Stan McKenzie Salon Series

The Stan McKenzie Salon Series presents "Beyond Buzzwords: Reimagining the Default Settings of Technology & Society"

FEATURING RUHA BENJAMIN

From everyday apps to complex algorithms, technology has the potential to hide, speed, and deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racist practices of a previous era. In this talk, Ruha Benjamin explores a range of discriminatory designs that encode inequity—what she terms the “New Jim Code.” This presentation takes us into the world of biased bots, altruistic algorithms, and their many entanglements, and provides conceptual tools to decode tech promises with historical and sociological insight. She will also consider how race itself is a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice and discuss how technology is and can be used toward liberatory ends. In doing so, Ruha challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves.

Zoom link: https://rit.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_ReYniNedS7uCcB5CWI0GAw