The Long Civil Rights Movement (LCRM) was attempting to edit the pervasive and popular narratives about Black Americans that were foundational to their original subjugation in real time. This long running tradition of marginalized communities altering the status quo of the country from racism, sexism, and classism, towards a more inclusive future is what in part undergirds some work that digital activists engage in.
This new wave of digital activism is publicly interrogating the conceit that the way data and information is displayed for our consumption and use is neutral rather than a direct extension of the reality in which we already exist. Cathy O’ Neil suggests that we should “stop trusting algorithms to be fair”1 because our technology is essentially a mirror of our society. People themselves are rarely fair and tend more towards being self-serving and most interested in preserving their own narratives particularly when profit making is involved. Rather than believing that what we find first in our searches is most common or most often true, we should read more closely in order to understand “the material conditions on which these results are predicated” 2.
A certain level of interrogation is needed to untangle who has decided what we see first, how we should interact with it, and whether or not it is true. This kind of media literacy is often not taught because we have been fed notions of popularity and neutrality as the obvious default.
Interestingly enough when companies like Google are reprimanded for the product that they have created, they often relegate the blame towards the public rather than the inherit flaws in their programming and algorithms. This is the same work that oppressive institutions have been doing generations. Although you can be an accomplice in a system of which you are not an architect, the blame cannot only lie with individuals. The LCRM particularly was predicated on the notion of small legal victories to eventually change the tableau of democracy rather that a complete overhaul of the system. This of course is because it is often extremely difficult to dismantle something that you did not build.
If digital activists can continue to apply pressure to the companies that are responsible for enforcing the status quo (in the same way that the LCRM applied legal pressure to the legal establishment) perhaps we will be able to see our technology made more intersectional, accessible, and accurate.
- O’Neil, Cathy. ” The Truth About Algorithms”. Vimeo. Video File. October 17, 2018. https://vimeo.com/295525907
- Noble, Safiya Umoja. Algorithms of oppression: How search engines reinforce racism. NYU Press, 2018.
