Anti-Racist HCI: notes on an emerging critical technical practice

Abstract

Our everyday technologies evidence clear examples of racial bias. Rather than attempt to eliminate bias through seeking fairness in algorithms, regulatory intervention or a race-blind stance, this paper seeks to correct the balance by adopting an explictly anti-racist approach to the design of sociotechnical systems. As a research-through-design initiative, we bring techniques from critical technical practice to bear on revealing and inverting assumptions in HCI, attempting to produce alternative sociotechnical systems that aim not merely to reveal or correct but to destablize or dismantle systems of oppression. We articulate core principles to guide such work and articulate four system prototypes to interrogate anti-racist HCI as a potential form of critical technical practice. We conclude with discussion of the challenges that face anti-racist HCI in terms of timing, reflection, and failure, addressing what an anti-racist critical technical practice reveals about the enduring structural sources of inequity in the products and practices of HCI.