Ruha Benjamin: ‘We definitely can’t wait for Silicon Valley to become more diverse’

The sociologist on how discrimination is embedded in technology - and how we go about building a fairer world

Ruha Benjamin is an associate professor of African American studies at Princeton University, and lectures around the intersection of race, justice and technology. She founded the Just Data Lab, which aims to bring together activists, technologists and artists to reassess how data can be used for justice. Her latest book, Race After Technology, looks at how the design of technology can be discriminatory.

Where did the motivation to write this book come from?
It seems like we're looking to outsource decisions to technology, on the assumption that it's going to make better decisions than us. We're seeing this in almost every arena - healthcare, education, employment, finance - and it's hard to find a context which it hasn't penetrated.