Digital Redlining: the reinvention of bad habits

TOPIC

Key Terms:  surveillance, tracking, digital footprint, digital identity, digital redlining.  

                   See also: data mining, algorithm, privacy, filter bubble, big data.

Redlining and deed restrictions came to an official end with the passsage of state and federal legislation  during the 1960s and 1970s.  While these practices continue, the emergencer of digital surveillance has re-invented discriminatory practices in the form of what Gilliard calls "digital redlining (see reading below). This modernizes the term and emphasizes that the "how" of discrimination via the continuous surveillance of our internet use leads to unintended -- and sometimes intended -- consequences that are unjust.

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READINGS and

     • Read "Comparison" chapter under "Modes" tab above.

     • Laura Pasquini. Interview: Chris Gilliard: "BreakDrink #5." [Great overview]

     • Chris Gilliard and Hugh Culik: Digital Redlining, Access, and Privacy"

     • Jeffrey Selingo: "Colleges' Endless Pursuit of Students."

     • Jon Brodkin: "AT&T allegedly “discriminated” against poor people in broadband upgrades."

     • Cato Institute: "Stingray, A New Frontier in Police Surveillance."  

     •Vox:  "How the internet keeps poor people in poor neighborhoods."

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ASSIGNMENT: Writing to Learn

• Mapping Existing Knowledge

Begin by reading all of the material above.  Select the three that seem most useful and complete a TEQ Sheet for each.

•Identifying Gaps in the Map: The Purpose & Problem Statement

After building background knowledge by completing the readings and TEQ Sheets, go to the "Purpose and Problem" (P&P)  link on the "Tools" page, and create a P&P Statement that describes the purpose of the course, the relation of the assignment to the purpose of the course, and then describes something puzzling, unclear, ignored, or in  need of further explanation.

•Re-Drawing the Map: the Prospectus

At this point, you probably have some clear ideas about what you would like to say about the differences between traditional redlining and digital redlining.   Go to the "Prospectus" link on the Tools page, and create a Prospectus that summarizes the key evidence and ideas of your (unwritten) paper. Your prospectus may include a list of similarities and differences, but most of all it will use the similarities and differences to make a statement about a larger issue.  Thus you will be writing a comnplex comparison rather than a simple comparison.

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Writing to Communicate: two pages

1. This short essay will building a basic understanding of the transformation of redlining into digital redlining. The definition developed in the previous paper named specific features of redlining that will now serve as the basis for comparison with digital redlining. The paper can be built by comparing/contrasting digital redlining to each of these features . . . and by noting new features that make it very different.

2. However, at the end of that definition, the paper will use the "Purpose & Problem Statement" to name the issues and problems that should be discussed so that we better understand what is happening in contemporary America. This use of the P&P is called a "pivot."  

3. After using the P&P for the pivot, the remainder of the paper makes use of the Prospectus to offer a "we say" that ties together the "they" and the "I" to discuss the significance of the transformation of redlining into digital redlining.  

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DELIVERABLES

     3 TEQ Sheets

     1 Purpose & Problem Statement

     1 Prospectus

     1 Paper

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Other Requirements

    1. The documents must avoid any form of the verb, "to be."  Examples of this verb include "am," "is," "are," "was," "were," "being," "been." This verb creates vague and questionable statements.

    2. The documents may not use second person ("you" or "your"). The terms confuse the reader.

    3. The documents not use "one" as a substitute for second person.

    4. First person ("I") is acceptable only at the sentences that state your own, most important insight, question, hypothesis, or experience.

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SUBJECT LINE: use pattern from previous assignments.

FILES NAMES: use pattern from previous assignments.