Timnit Gebru on her sacking by Google, AI’s dangers and big tech’s biases
&gt; The thing that was very confusing to me as an immigrant was that liberal type of racism,” she says. “People who sound like they really care about you, but they’d be like: ‘Don’t you think it’s going to be hard for you?’<p>This is why I object to teaching kids about racism in schools. Maybe the teacher was racist. Or maybe she got good grades—which isn’t hard to do in American high schools—but her teachers didn’t think she was one of the exceptional kids who could go on to excel in the field as a career. If you aren’t socialized to think of yourself as the target of racism, the natural response is to probe further. “But my grades are good!” The explanation that comes next might lead to learning and growth, or at least renewed motivation (“I’ll show him!”) But if a kid has been socialized to perceive such interactions in terms of racism, there are, they can’t learn from such conversations. After all it’s pointless arguing with a racist, nor can you learn anything valuable about yourself from a racist.<p>I moved to Virginia from Bangladesh back in the 1980s, to a school and neighborhood that was nearly 100% white. At the time, northern Virginia where we were was solidly Republican. But my parents never taught me about “racism” and it was a tremendous blessing. I never wondered whether the ordinary negative interactions of life were racially motivated. Was that kid being a bully because I was brown, or because I was a book worm? What good would it have done me to recognize it anyway?<p>I’m extremely worried about how the discourse is going to affect my kids. It’s impossible to protect your kids these days from folks like Gebru.