From everyday apps to complex algorithms, Ruha Benjamin cuts through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity.

Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era. Presenting the concept of the “New Jim Code,” she shows how a range of discriminatory designs encode inequity by explicitly amplifying racial hierarchies; by ignoring but thereby replicating social divisions; or by aiming to fix racial bias but ultimately doing quite the opposite. Moreover, she makes a compelling case for race itself as a kind of technology, designed to stratify and sanctify social injustice in the architecture of everyday life.

This illuminating guide provides conceptual tools for decoding tech promises with sociologically informed skepticism. In doing so, it challenges us to question not only the technologies we are sold but also the ones we ourselves manufacture.

从日常的应用程序到复杂的算法，鲁哈-本杰明穿过科技行业的炒作，了解新兴技术如何加强白人至上主义和加深社会不平等。

本杰明认为，自动化远不是种族主义程序员在暗网中策划的罪恶故事，它有可能隐藏、加速和加深歧视，而与前一个时代的种族主义相比，它显得中立甚至是仁慈的。她提出了 "新吉姆法则 "的概念，展示了一系列歧视性设计是如何通过明确放大种族等级制度来编码不平等的；通过忽视但因此复制社会分工；或者通过旨在解决种族偏见但最终做得完全相反。此外，她提出了一个令人信服的理由，即种族本身是一种技术，旨在将日常生活的架构中的社会不公正分层和神圣化。

这本富有启发性的指南提供了概念性的工具，以社会学上的怀疑态度来解读科技的承诺。在这样做的时候，它挑战我们不仅要质疑卖给我们的技术，还要质疑我们自己制造的技术。