Day: April 1, 2019

This weekend I had the opportunity to engage with a graduate student at the University of Michigan studying Information Sciences. This student’s work focused upon an area that relates to this class in unique ways. As a professional he worked in the field of robotics and A.I., trying to equip African Americans with access to new technologies. Specifically he was working with differently abled individuals who needed voice command to help them do basic tasks such as write or move.

What he found was a systematic bias in voice operated machines that could not understand the accents of some of the African American communities he was working within. This issue led him to return to school and study the systematic biases that exist in technology. He is conducting research to reveal the racial bias at work in big tech.

This is not an issue we have directly tackled in class but it relates to the broader themes of institutional racism we have discussed. Morality and ethics are important, but issues such as this one raise broader concerns regarding institutionalized racism and its pervasiveness today. What does it say about society today that some groups cannot use technologies because of their race/ethnicity?

For those interested, check back in with the post a bit later. I am going to post a link to his work once he provides me with one.

UPDATE: A link to a page displaying some people doing work and research on this topic:

Digital Sanctuary: Combatting Bias and Racism in Tech Tools and Policies

The wonderful thing about history is that while majority of it seems to be set in stone, there could be a numerous amount of documents and finding to be unearthed and some that may never be seen again.  I was intrigued with this article because it’s something I’d never heard about before.  The 1619 Landing Day, a day meant to honor the first group of Africans in the America’s.  The article does raise the point of what exactly should be factual and how rewriting history could be seen as problematic.  One is the use of the term “indentured servant.”  African Americans were slaves in the simplest forms no matter how one may want to put it, and using terms such as indentured servant only sugar coats the true sad history.

The article also makes point of keeping connected to the history at hand.  When revelations like this are revealed it is imperative to make note, yet many historians are still hesitant about changing history and tend to omit anything that has to do with Black history.  The point of the 1619 Landing day is to showcase African Americans presence in this country from the start, and while it may be a small thing, it still matters to the overall story of African American history.

https://www.usnews.com/news/best-states/north-carolina/articles/2019-03-30/african-landing-assertion-reflects-changing-slavery-views