How Technology Spreads Bias

How Technology
Spreads Bias
And How You Can Stop It
CJ Hostetter / chostett.com

UX researcher. Game developer. Artist.

I love technology as much as I love people,
which is a lot.

When you love something deeply and
genuinely, you believe in its potential to do
amazing things.

Love is not about pretending things are
always okay.
Love is about having hard conversations
when you need to.

“Stay hungry. Stay foolish.
Never let go of your appetite to go
after new ideas, new experiences,
and new adventures.”
Steve Jobs

By the end of this session,
you will…
➢ Understand how bias in technology
affects others
➢ Reﬂect on your own biases and how
they may affect your work
➢ Discuss real-life scenarios where you
will talk to others about bias and how
it inﬂuences technology

Bias
A preference for an idea that does not give a chance to
an equal idea.

We do not often think of technology as
having a preference.
Rather, we see people as having preferences
and technology as having data.

But who makes the technology?
Who feeds the technology data?

People have biases, therefore, technology
also has bias.

I bought a bus ticket to go to
Hakone with my two friends, both
of whom are female.
I identify as nonbinary.
I do not feel comfortable being
called “she/her” or “woman.”
On the website, I had to choose
whether I was male or female. It
was required. I did not know why
they needed this information. I
chose what matched my ID card.

Without our consent, we had been
assigned to “Woman Only” seats.
I was dressed in a t-shirt and a
baseball cap, and looked like a
man.
It was frustrating and
embarrassing for me to be sitting
here. I asked for another seat, but
the bus was full. So I rode the hour
and a half bus ride in a seat that
said, “Woman Only.”

Kandis, a black hair hairdresser, is
often listed last on Yelp when
customers search “hair care” or
“black hair care.”
Why? Because the way Yelp has
coded their search terms, the
words “hair care” means “hair care
for white people” and the words
“black hair care” mean “hair care
for white people who have dyed
their hair black.”
Algorithms of Oppression, Saﬁya Umoja Noble
Image Source

This means that even if customers
are black and want to find black
hair care, they will not find Kandis’
salon.
They will find hair salons for white
people instead.
Algorithms of Oppression, Safiya Umoja Noble

“I felt invisible. Like I shouldn’t be here.”

Microaggression
Small daily insults and indignities against
marginalized people.
The effect is a constant reminder that the person is “less
than human” by belonging to this marginalized group.

Microaggressions are…
● Usually unintentional
● Small and can easily be explained away
● Done by many different people and hard
to address individually without coming
off as hypersensitive

Examples include…
● To a black person:
“Is that your real hair? Can I touch it?”
● To a woman:
“You’re being bossy; can you tone it down?”
● To a non-native speaker:
“Your accent is sooo cute!”
● To a queer person and their partner:
“Ok, but which one of you is the top?”
● To a transgender person:
“You don’t look like a man/woman.”

The meaning behind the meaning…
● “Is that your real hair? Can I touch it?”
I want to touch you to satisfy my curiosity (but I wouldn’t do the same with a non-black person).
● “You’re being bossy; can you tone it down?”
I would like you to talk less (and I wouldn’t say this to a man).
● “Your accent is sooo cute!”
I don’t take you seriously (but I wouldn’t say this to a native speaker).
● “Ok, but which one of you is the top?”
I can ask you sexual questions to satisfy my curiosity (but I wouldn’t do the same with a
non-LGBTQ+ coworker).
● “You don’t look like a man/woman.”
I know better than you what a man/woman looks like (but I wouldn’t assert that to someone who
wasn’t transgender.)

“I just didn’t think…”

At its least destructive, tech microaggressions make
marginalized people feel like they don’t belong.
At its most destructive, tech microaggressions lock
out marginalized people from accessing basic
services and income.

Let’s start by looking inward.

Privilege
A system of advantages or rights that people have
because of their sex, race, ability, etc.

“I can’t have privilege. I’ve had my
own struggles.”

Your struggle and someone else’s struggle can exist at
the same time.
Talking about privilege is about acknowledging a
system of advantages. Some of these may seem
invisible to you.

Fill out this
diagram to
your level of
comfort.
10 min

Some Helpful Definitions
● Privilege: A system of advantages or
rights that people have because of their
sex, race, ability, etc.
● Marginalization: A system of
disadvantaged or lack of rights people
have because of their sex, race, ability,
etc.
● Intersectionality: the concept that
everyone’s experience with
discrimination is unique. For instance,
black men have different
marginalization than black queer men.
● Neurotypical: Someone whose brain
functions similarly to most.
● Neurodiverse: Someone whose brain
functions differently than most, such
as people with ADHD, autism,
dyslexia, obsessive-compulsive
disorder
● Gender “deviant”: someone whose
outward behaviors and appearance do
not ﬁt their “seen as” gender (men
who talk softly or have “feminine”
hobbies, women who are muscular,
androgynous and nonbinary people)
10 min

Find a partner and discuss:
What did you notice?
What does it feel like to be visualized?
10 min

Share your point of view equitably with your partner.
● Balance your speaking time.
Are you mostly talking, and is your partner
is mostly listening? Invite them to speak.
● Listen to people who are marginalized
differently than you.
You may not experience the world the
same way they do. Keep an open mind.
● Take a deep breath.
There may be times when you feel
uncomfortable during the discussion. Take
a deep breath. Give your partner the
beneﬁt of the doubt.
● If you feel comfortable sharing, share
with your partner.
State what happened.
“When X happened, I felt Y…”
If you do not feel comfortable, please
talk to a facilitator.
● Be ok with making mistakes. Be kind
to yourself and apologize to others.
Sometimes we say things without
thinking. It’s ok. We are learning.
Apologize and listen.
● There is no one “right” answer.
10 min

Find another pair of people and
form a group of 4-5.

Scenario 1
You are working on a product team as a junior developer. You get a
task from a senior to “design a signup page for the product.” In her
design, you notice that the form has a required question about gender;
it asks the user to choose either Male or Female. You are not
transgender or nonbinary, but something about the question feels
wrong. The designer shrugs and says, “the marketing team asked for
this button.”
What could you say?
15 min

Giving Feedback
● State what happened.
● Ask questions.
○ “Why did you do/say that?”
○ “Can you help me understand…”
● Listen. If you have privilege in this area,
how can you use it to elevate others?
○ “This (design/website) doesn’t take into
account/actively hurts (X) people.
○ “What about (suggestion)? That way,
everyone can use this product.”
○ “Does this help all our users?”
● Remember that these conversations
sometimes can be unproductive…at ﬁrst.
15 min
Responding to Feedback
● Pause.
● If you are feeling threatened and
uncomfortable, ask yourself
compassionately, why.
○ “Do I know why I said/did that?”
○ “Would I have done something
differently if the person giving me
feedback was more similar to me?”
● Thank them for their feedback.
Research further, later.
● Apologize and mention speciﬁcs.

Find a new group of 4-5 people.

Scenario 2
You are working on a project as a senior designer. You are responsible for overseeing
a new chatbot feature. It helps users connect from your website to the right support
agent. Your company is a well-known and trusted PC company. When you present
your designs, your manager seems pleased. However, your coworker, who is a
researcher looks uncomfortable. Afterwards, she talks to you in private.
”I’m worried about your design," she says. "Many of our support agents get very
personal questions like, 'how do I come out to my parents?' and 'I’m depressed, what
do I do?' What will the chatbot do if a customer asks this?"
You feel defensive. You answer: “That's not my problem to think about that. We’re a PC
company, not a counselor.” Your coworker is silent for a while and then leaves.
What could you do next?
15 min

Scenario 3
You are working for a big-name social media company as a content
moderator. You’ve received an email to expect “a lot of LGBTQ+ political
debate” during June (Pride Month). Normally, you would delete comments
like, “transgenderism is a disease that pollutes our children’s minds” or, “gay
women need a strong man to keep them in line” but the email asks that you
“consider being more forgiving in your moderation” to “encourage
engagement on our platform.” This means you would not delete comments
that have misinformation about LGBTQ+ people. Your say to your manager
that you are uncomfortable with this, but he says that “There’s no harm in free
speech. Everyone knows those things are false.”
What could you do?
15 min

What will you do after you get out of this
workshop?

Resources: Books
So you want to
talk about race
Ijeoma Oluo
Algorithms of
Oppression
Saﬁya Umioa Noble
Technically Wrong
Sara Wachter-Boettcher

Resources: Articles
● People of color have a new enemy: techno-racism. CNN, 2021.
● Origin Stories: Plantations, Computers and Industrial Control.
Logic(s), Meredith Whittaker.
● Well, that escalated quickly. Eric Meyer, 2014.
● Inclusion is a Verb. CJ Hostetter, 2018.
● …there are many, many more!

Resources: Groups in Japan
https://www.instagram.com
/blackcreativesjapan/
linktr.ee/
pridehousetokyolegacy
https://linktr.ee/
Black.Lives.Matter.Tokyo

Possible actions:
● …start reading one of the resources mentioned in this talk to educate
myself.
● …bring these scenarios to my coworkers and discuss with them.
● …do the privilege/marginalization exercise with my coworkers.
● …speak up the next time I notice tech microaggressions.
● …reﬂect and journal on how I can use my privilege to empower other
people.
10 min

10 min
Final reflection:
Take a look at the workshop participant’s
promises and reflect.

Thank you
everyone.
chostett.com / @chostett

How Technology Spreads Bias

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