Untying Knots: Uprooting Digital Oppression

Technology companies today serve as gatekeepers to everyday life, overseeing and influencing everything from communication to payments, in addition to access to information. This outsized role among some of the largest firms in the world, however, poses an exacerbated threat to Black, Indigenous, and people of color already harmed by inequitable systems. The current landscape of racial equity efforts in Silicon Valley also showcases the limitations for marginalized people to access power and lead decisions in tech innovation. Will emerging technology produce harmful surveillance and discrimination, or even reproduce digital forms of the same systemic oppression we’ve seen throughout history? Mutale Nkonde, Founder of AI For the People, speaks with us about her work to expose the realities of racism in artificial intelligence algorithms, as well as her vision to advance equitable change in the tech industry.

Notes:
Untying Knots, co-hosted by Nikhil Raghuveera and Erica Licht, explores how people and organizations are untying knots of systemic oppression and working towards a more equitable future. Each episode features special guests and a focus on thematic areas across society. 

This podcast is published by the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project at  Harvard Kennedy School’s Ash Center.

Music:
Beauty Flow by Kevin MacLeod
Link: https://incompetech.filmmusic.io/song/5025-beauty-flow
License: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/

About the Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project

The Institutional Antiracism and Accountability Project believes in working at the intersection of community, academia, and policy to address intellectual and practical questions as they relate to antiracism policy, practice, and institutional change. In order to create and sustain change, the goal of this project is to promote antiracism as a core value for organizations by critically evaluating structures and policies within institutions. The project aims to analytically examine the current field of antiracism with a lens on research and innovation, policy, dialogue, and community involvement.

Our vision is to be a leader in institutional antiracism research, policy, and advocacy, and propose structural change in institutions and media centered on antiracism work in the public, private, non-profit sectors and digital space. This work will focus on researching existing organizations that conduct antiracism training and development while analyzing their effectiveness and promoting best practices in the field. Additionally, we will study the implementation of antiracism work among institutions that self-identify as antiracist and promote accountability structures in order for them to achieve their goals.

About the Ash Center 

The Ash Center is a research center and think tank at Harvard Kennedy School focused on democracy, government innovation, and Asia public policy. AshCast, the Center's podcast series, is a collection of conversations, including events and Q&As with experts, from around the Center on pressing issues, forward-looking solutions, and more. 

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