Book Club: Race Against Technology by Ruha Benjamin

Join us to discuss Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools For the New Jim Code, by Ruha Benjamin, which explores the intersection of race and technology.

The blurb:
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.
Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the 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 technology, designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice in the architecture of everyday life.
This illuminating guide provides conceptual tools for decoding 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 ourselves manufacture.

About us:
The Sisterhood Book Club meets once a month to discuss books by authors of African descent. The books are usually a starting point for deeper discussions about life. We meet in person, either at one of our members' homes or in cosy, kid-friendly places in Zurich.

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