Black Feminist Musings on Algorithmic Oppression
This addresses algorithmic oppression for marginalized communities, particularly Black individuals, by offering a critical and transformative framework, though it is more conceptual than incremental.
The paper tackles the problem of algorithmic oppression by advocating for Black feminist perspectives to abolish it, critiquing existing solutions like diversity and fairness approaches, and proposing community-centered practices.
This paper unapologetically reflects on the critical role that Black feminism can and should play in abolishing algorithmic oppression. Positioning algorithmic oppression in the broader field of feminist science and technology studies, I draw upon feminist philosophical critiques of science and technology and discuss histories and continuities of scientific oppression against historically marginalized people. Moreover, I examine the concepts of invisibility and hypervisibility in oppressive technologies a lá the canonical double bind. Furthermore, I discuss what it means to call for diversity as a solution to algorithmic violence, and I critique dialectics of the fairness, accountability, and transparency community. I end by inviting you to envision and imagine the struggle to abolish algorithmic oppression by abolishing oppressive systems and shifting algorithmic development practices, including engaging our communities in scientific processes, centering marginalized communities in design, and consensual data and algorithmic practices.