On Blavity: It’s Time To Celebrate Antiracist Tech Innovators

This article on creating antiracist technology designs was initially published on Blavity and written by Danielle Wood, Assistant Professor of Media Arts and Sciences at MIT Media Lab. There, Prof. Wood serves as the Director of the Space Enabled research group, which is dedicated to advancing justice in Earth's complex systems using designs enabled by space. Here are some examples of her work below:

• The Abuse and Misogynoir Playbook

• Sustainable Development Goals for Mars

She is also a Challenge Leader for Solve's 2021 Antiracist Technology in the US Challenge, where she will support tech-based solutions that uplift communities of color.

Antiracist action with technology works to ensure that the outcomes of technology design do not create or amplify inequitable experiences for people of different racial groups.

Black, Indigenous, Latinx and Asian people are often negatively affected by technology that reflects racist ideas embedded within these systems. This does not always mean that the technology was designed with racist intentions; it doesn't have to be. Sometimes, it simply means that technology designers don’t check to see whether long-term, established racist patterns might be worsened by the operation of a technology.

Read the full piece, "It’s Time To Celebrate Antiracist Tech Innovators," here.