Ruha Benjamin | Race, Technology and the New Jim Code
Hall of Records · Chamber of Knowledge
Ruha Benjamin studies how technology can reproduce racial hierarchy while appearing neutral, efficient, or innovative.
Record Overview
Her concept of the New Jim Code describes systems that encode inequity through design, data, and institutional practice.
Documented Record
Benjamin also emphasizes imagination, abolitionist tools, and collective design as alternatives to technological fatalism.
Why This Record Matters
The record preserves Black Futures as the ability to name harmful systems and build different social and technical possibilities.
Record Timeline
- 2010s: Benjamin develops major research on race, medicine, and technology.
- 2019: Race After Technology is published.
- 2022: Viral Justice expands her focus on everyday transformation.
- Ongoing: Teaching and public scholarship connect critique with imagination.
Living Archive
- How can communities audit systems used against them?
- What does abolitionist technology design require?
- How can public institutions evaluate racial impact before adoption?
Sources and Image
Image credit: Wikimedia Commons file: Ruha Benjamin, Databite 124, 2019 (cropped).jpg. Review the file page for creator, attribution, and license.
Image-use note: Confirm the Wikimedia Commons file-page license, attribution, and personality-rights requirements before publication.
Image note: Photograph of Ruha Benjamin from Wikimedia Commons; review file-page attribution and license.
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