Race and AI: the Diversity Dilemma

This commentary is a response to ‘More than Skin Deep’ by Shelley M. Park (Park, More than skin deep: A response to “The Whiteness of AI”, Philosophy & Technology, 2021), and a development of our own 2020 paper ‘The Whiteness of AI’. We aim to explain how representations of AI can be varied in one sense, whilst not being diverse. We argue that Whiteness’s claim to universal humanity permits a broad range of roles to White humans and White-presenting machines, whilst assigning a much narrower range of stereotypical roles to people of colour. Because the attributes of AI in the popular imagination, such as intelligence, power and passing as human, are associated by the White racial frame with Whiteness, AI is cast predominantly as White. Following Sparrow (Science, Technology, & Human Values 45:538–560, 2020), we suggest this presents a dilemma for those creating or representing AI. We discuss three possible solutions: avoiding anthropomorphisation, explicitly critiquing racial role-typing, and representing powerful AI as non-White.

Timbre, Rhythm, and Texture within Music Theory’s White Racial Frame

This chapter discusses music theory’s neglect of EDM as it relates to the dominant methodologies of the field and Philip Ewell’s concept of the white racial frame, arguing that EDM is overlooked due to implicit biases against racial Otherness and against technological mediation, biases that runs deep enough in US culture to have impacted the trajectory of music theory as an academic field. The chapter examines unpitched percussion through analysis of performance, timbre, and texture in a Roland TR-909 drum machine “workout” performed by Jeff Mills. This analysis models one way that music theory might learn to take EDM seriously. By broadening the methodological toolbox, music theory can begin to course-correct and become more inclusive of music that challenges certain principles of Western music.

Visualizing Injustice or Reifying Racism? Images in the Digital Media Coverage of the Killing of Michael Brown

The explosion of Black Lives Matter protests in the mid-2010s rendered visible state violence against Black Americans, producing a barrage of images and videos of lethal police violence and the protests that followed. These images served as a powerful site of contestation about the meaning of race and racism in the United States for both movement supporters and critics. We examine these dynamics through the lens of media coverage of the pivotal 2014 killing of Michael Brown by police officer Darren Wilson and the protests that followed in Ferguson, MO. Drawing from literatures on race, visuality, and media studies, we explore how media outlets pictured the killing of Michael Brown and the protests in Ferguson, either resisting or reproducing the white racial frame through the selection of images in their coverage. We analyze the images in digital media coverage across nine ideologically diverse media outlets in the month after Brown’s death and the month following the non-indictment of Officer Wilson. Across 1,303 articles, we show that most sites did not center images of violence against Brown, preferring instead images of Brown’s life and, more commonly, protesters and law enforcement. While we found few consistent differences in image categories preferred across outlets’ ideological profiles, the specific content and tone of these images starkly diverged, with liberal sites choosing humanizing images of Brown and protesters and conservative sites favoring criminalizing images. We conclude by considering the role media images play in mediating perceptions of race and racism.

The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing, JOE R. FEAGIN (2020), 3rd ed.

Review of: The White Racial Frame: Centuries of Racial Framing and Counter-Framing, JOE R. FEAGIN (2020), 3rd ed. New York: Routledge, 302 pp., ISBN 978-0-36737-347-4, h/bk, £120 ISBN 978-0-36737-348-1, p/bk, £32.99

Racializing American Authenticity: Mexican Americans’ Perceptions of the Foreign Other

Anti-Mexican sentiment in the United States has long plagued the lives of people of Mexican descent. Since their incorporation, Mexican Americans have experienced processes of racialization as second-class citizens while a continuous anti-immigrant climate continues to impact them. This has influenced their use of a white racial frame resulting in their distancing of themselves from perceived foreign-ness. Drawing on 15 in-depth interviews with self-identified Mexican Americans along the U.S.-Mexico border, we find that divisions between the two nations have become embedded in the lived experiences of those residing in the borderland region. The themes raised by our respondents illustrate how Mexican Americans use notions of illegality, belonging to a nation, and the dangerous other to differentiate themselves from foreign-born Mexicans and the ways they address immigration. We argue that Mexican Americans living in a transnational border space navigate their everyday lives as racialized beings, resulting in their search for ways to situate themselves apart from the foreign other. We argue that the larger implications for understanding how Mexican Americans use the white racial frame is significant since their embedded ideas and beliefs are founded upon racist nativist differences that are used to create and support policies that target racialized others.