Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code

by Ruha Benjamin

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Sociologist Ruha Benjamin coins the term the New Jim Code to describe how emerging technologies encode racial hierarchies under the guise of innovation, from biased facial recognition to discriminatory hiring algorithms to predictive policing tools that target Black communities. She draws on case studies, historical analysis, and speculative design to argue for abolitionist approaches to technology that dismantle rather than reform discriminatory systems.

Published:: 2019
Pages:: 172

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In the Conversation

In this collection, Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code references 4 other books.

It draws on The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness, How to Be an Antiracist and The Age of Surveillance Capitalism.

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What This Book Draws On

The books Benjamin references and why each one mattered to the argument.

Benjamin's central concept of the New Jim Code directly references and extends Alexander's The New Jim Crow framework, arguing that algorithmic systems constitute a new mechanism of racialized social control analogous to mass incarceration

References

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incarceration in the Age of Colorblindness

by Michelle Alexander

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Engages with Kendi's How to Be an Antiracist framework to argue that technology design must be actively antiracist rather than merely race-neutral, since neutral design defaults to encoding existing racial hierarchies

References

How to Be an Antiracist

by Ibram X. Kendi

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Builds on Zuboff's The Age of Surveillance Capitalism analysis of data extraction to show how surveillance capitalism disproportionately targets communities of color through predictive policing and credit scoring algorithms

References

The Age of Surveillance Capitalism

by Shoshana Zuboff

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Extends Norman's The Design of Everyday Things concept of affordances to argue that technological affordances are racialized, with design choices systematically enabling surveillance of Black and Brown communities while protecting white ones

References

The Design of Everyday Things

by Don Norman

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Directly cites

The New Jim Crow: Mass Incar...

How to Be an Antiracist

The Age of Surveillance Capi...

The Design of Everyday Things

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The Lessons of History

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