Digital Redlining

Redlining has been a phenomenon I can’t seem to fathom. The mere thought of Black families who were rejected a place to live because of their skin color, is truly heart wrenching. Now, in our digital age, we are being faced with technological redlining. 

First we have an article written by Ruha Benjamin called “Assessing risk, automating racism” where she brings up the prejudiced healthcare system. Black women who are in the same danger in regards to health as White women, are becoming more sick. The healthcare system is not giving their health concerns any attention, as they are with White women. We are faced with an algorithmic database that groups women of color and makes cruel decisions for our lives. Benjamin brought up Henreietta Lacks whom we briefly spoke about in our Critical Digital Literacies class. Lacks was an African American woman who was rushed into the ER due to her extreme pain and bleeding. The hospital attended to her until they came to the decision to release her. The hospital released her because algorithmically and financially, treating her would be too expensive, and they have not spent this much money on a Black patient before. The algorithms, that pick up on patterns of history, released Lacks from the hospital and she passed away shortly after with cancer. 

Hyper-vigilance

Have you ever felt unwanted in a neighborhood, but no one has actually said anything about you being there. I recently went to a Bridal shower in South Jersey, in this really rustic Italian restaurant. We got a private room in the back so we were closed away from anyone in the restaurant. As we were finishing up, we opened the sliding doors and there you have 6 elderly white folk staring at a group of Puerto Ricans and a Bangladeshi woman. I’ve never felt so out of place by just a pair of eyes staring at me as I walked out of the restaurant. The mere confusion and shock in their faces said more to me about where I actually was.

Katie Lambright wrote an article “Digital Redlining: The Nextdoor App and the Neighborhood of Make-­Believe” that I definitely related to just a little bit. She discusses an app that was created in 2011 called “Nextdoor” for neighborhoods to connect with each other. It was going well till users started racially profiling passerbyers who looked suspicious, because they were Black. Lambright called this an unconscious bias. I agree that people will always form their own kind of bias without knowledge of any sort. But in this digital age, anything you do on the internet is watched and the world is in a sensitive place. It’s easier said than done, but this digital redlining is getting out of control.