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A review by tklassy
Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism by Safiya Umoja Noble
3.75
In this book, Noble provides a well structured and convincing study around the systematically, oppressive design and enactment of algorithms. I found the most captivating chapters to be those that centred human first stories with real observations. Interesting to see an earlier discussion of algorithms pre-Facebook/Instagram algorithm discussions.
I think my preference around the person lead chapters could be because of my background in sociology, anthropology, and social sciences. However, I just felt that these chapters bolstered the argument in a way that made the impact feel more real and less theoretical. Some of the book felt a little bit repetitive, and that’s one of the reasons I only rated it a 3.75. I think the other drawback, other book about the Internet is that it becomes outdated very quickly. And this book suffered from that somewhat. I want to underline the books importance in starting conversations around the inequality of the Internet, a space that is sometimes conceptualised as this utopian and equitable space, truly, it’s an arena. That’s rife with the same inequalities and depressions that plague the ‘ real world.’
While reading Noble’s book I did note that I wanted to have a longer discussion around, not only race, but also some more thickened explorations of its intersections with things like size, gender, and even queerness. I acknowledge that a book can’t provide in-depth discussions of all of these topics, because each of them are extensive and deserve a book of their own. And I know no thesis was sent around these derogatory and harmful representations of black girls on Google images, more precisely, but I did want just a little bit more of that flashed out Interaction with the Canon of gender studies.
I think my preference around the person lead chapters could be because of my background in sociology, anthropology, and social sciences. However, I just felt that these chapters bolstered the argument in a way that made the impact feel more real and less theoretical. Some of the book felt a little bit repetitive, and that’s one of the reasons I only rated it a 3.75. I think the other drawback, other book about the Internet is that it becomes outdated very quickly. And this book suffered from that somewhat. I want to underline the books importance in starting conversations around the inequality of the Internet, a space that is sometimes conceptualised as this utopian and equitable space, truly, it’s an arena. That’s rife with the same inequalities and depressions that plague the ‘ real world.’
While reading Noble’s book I did note that I wanted to have a longer discussion around, not only race, but also some more thickened explorations of its intersections with things like size, gender, and even queerness. I acknowledge that a book can’t provide in-depth discussions of all of these topics, because each of them are extensive and deserve a book of their own. And I know no thesis was sent around these derogatory and harmful representations of black girls on Google images, more precisely, but I did want just a little bit more of that flashed out Interaction with the Canon of gender studies.