Over the course of the summer program, we learned about different aspects of identity and how they marginalize us or give us privilege in society. We also talked a lot about how these identities intersect with each other. A few of the different identity groups we talked about were ability, race, and class. Personally, I have a lot of privilege due to my whiteness and the way I systemically benefit from it due to the white supremacist ideology ingrained into our society. Being able-bodied gives me a lot of privilege as well because society is physically built to accommodate me. I do not have to worry about not having access to physical locations or resources because they were built for me to have access to. I have a more complicated relationship with class because my mindset was molded from growing up in a low economic class, and living with my mother in poverty, but also having some monetary support from my father after he was able to move up in economic status.

All of the power imbalances and biases we see culturally with these identities are upheld in the digital world. When it comes to race, the bias that people carry ends up being coded into the algorithms that are supposedly neutral. When it comes to facial recognition, the software is developed with predominantly white males, so it doesn’t pick up on facial features of BIPOC as easily. The introduction of facial recognition software into law enforcement upholds an already racist system under the guise of being bias-free. Tech companies test their products, particularly when they are centered around surveillance, on poor people first because there is less of an expectation for their rights to be respected. Additionally, the rich have the power to deny the use of technology when they know it is harmful, but the poor cannot afford to opt out of using it when it is pushed upon them. For example, many rich people choose to put their kids through schooling that uses minimal technology because of its negative impacts, but those schools are too expensive for most people to afford. These behaviors exemplify and perpetuate the power dynamic between the upper and lower class. Finally, technology is often inaccessible to people who have disabilities. It is not made with the intent to be inclusive, instead people try and make it inclusive afterwards. We should be designing technology for everyone, not only the able-bodied.