I know that it can feel intractable, because change for the better is way slower then I'd like it to be, compared to technological progress.
Discrimination may never be eliminated completely, but it can be reduced so that there are less incidents and a lower impact. And while some issues will be harder to prevent, others may be low hanging fruit.
It's like software bugs. We may never be free of them, but we can and do build better and better systems, tools, patterns and mentalities for increasing awareness and reducing bugs.
Nextdoor was able to reduce racial profiling with some software changes that increased awareness of possible racial bias and asked for additional details beyond race when people reported incidents.
If software is eating the world, I bet it can take a fair chunk out of racial discrimination rates (or any discrimination) if correctly applied.
At the end of the day, you can try to make a difference, or you can refuse to.
Discrimination may never be eliminated completely, but it can be reduced so that there are less incidents and a lower impact. And while some issues will be harder to prevent, others may be low hanging fruit.
It's like software bugs. We may never be free of them, but we can and do build better and better systems, tools, patterns and mentalities for increasing awareness and reducing bugs.
Nextdoor was able to reduce racial profiling with some software changes that increased awareness of possible racial bias and asked for additional details beyond race when people reported incidents.
If software is eating the world, I bet it can take a fair chunk out of racial discrimination rates (or any discrimination) if correctly applied.
At the end of the day, you can try to make a difference, or you can refuse to.