29 pages • 58 minutes read
Ruha BenjaminRace After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code
Nonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2019A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Chapter 4Chapter Summaries & Analyses
Chapter 4 Summary: “Technological Benevolence: Do Fixes Fix Us?”
Technology has been called upon to fix policing issues, but its efficacy is arguable. Ankle bracelets are a problematic solution for overcrowded prisons and immigrant detention. There is a desire for technical fixes that can avoid human prejudice, such as in job hiring. However, outsourcing to AI can lead to the streamlining of biases rather than their erasure. Diversity, Inc.’s software predicts a person’s ethnicity based almost entirely on their name and zip code. It sells this data to companies that cannot legally ask clients their ethnicity. True diversity, Benjamin argues, is not about cultural variety but advocacy for equal rights. Too many organizations have commodified diversity to the detriment of the populations they claim to include.
Tailored content filters individuals into types of people who might like certain products or advertisements. Instead of deciding between invasive customization or discriminatory generalization, Benjamin asks that we insist on more options.
In healthcare, there is a history of adjusting diagnoses or technology based on a person’s race. This is due to misconceptions about biological difference between races. “Geographic Information Systems (GIS) Technologies” (156) predict communities that need the most medical care and target them for aid. While this can be helpful, it can also cause harm; it identifies already targeted communities as problematized.
Ultimately, electronic monitoring reinforces hierarchies of power. It threatens the privacy, mobility, and freedom of some more than others. Benjamin insists that we be vigilant against technological fixes that claim to address a social problem but present another issue.
Chapter 4 Analysis
A through line in Race After Technology is the idea that something is not what it seems. Benjamin argues this in Chapter 3, explaining that physical appearance should not be equated to one’s interior. In Chapter 4, Benjamin applies a similar approach to the “fix.” Offering an ankle bracelet instead of incarcerating undocumented immigrants is not a solution but another opportunity for the state to extend its control. Benjamin insists that outsourcing to technology cannot be the solution to society’s ills; it only replicates them. Rather, we must deal with our prejudices and manage those in the technology we create.
Chapters 2, 3, and 4 all begin with a keyword, followed by a list its definitions. For Chapter 2 it is “glitch,” for Chapter 3 it is “exposure,” and for Chapter 4, it is “fix.” Each of these words embody the main theme of their respective chapter. The varying definitions for each word help to illuminate Benjamin’s criticisms.
Among the four definitions of “fix” is “to repair” and “to influence the actions, outcome, or effect of by improper or illegal methods” (137). There is a vast difference between these two definitions. This speaks to Benjamin’s claim that tech fixes are lauded as solutions but often extend inequality. Benjamin presents “fix” as a contronym, a single word with two opposite meanings. The duality of the keyword reflects the nuanced view that she advocates for, where technology is not all good or all bad but simply requires careful interrogation.
