Liberatory Computing: Empowering African American Students Through Data Activism
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3704637.3734750.pdf
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790.32 KB
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Adobe PDF
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401c0647fc1e55c5b10b8a4a4b994b08
Author(s)
Walker, Raechel
Date Issued
July 14, 2025
Publisher
ACM|Proceedings of the 2025 Conference for Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology
Citation
Raechel Walker. 2025. Liberatory Computing: Empowering African American Students Through Data Activism. In Proceedings of the 2025 Conference on Research on Equitable and Sustained Participation in Engineering, Computing, and Technology (RESPECT 2025). Association for Computing Machinery, New York, NY, USA, 387–388.
Version
Final published version
Abstract
Computing curricula often inadvertently reinforce a harmful, singular narrative about African American communities, focusing solely on stories that emphasize crime prediction and policing [4, 8, 9]. This reinforces the harmful stereotype that African American communities are primarily sites of criminal activity rather than centers of innovation, creativity, and resilience [1, 5, 7]. In contrast, the framework I developed, ''liberatory computing'', offers a guideline that can be integrated into computing curricula precisely to counter these cliches [13]. Composed of Dr. Aaliyah El-Amin's five pillars of liberation-a sound racial identity, critical consciousness, collective obligation, a liberation-centered academic identity, and activism skills-liberatory computing empowers students to challenge and mitigate systemic oppression through computing [2]. My research applies this framework as a way to empower African American students to address embedded racism through data activism, in which I created two Data Activism Programs [10]. The first taught students how to use data science to support the minoritized communities of the participants, while the second incorporated collaboration with community organizers, increasing the inclusion of desire-based research [12].
My first Data Activism program engaged 12 high school students of color; the second included 24 students of African descent who partnered with Greater Boston community organizations on projects involving data, geospatial, and qualitative analysis, as well as artistic expression. Pre- and post-surveys showed increased awareness of data science's role in addressing racism and enhanced advocacy skills [12]. Interviews revealed that working to challenge systemic oppression inspired students to continue integrating data activism into their futures.
Description
RESPECT 2025, Newark, NJ, USA
MIT Department
Program in Media Arts and Sciences (Massachusetts Institute of Technology)
Terms of Use
Article is made available in accordance with the publisher's policy and may be subject to US copyright law. Please refer to the publisher's site for terms of use.
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DOI of Published Version
https://doi.org/10.1145/3704637.3734750
