YSM Issue 94.1

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BLACK MIRROR, DISCRIMINATORYDESIGN, AND "THE NEW JIM CODE"BY SELMA ABOUNEAMEHIf you’ve ever watched the Netflix series Black Mirror, you’re well acquaintedwith the on-screen consequences of artificial intelligence gone rogue, invasivemedical technologies, and intrusive surveillance methods. The show acts asa satirical commentary on both the role that technology plays in our societyand the role society plays in creating technologies that have unintended, oftendestructive outcomes. After all, whose problems are technologies meant to solve,and whose problems do “innovative solutions” exacerbate?This is just one question that Ruha Benjamin, sociologist and associateprofessor of African American Studies at Princeton University, posed tostudents in her course, "Black Mirror: Race, Technology, and Justice,” taughtin Fall 2020. The course drew its inspiration from her most recent book, RaceAfter Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code.In her work, Benjamin analyzes how the history of racial coding—a systemthat facilitates white supremacy—is deeply intertwined with discriminatorydesign. She walks readers through examples of discriminatory design—beautyalgorithms that favor whiteness, soap dispensers that fail to recognize darkskin, and rating systems used to track social standing—prompting us to thinkabout the social systems that allow these technologies to exist in the first place.Benjamin gives a name to the employment of technologies that, regardless ofintent, amplify racial hierarchies: “The New Jim Code.”“The New Jim Code” isn’t simply defined by the existence of discriminatorytechnologies. Benjamin structures her book around four major components that describethis era: engineered inequity, default discrimination, coded exposure, and technologicalbenevolence. The strongest part of her analysis is her reliance on storytelling to engagereaders and stress the tangible consequences of discriminatory design.When asked what message she hoped her students took away from her course,Benjamin articulated the importance of human experience. “[W]e have to takestories as seriously as we do statistics… speculation is not just what happens inbooks, films, and science fiction, but… the technologies that we use and build arePHOTOGRAPH COURTESY OF RUHA BENJAMINthe materialization of someone’s imagination,” she said. Through her analysis of livedexperience and pop culture references, readers are able to recognize the racializedsocial hierarchy that decides whose problems get solved.Benjamin concludes her book with an important chapter describing ways to fight the New Jim Code. We must both recognize the oppressivesocial systems that have led to a “default” of discriminatory design and act to dismantle them. A large part of this responsibility lies with students:the future leaders of STEM fields that have been defined by long histories of racism. Benjamin is an advocate for STEM education reform in thisregard. “I’d love more STEM students to understand that their disciplines are located in a hierarchy of knowledge where some ways of codifying andunderstanding the world… trump and displace other humanistic and experiential ways of knowing,” Benjamin said. “Part of working in solidaritywith people and communities who are most harmed by unjust systems means engaging in the varied forms of knowledge they bring to the table.” ■SCIENCE IN TH36 Yale Scientific Magazine March 2021www.yalescientific.org
THE SURGEON'S CUTBY TEJITA AGARWALIMAGE COURTESY OF ON TAP SPORTS NETVan der Pool, J. & Cohen, A. (Executive Producers). (2020). TheSurgeon's Cut [TV Series]. Netflix.It is not easy to sit with a pregnant woman while monitors all around youtell you her fetus’s heart is slowing; her child is dying.This is the situation fetal surgeon Kypros Nicolaides of King’s CollegeHospital found himself in. His own heart racing, he pushed blood directlyinto the fetus’s heart just in time, saving its life. Over the course of fourepisodes, Netflix’s The Surgeon’s Cut follows and humanizes Kypros andthree other surgeons, each revolutionaries of their fields. Like life, the showstarts with pregnancy and birth, where Kypros works his miracles.When he performs surgeries, Kypros asks his patients to hold his arm, so they feelthey are on a team with him. He says his role as a surgeon is to serve as a guide, leadingthe parents through complex operations, some of which he developed himself.The second episode follows Mayo Clinic neurosurgeon Alfredo Quinones-Hinojosa, fondly referred to as Dr. Q. While Kypros is enthralled by the beginningof life, Dr. Q says the brain holds our humanity. He compares surgery to a dance: thebrain dances with the rhythm of the heart, and his body dances as his feet and handscontrol careful surgical movements. In these moments, when he commits the sacredact of opening someone’s skull, he feels intimately connected to his patient’s soul.Dr. Q sees each surgery as an obstacle, and his past empowers him to face theseobstacles with determination. Dr. Q left Mexico at nineteen and became a farmworker, a cleaner, then a welder, all while learning English at night school. Sevenyears after leaving the farm, he began medical school at Harvard University.While the brain holds our humanity, the liver is where our souls are—at leastaccording to Nancy Asher, a transplant surgeon at the University of California,San Francisco. She is artful, impatient, and in constant pursuit of excellence. “Ithink you have to have fearlessness tempered by fear of failure,” Asher says whiledescribing the job of a surgeon. Her impact extends beyond the operating room:she invests in mentorship for women in surgery, she is an activist against organtrafficking, and she has published a large body of research.A surgeon’s greatness depends on something beyond solely technical skill,and like Asher, Devi Shetty’s impact is immeasurable. Devi Shetty is a heartsurgeon in India. Describing his work as Mother Teresa once did, Shettysays that when God created babies who had holes in their hearts, He sawthe mistake and sent Shetty to help them. Shetty has worked hard to developa relationship with rural India, and the hospital he created can now offeroperations to thousands of patients who otherwise could not afford them.The Surgeon’s Cut gives us a glimpse into the trials and excitements ofsurgery—from birth to death, from fetus to brain, from liver to heart. The showreveals who these surgeons are at their cores: creators, visionaries, and artists. ■E SPOTLIGHTwww.yalescientific.orgMarch 2021 Yale Scientific Magazine 37
Page 1 and 2: Yale ScientificTHE NATION’S OLDES
Page 3 and 4: TABLE OF CONTENTSVOL. 94 ISSUE NO.
Page 5 and 6: The Editor-in-Chief SpeaksHUMANITY
Page 7 and 8: Biomedical Engineering / Geophysics
Page 9 and 10: Material ScienceNEWSA NEW FRONTIERO
Page 11 and 12: Neuroscience & GeneticsNEWSTHEMOLEC
Page 13 and 14: Environmental ScienceFOCUSThey also
Page 15 and 16: Virology & Molecular BiologyFOCUSpr
Page 17 and 18: THEUNFINISHEDPUZZLE OFALZHEIMER’S
Page 19 and 20: NeuroscienceFOCUSexhibited less sev
Page 21 and 22: the radioactive decay of trace elem
Page 23 and 24: VirologyFEATUREIMAGE COURTESY OF WI
Page 25 and 26: RoboticsFEATUREIn their experiments
Page 27 and 28: BiochemistryFEATUREIMAGE COURTESY O
Page 29 and 30: Protection ofthe world’sanimals p
Page 31 and 32: COUNTERPOINTDR. FAUCI, ARE WETHERE
Page 33 and 34: Public HealthSCOPEHowever, the 2007
Page 35: OWEN GARRICK(MD ’98)ALUMNI PROFIL
Page 39 and 40: for more than 70 years, hrl's scien

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