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No. Her concern in that case was that a predictive model that measured the effects of racism on some people would then be used to increase the racial discrimina
by panglott 10y ago
No. Her concern in that case was that a predictive model that measured the effects of racism on some people would then be used to increase the racial discrimination against them. That is absolutely an ethical question. Her task was not merely to find out facts about the world, but to build systems that would impact the welfare of people in the world—and people in a very precarious position, no less.
Race is not a valid biological category; it is a social construct and a salient social category. & as such it remains the site of many unethical uses of power. At times measuring them can reify those injustices; at times it is essential in combating them.
- h4nkoslo 10y agoYou've essentially restated what I said above. She declined to investigate certain variables because she was worried they would come out with the "wrong" effects (instead she chose to use near-perfect correlates of those variables, like zip code). You can always decline to use a variable after the fact; she decided she didn't want to know the effect in the first place. Suppose the effect had been the opposite of what she suspected?