Ruha Benjamin: "Beyond Buzzwords: Reimagining the Default Settings of Technology and Society"

Ruha Benjamin presents the concept of the “New Jim Code” to explore a range of discriminatory designs that 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. Benjamin considers 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. Benjamin challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold, but also the ones we manufacture ourselves.