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Race After Technology

Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
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( 2,508 ratings, 320 reviews)
Book Hero Magic crafted this summary to help describe this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Summary
Ruha Benjamin explores how emerging technologies, from everyday apps to complex algorithms, can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity. She introduces the concept of the New Jim Code, revealing how discriminatory designs embed and amplify racial hierarchies, sometimes under the guise of neutrality or benevolence. The book also provocatively suggests race itself functions as a technology designed to maintain social injustice. This guide equips readers with sociological tools to critically assess the promises and impacts of technology.
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Format: Paperback / softback
$5400

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Book Hero Magic created this recommendation. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! IS THIS YOUR NEXT READ?

This thought-provoking book is ideal for readers interested in sociology, technology studies, racial justice, and social equity, including students, academics, and policymakers.

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"Cutting through tech-industry hype, this book explores how emerging technologies reinforce white supremacy. Conceptualizing the 'New Jim Code,' Benjamin shows how discriminatory designs can encode inequity and also makes a case for race itself as a kind of tool designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice"

Book Hero Magic formatted this description to make it easier to read. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! Description

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 β€œNew 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.

Visit the book's free Discussion Guide: www.dropbox.com

Book Hero Magic summarised reviews for this book. While it's new and still learning, it may not be perfect - your feedback is welcome! HOW HAS THIS BEEN REVIEWED?

Winner of the ASA Section on Racial and Ethnic Minorities Oliver Cromwell Cox Best Book Award 2020

Honourable Mention in the ASA Communication, Information Technologies, and Media Sociology 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. This book should be read by everyone committed to creating a more just world." β€” Imani Perry, Princeton University

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Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781509526406

Publisher: John Wiley and Sons Ltd

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 21 June 2019

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Polity Press

Audience: Professional and scholarly

DIMENSIONS

Spine width: 20.0mm

Width: 137.0mm

Height: 216.0mm

Weight: 408g

Pages: 172

About the Author

Ruha Benjamin is Associate Professor of African American Studies at Princeton University

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