Nick Woodford (Hills Road Sixth Form) reviews Ruha Benjamin's 'Race After Technology'
Race After Technology is an engaging and well-argued book on an important subject that I have never seen or heard addressed before. It covers how the people creating new technology and software recreate their biases and racism in them, unintentionally or not, and also how governments or big companies can use data and surveillance to enforce racial disparity and further put down the most marginalised groups of society. Whilst Ruha Benjamin covers complex and large concepts and ideas, it always feels accessible partially due to the apt, insightful and often humorous comparisons to pop culture which always perfectly highlight the points she is making. At first I was disappointed by the lack of technological explanations of how these issues occur however the emphasis of the book is not on the technology but the people that create it, it cuts through the narrative of a ‘failure in technology’ and shows these failures to be failures of its creators and makes you question the new technologies we are sold as automated fixes to our problems by showing you that automated doesn’t equal unbiased. Race After Technology leaves you feeling well educated in all the topics it covers and despite it being a very negative book, it focusing on the problems and failures, the focus on all of these issues being created by people means you’re left feeling hopeful that together, with more inclusion and thought, we can create a more just world.
Something I agreed with in this book...
Was we need to not think of automated solutions to judgment calls as unbiased and able to perfectly choose the best option.
Something I disagreed with in this book...
Was the idea, briefly mentioned, that we might not be able to control the development of technology.
Something I learnt from this book that I didn’t know about the subject before...
Was just about everything, I had never really considered these implications of technology before.