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The Algorithmic System is set!
“You can’t really smash the system if you don’t understand how it works.”
Ahead of his time, a lead Black Anthropologists Allison Davis, his wife and a White couple embarked upon research to uncover the Truth of the Jim Crow era in Natchez, Mississippi (mid 20thC).
After Years of documenting history, other White researchers passed Davis’ publishing efforts about the Caste in the South. This happened because Davis had fabricated hoops through which to jump, slowing down his timelines to be the first to publish about the topic. The other researchers, with less time collecting data, published before him. [1]
It occurred to me that Davis’ Jim Crow hoop plays are likened to today’s Algorithms embedded as another lever for Jim Crow 2.0. Consistent with an unfair system, today’s algorithms favor and permit White privileged voices of hate and divisiveness to remain unchecked. On platforms the voices make headway to a targeted mass like themselves, further escalating racial tensions.
Algorithms that Favor
I got hooked into a LinkedIn post. It opened with empathic words targeting a segment of the nation, You’re not alone while creatively manipulating words to gather foot soldiers for battle. The professed manipulator, proclaims we are in a war; It’s a war against manipulation for love to prevail. The love and empathy, however, are exclusive for the troops among the commander’s circles. Warring words that otherwise should trigger algorithms to signal misinformation were permitted.
I and many understood the post to be about vaccine mandates. Really, though, it’s about the audacity that Algorithms nixed previous posts. Readers also detected words as lies (which I believe are truths), so apparently posts were removed.
The writer’s cowardice hides the exact same message openly, that was blocked. It avoids the algorithms that neither decipher critical thinking to infer nor detect empathetic words for a collective awareness about the global world. Rather, algorithms by design supplant human dignity.
Followers within a closed loop are ready for battle because of their mistrust with a government’s facts as truth. Thus, fighting words against untruths– which are true – blast people who adhere to the collective. See how that works?
The commander’s respondents fail to offer investigative facts (unless YouTube is one), relying upon ignorance. But it’s a historical system of White privilege that propels tyrannical rants with algorithms for the same system. Warriors are to hold the line against the mentally ill… unhealed from trauma. The vaccinated are the opposition.
Throughout the stream of consciousness, a call to action is made for soldiers who are more awake than the opposition.[2]
A LinkedIn respondent openly welcomed me to be in the truth community, drawing a demarcation between truth tellers and liars. I suppose I’m a liar in her cultish community from our collective world.
All the while, not one report to LinkedIn could be made because the algorithms wouldn’t or cannot detect the obvious summons to take-up arms.
Irony of Secretive Algorithms
According to a recent blog from Post Beyond, LinkedIn, like all social media platforms, doesn’t release guides to their algorithms. We don’t know why or how messages parade undetected as hate and perpetuate distrust.[3] In reality, we do know. These are the uncomfortable conversations that began before Allison Davis’ research could be published because of the fabricated hoops.
When Frances Haugen exposed Facebook’s algorithms to state lawmakers, she framed the problems for us to see plainly: Facebook products…stoke division and weaken our democracy.[4]
LinkedIn’s Algorithms are no different. They openly permit coded language readable to a subset in the nation. The speech alone is tantamount to hate carrying a torch of nationalism to undermine democracy. Of course, the narcissist post takes no responsibility, responds only to foot soldiers, and watches the gap widen between those who agree with the call to arms from those who do not.
Meanwhile groups are gathering troops for what appears to be the same skirmish with the same hate messages. On October 27, 2021, at a rally for Turning Point, a White privileged voice summoned its listeners for the same war messaged on LinkedIn. No algorithms were needed to listen to this soldier who claimed medical fascism, and tyranny. The person blazingly asked, When do we get to use the guns? … to applause from the crowd.[5] Remember it’s the same crowd that welcomed me into the truth community. Who is traumatizing whom? Scary!
What’s a Facilitator to do?
Algorithms in large corporations appear to function just as the system was designed. In this case, LinkedIn’s algorithms ignore the semantics of cryptic messaging. The sheltered community lives in la-la land playing Call of Duty: Vanguard video games as though it is real life.
Democratic citizenship and divisiveness are real life. Leaders and advocates are tasked to smash the system that seeks to pit and propel one ahead of the other. How should algorithms function for equity and social justice to uphold human dignity?
Do algorithms carelessly disregard the pulse of the nation with explicit bias built into the design? Who developed and contributed to the algorithms in your organization? Why is it that the machine-learning community continues to accept a certain level of dysfunction if only certain groups are affected?[6]
Favoring privileged voices with algorithms to wage war upon its own citizens is as sick as commandeering people to hate and control its own people. That already happened when Jim Crow was established. Yet it continues in algorithms as Jim Crow, 2.0.
What’s the point for today’s leaders with Connections
As an ally, we read. We read what irritates us at times. And hopefully we read to research and learn. What is clear are the patterns of dialogue that openly divide people hurting our democracy. I’m not a techy person, so I rely upon guidance for my allyship. Technology can’t supplant humanity’s third eye to sense and learn. There is a human element as a final lever for LinkedIn’s algorithms. They ought to rely upon human dignity with people who see a collective, not a fraction of our nation.
Does your organization allow for some speech but then censor others? We know only “working” words are allowed. But, are they really? Are the Algorithms purposefully sidelining coded language?
Those Algorithmic systems are designed intentionally. Leaders who advocate for social justice must examine what is in front of us; We must question and evaluate facts; We must speak up & out!
[1] Wilkerson, I. (2021). Caste: The origins of our discontents. Thorndike Press, a part of Gale, a Cengage Company.
[2] (2021, October). You’re not alone. https://www.linkedin.com/posts/shayrowbottom_youre-not-alone-i-know-it-feels-that-activity-6859941335089119232-xTo3
[3] Ku, D. (2021, April 20). How does the LinkedIn algorithm work in 2021? Post Beyond. Retrieved November 7, 2021, from https://www.postbeyond.com/blog/how-linkedin-algorithm-works/.
[4] https://www.technologyreview.com/2021/10/05/1036519/facebook-whistleblower-frances-haugen-algorithms/
[5] https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2021/10/27/when-do-we-get-use-guns-ongoing-danger-false-fraud-claims/
[6] https://www.technologyreview.com/2020/12/10/1013617/racism-data-science-artificial-intelligence-ai-opinsmawewe
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