Culture Lab 9 recommended

Feigned equality

In White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society, Kalwant Bhopal, Professor of Education and Social Justice at the University of Birmingham, shows that despite the impression that we live in a post-racial society where ethnicity, gender and class no longer matter, the opposite is true. It is still the case that people from ethnic minority groups are disadvantaged compared to their fellow white citizens. And even white people are subdivided, with certain white groups such as Roma and travellers being systematically discriminated against in society. The cause? Neoliberal policymaking, which has increased rather than reduced discrimination towards non-white people over the years.

In White Privilege, Bhopal uses socio-scientific research, political and economic analyses to show how white individuals can benefit from sometimes invisible privileges and, therefore, how ethnicity impacts on inequality in society. –IP

White Privilege: The myth of a post-racial society Kalwant Bhopal Policy Press € 19.99

Subjective science

Inferior: How science got women wrong – and the new research that’s rewriting the story Angela Saini Beacon Press € 21.99 For centuries, the scientific community was convinced that women were intellectually inferior to men. Such sexist assumptions affected research methods and, even worse, research outcomes.

In Inferior, British-Indian journalist Angela Saini shows that even today, scientific research into gender differences is far from objective. Present-day scientists are also full of prejudices about gender.

Saini studies the scientific body of evidence to separate the chaff from the wheat. Which studies are robust and which are built on unstable foundations based on prejudices? Where are the pitfalls in the various studies? Which research outcomes can we trust? And how has science short-changed women all these years? Based on a large number of studies across biology, neuroscience, anthropology and psychology, Saini concludes that differences between the genders are mainly determined culturally. Armed with hard figures, she makes a plea that it is time that we embrace this infomation. In 2017, Physics World declared Inferior the book of the year. –AH

He/she/them

In Trans*, Jack Halberstam, Professor of Gender Studies at Columbia University New York, takes you on a journey into the world of transgender studies in a little under 200 pages. He addresses two topics in that field in particular. Firstly, Halberstam zooms in on the importance and the pitfalls of names and labels. What are the correct terms for transgender individuals? How important is a suitable pronoun? And how does language form identity? Halberstam champions an expansion of the current gender categories with more diverse labels. The second topic addressed by the author is that of physical bodies. Using a number of examples, Halberstam identifies the medical and biological aspects and challenges of being transgender.

Trans* is an academic review of various insights into gender variability. It is clearly written by an academic, but also includes some personal touches from the author, who goes through life as both Judith and Jack. –AH

Trans*: A quick and quirky account of gender variability Jack Halberstam University of California € 17.99

One size fits men

It’s a man’s world. Even though half of the world’s population is female, all of our technology is, in the first instance, made for male users. This is demonstrated by the British journalist Caroline Criado Perez in the book Invisible Women. Smartphones are too big for female hands, seat belts are tested on test dummies with male-shaped bodies and much of our medical knowledge is based on male test subjects. Perez uses these and numerous other examples to show us that the world is, in many hidden ways, not ‘made’ for women. The reason for this is that technology developers and scientists always have a man in mind as the ‘default’ user. Perez refers to this as the one-size-fits-men approach.

The consequences of this are much more farreaching than you would think at first glance. Not only do women lose out socially and financially, they also have to put up with technology that risks their health and sometimes even their lives. In Invisible Women, she appeals for change at all levels, from government policy to science and from office landscapes to toilet cubicles. –AH

Invisible Women: Data bias in a world designed for men Caroline Criado Perez Vintage Publishing € 18.99

Digital negligence

Whether you want to do some shopping or find your true love: everything is possible online. Convenient. But in Technically Wrong, technology expert Sara Wachter-Boettcher shows how our dependence on algorithms can also lead to ethical nightmares.

Technically Wrong: Sexist apps, biased algorithms, and other threats of toxic tech Sara Wachter-Boettcher Norton & Co € 21.99 W e blindly follow what websites and apps provide us, but is that wise? The designs of digital products and services are full of prejudices and neglect – from forms that exclude everyone who is not heterosexual to chatbots that bother girls, and from algorithms that send people of colour to prison to social media that send messages about dead relatives. How do products based on exact figures lead to racism, discrimination and sexual intimidation? Wachter-Boettcher shows the underlying processes and assumptions that make technology anything but neutral.

With her book, she wants to make consumers more aware of the influence of digital services. She also makes a plea for companies to face the consequences of their actions and to take more responsibility for making products that strive for equality. –TvtW

Innocent or guilty?

What traces have 400 years of colonialism left behind in Dutch culture, history and language? Gloria Wekker, cultural anthropologist and Professor Emeritus of Gender Studies at the University of Utrecht, delves into the Dutch cultural archives from an intersectional perspective. She investigates, for example, the colonial inheritance of the Netherlands and its inhabitants, and the way in which the Dutch population deals with terms such as ethnicity, class and gender.

In White Innocence(translated title), Wekker shows that there are various paradoxes between the anti-racial and ever tolerant Dutch self-image and the powerful reactions that the term ‘race’ evokes. Using examples from her own experiences in academia and the government, she explains the Dutch view on race and how deep some customs are rooted in our colonial past. A good example is the discussion surrounding Black Pete. Why do adaptations to this tradition lead to firm resistance every year? Wekker argues that the paradoxical denial of the significance of race as part of our society could be the cause. –IP

Witte onschuld: Paradoxen van kolonialisme en ras Gloria Wekker AUP € 26.99

Return

The idea that there is a biological basis that can explain racial differences and justify discrimination is terribly outdated. The scientific community has therefore turned their back on this idea en masse. Or have they? The past few decades have shown a return to research into racial differences, argues Angela Saini, science journalist for BBC Radio. In her book Superior: The return of race science, she investigates from a historical perspective how science and racism are interlinked and how we can still see this in the world of science.

Saini notes that research into racial differences has found its way back into current research in a subtle way, for example in the study of the human genome. She also shows that modern day science still wrongly returns to ethnicity to explain the differences observed, for example concerning the spread of disease, poverty or test performances. –IP

Superior: The return of race science Angela Saini HarperCollins Publishers € 20.99

More maths ≠ equal opportunities

We live in the algorithm era. Algorithms determine the news you get to see on Facebook, the adverts shown before your YouTube video starts to play, and your music recommendations on Spotify. In Weapons of Math Destruction, mathematician Cathy O’Neil explains how algorithms can lead to social inequality.

Weapons of Math Destruction: How big data increases inequality and threatens democracy Cathy O’Neil Penguin Books € 11.99 O ’Neil analyses how the use of big data can lead to choices that are to the disadvantage of, for example, people in poor areas, or people from ethnic minority groups. It is possible, for example, that a prospective American student is refused a student loan because the decision of whether or not they will receive the loan depends on a mathematical model that takes into account the average prosperity in the prospective student’s postcode area. The consequence is a downward spiral, in which the prospective student from a ‘bad’ postcode area is unable to go to university, which consequently makes it hard for them to change their socioeconomic position and which means that the neighbourhood’s prosperity stays the same. There are also plenty of examples in the Netherlands. For example, insurers calculate your premium based on algorithms, and the Dutch Tax and Customs Administration uses big data techniques to find out who may be committing fraud. Increasing the use of mathematical models does not lead to more equality, that much will be clear when you have read this book. –TvtW

Data discrimination

You would expect search engines to be a level playing field for everyone’s ideas and opinions. However, you will be disappointed. In Algorithms of Oppression, technology and equality researcher Safiya Noble shows that algorithms reflect the prejudices of those who develop them. Noble addresses the role that companies, and Google in particular, play in the production and distribution of generally accessible information. Some viewpoints can be found much better than others, to the disadvantage of marginalized groups. Women of colour in particular lose out.

Based on an analysis of search terms and online adverts, Noble argues that this is not just a fault in a machine, but the consequence of the power structures between people. The use of prejudiced algorithms results in profiling based on gender and ethnic background. This concerns Noble, since search engines are used more and more intensively for many different purposes, for example in education. With Algorithms of Oppression, she wants to provide insights into the way in which racism is created and perpetuated by modern technology. –TvtW

Algorithms of Oppression: how search engines reinforce racism Safiya Umoja Noble New York University Press € 30.00