often strengthening rather than
undermining pervasive systems of racial and social control."
—Michelle Alexander, Union Theological Seminary, author of The New
Jim Crow "This book is the best single overview of how and why new
technologies perpetuate and exacerbate racism."
—Rob Reich, The Wall Street Journal "This book is worthy of the
widest readership, leaving us not only with a deeper understanding
of the mutual and shifting roles of race and technology, but also,
importantly, with the manageable and doable tools with which to
create alternative, equitable, inclusive and prosperous
futures."
—Shakir Mohamed, DeepMind, Nature Machine Intelligence "Race After
Technology is a scintillating examination of how even something as
seemingly all-oppressive as surveillance normalization is
differentially oppressive — and how we can build alternative
futures and solidary coalitions all the same."
—Full Stop "Race After Technology spins [a] web of examples over
the reader's own understanding of technology and leaves the reader
with a new lens to view the world around them."
—Science & Technology Studies "Powerful yet accessible, [...] it is
the foundation for an expanded, critical conversation about the
meaning of technology in society that desperately calls for greater
attention, both academic and activist."
—Antipode Online "Benjamin's work is ideal for anyone who is
unafraid to look at the historical intersections of racial
injustice, technology, and where these topics inform possible
solutions for the future."
—Library Journal "[I]mpactfully written, well researched and
refreshingly clear […] Simply said, Race After Technology will
become a staple in contemporary critical thinking at a time when it
is most needed."
—Marx and Philosophy "Shines light on an important issue"
—Morning Star "Ruha Benjamin contributes to our understanding of
the dangers of racism in the 21st century in her illuminating
account of how racism and inequality underpin new technologies.
Benjamin reminds us that racism is everywhere - and by its very
nature not only seeps into technological advances but is part of
how they are designed."
—Times Higher Education "What's ultimately distinctive about Race
After Technology is that its withering critiques of the present are
so galvanizing.... This is perhaps Benjamin's greatest feat in the
book: Her inventive and wide-ranging analyses remind us that as
much as we try to purge ourselves from our tools and view them as
external to our flaws, they are always extensions of us. As
exacting a worldview as that is, it is also inclusive and
hopeful."
—The Nation "What sets her [book] apart is not her lucid, clear and
engaging writing style but rather her broad empirical scope which
covers examples from digital security and surveillance
infrastructures right through to search engines and AI-powered
beauty apps. They are exemplify what Benjamin calls the new Jim
Code."
—Ethnic and Racial Studies "Benjamin has broken new ground with
this volume, which is a crucial read for a wide audience, including
novice consumers of technology all the way to the most experienced
coders and creators."
—Choice "One of the most interesting elements of Race After
Technology is that it moves us from the fantasy world of the
allegedly neutral robot into a world where we have to reckon with
the unintended consequences of digital discrimination."
—Edna Bonhomme, Radical Philosophy "Race After Technology provides
a clear and useful synthesis of concepts of race within the broader
science and technology studies discourse."
—The Journal of Popular Culture "In her latest book, 'Race After
Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code' Ruha Benjamin
offers a detailed, critical and sobering view of the ways in which
bias is infused into technology. [….] 'Race After Technology'
presents a wide range of examples of discriminatory design and
offers a toolkit for understanding the ways in which technology can
reinforce and deepen societal inequalities."
—Denise Valenti, Press Release Point
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