This blog post is reflection writing based on insights and understanding gained from the reading by Sasha Constanza-Chock on the Design Justice:
Reading chosen:Introduction:#TravellingwhileTrans, Design Justice, and Escape from the Matrix of Domination by
Sasha Constanza-Chock.
This reading was very eye-opening.It's crazy how when you look at the design constructs of many systems in the world, you
realize the extent to which some are not ethical nor are they inclusive for all. I was deeply immersed into the intriguing style of
writing that Sasha uses and the exposition she first provides before illustrating a specific point. The insights of gender cis-normativity
and binary gender normative are very nuanced and provide a lot of knowledge around how structural inequalities around the design constructs
of airport systems such as the millimeter wave scanner are pervasive in the binary make up and continue to marginalised people who are on
the margins.
Reading Synopsis:
Sasha Constanza-Chock begins this reading aimed at providing a lived experience of how much work needs to be done as far as the Design Justice
is concerned to achieve the goal of subverting and deconstructing structural inequalities by telling a lived experience she had when she was at the
Detroit Metro Airport.She recounts the exxperience of how she, as non-binary femme-presenting women experienced a humilating moment inflicted by
the millimeter wave scanner and invasive search by TSA officers That she had to undergo at the airport as part of the airport security measures.
Particular to her experience, she recounts the uncomfortability of the process of being flagged as a "risk" because the millimeter wave scanner
flagged "anomalities" within her body that neither conform to the normative female and male body shape that the scanner has been designed to pick up
as "deviant" from "normal" binary gender construct or identity. As if going through the millimeterwave scanner that violates and is not inclusive of
her gender identity wasn't enough, she also recounts how uncomfortable and invasive the body search step of the airport security protocol was especially
with reference to how her individual autonomy was denied and her right to consent to choose who she prefers to be searched by or even consent to being
searched was also indirectly denied. She emphasizes the whole point of the humiliating experience she went through at the airport is to expose how
larger systems including norms, values and assumptions are encoded in and reproduced through the design of sociotechnical
systems that operate on the assumptions of gender normativity where the assummption is that all people have a gender identity that conforms with the
sex that they were assigned to at birth.
She also emphasizes how the same presumptuous assumptions have been built into the technologies like the millimeter scan waver through
the combination of the UI design, scanning technologies, gender body shape constructs, databases and algorithms.
By virtue of the deep encoding of these assumption into the design of these socio-technological systems, the assessment of deviance by these technogies are
all binary and cis-normative. The availabilty of only two gendered TSA officers at the aiport to conduct the body searches is in itself binary and
cisnormative.
Reading Subject Matter and personal thoughts:
With a particular focus on Design Justice, Sasha focuses her book on expressing concerns around the structural inequalities that have built into the design of
of the UI, databases and algorithms that airport sytems operate on and how those binary gender normatives and cisnormatives also are expanding towards the
development of AI systems.In her book , she expresses concersn arond how the current path of AI development will reproduce systems that undeniably deny the
existene of those on the margins because they do not fit the "normal" cap of binary normative people. She also particularly chooses to focus on a very important
issue around how Airport security systems are also very baised towards people with disabilities, who are also very likely top be flagged as "risky" individuals
because of their non-normative body shapes, usage of prostheses and how they also wear medical implants. The exclusionary practices that the machine systems used
at airports makes it logical to conclude how it prioritizes able-bodied people over people with disabilities, which in turn translates to ableism and thus is highly
problematic as far as accessibility and accomcdation of people with disabilities is concerned.Most importantly, Sasha's book also challenges and focuses on how
the system build up of artiicial intelligence systems based on structural inequalities is also as a result of the mundane repetitions of reductive norms structured
by the matrix of domination (Constanza-Chock, 2020)
She defines the Matrix of domination as being divided into three main facetes that makes up most experiences of Black Women. These include race, class and gender.
She heavily outlines how these three fecetes particularly relate to each other when she draws on the work of Patricia Hill Collins to explain the concept of how
gender has been racialized (Collins, 2020). This essentially neans the way in which humans have trained machines to categorize the faces and bdoies of males
and females through the sterotypicaland biased lens of white supremacist who uphold white supremacy. Furthermore, Sasha delves into the concept of intersectionality
and how it is imperative for the develpment of AI. She alludes to the concept relating to the cumulative ways in which the effects of multiple forms of discrimination
including race , gender and sex combine or intersect especially in tye experiences of marginalized groups. She draws on the work of Crenshaw which underpins the concept
of a single-axis where race , gender and class exists as independent constructs continually unndermining the intentions of well-meaning designers who aim to challenge
biases and stereotypes through systems and environments they design (Crenshaw, 2020).
In all this, the biggest takeaway from the reading I found are the efforts made by people like Sasha in being the voice of reason behind the design of systems such as
the Airport Systems. By speaking up on the marginalization of non-binary femme-presenting individuals, Sasha has actively taken a stance to avoid being complicit in a
system that seeks to undermine and deny the existence of her gender identity.It's one thing to speak loudly about it in writing but her effforts in being part of a community
that is trying to design a better approach that potentially can build a better world; a world where many "other" world fit is also particulalry commendable. Disrupting
systems of power deeply rooted in notions of white supremacy, hetereopatriarchy, ableism , capitalism and settler colonialism is an extreme task that would need more than
one person advocating for the change. With the existence of a community that recognizes the faults and short comings of the gender cis-normative and normative systems, the
development of AI technologies can be potentially saved from reproducing inequalities that uphold these binary gender normatives.
Sasha's acknowledgement of her racial , citizenship and affiliation identity(her self-awareness)and the privileges that come with those within her book and still experiencing the harsh lashings
of cis-normative binary gender constructs make us a readers get to a logical conclusion that the titles and affiliations that one has do not bypass the deeply rooted
effects of a binarised system. This becomes particularly important when considering theentire human population that does not conform to gender binary normatives That
gets affected by the effects of the skewed design principles that the systems have been built upon. This makes one ponder about the long way that still needs to be journeyed
through before the erasure of the sytem constructs and emancipation of design that reproduces(unwittingly) existing inequalities can be achieved.
References:
Costanza-Chock, S. (2020) 'Introduction: #TravelingWhileTrans, Design Justice, and Escape from the Matrix of Domination', in Design Justice. 1st ed.
Available at: Costanza-Chock: #TravelingWhileTrans
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