What is “the New Jim Code”?
Jim Crow laws were local and state laws that enforced racial segregation in the southern US states during the late nineteenth century. These laws are becoming more prevalent to the society we live or participate in today. Today, especially mid pandemic there has been a spike in racial inequities. Movements like “Black Lives Matter” have dominated society and media. Why now should we be finally recognizing the equality that should exist among everyone. The world continuous to view the world in a tainted lens but many theorists and activists are fighting this never ending battle. Rutha Benjamin, in her concept of “the New Jim Code” emphasizes this inequity and makes us further question the severity that exists in tech and racial discrimination.
“The New Jim Code” simply put is the impact or effect of discriminatory designs which are influenced by racist values and assumptions then are built into technology systems. This influence of racial bias affects all the things we view in media. The tie between being black and being a criminal is made by many which leads to high inequity among society. Benjamin offers this new or reinvented idea to make us more aware. We need to think about the media that we participate in and understand that it is being curated for our viewing in some way. Racial bias exists. Inequity exists. All these media platforms created by the emergence of technology are somehow participating in “the New Jim Code”.
Why should we care?
Every day we grow older, the computer advances two times faster. We are growing and evolving in a technological era. We are glued to our phones, our laptops, our smart devices. But what is to say that this technology isn’t being curated for our benefit but rather benefiting on our ignorance? Every time we sign up for a platform we become apart of their organization, a number in their list of users. Companies want to promote media that will get them the most profit. Companies will follow racially biased and inequity to make profit. Is this right, or fair, or even moral? No. Companies continuously use people at their disposal. Society is once again fighting against a racial bias that should have been solved years ago but yet, we still continue to promote such inequities. So, why should we care about “the new Jim Crow”?
As we grow and as the world evolves it becomes more and more inequitable. We are living in a world where we will block and hate on more black people than white. The idea of “cancel culture” is a perfect example of what “the New Jim Crow” is aimed at. Twitter promotes this “cancel culture” or “cancelling which is essentially hating on a person or celebrity that expresses an opinion that is taken offensively by the population. They could say anything and the world can choose if they get cancelled or not. A lot of the time, the person who gets cancelled is black and what does that show Twitter as? Twitter allows people to get blocked from other peoples feed in order to cycle through the next “cancel”. They do this for the views, regardless of its effects. The profit because of the views and attraction Twitter gets trumps anything else — especially the lives of others.
Help!
So, it is our job as the consumer to educate ourselves. Just like with every update on your computer they become more knowledgeable, we need to ask the questions to inform ourselves. The platforms we use represent us and will affect other people. If we are apart of a culture that promotes a racially biased view then we participate it, consumed, and distracted by it. We need to realize that there is a slippery slope between effective marketing and racial bias. How can we resist being apart of a world that is being consumed by just “scrolling” and “cancelling”?
