Automating Inequality: How High-Tech Tools Profile, Police, and Punish the Poor

In his last sermon in 1968, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., announced the Poor People’s Campaign (PPC). However, this initiative barely got off the ground. After King’s assassination, infighting and government persecution tore apart his organization, the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC). Eubanks ties this history to her thesis: “Our failure as a nation to rise to King’s 1968 invitation to eradicate racism and eliminate poverty has produced a generation of astonishing, sophisticated technologies that automate discrimination and deepen inequality” (204).

Eubanks believes that a lack of empathy lies at the root of our faulty moral compass with regard to poverty. Although “the best single predictor of adult poverty in America is if you were born poor” (205), American society still associates poverty with laziness, rather than a woeful lack of resources. Eubanks praises the activities of the PPC’s newest incarnation, the Poor People’s Economic Human Rights Campaign (PPEHRC) to counter this, stressing that the strongest tactic is to build empathy by emphasizing storytelling in journalism and research.

Eubanks is hopeful about the possibility of a government-provided universal basic income (UBI); pilot programs are currently underway and showing promising results. However, “the income in these plans is usually so low that, even combined with low-wage work, families would find it difficult to build financial stability for the next generation” (210).

Eubanks drafts a template of an “Oath of Non-Harm for an Age of Big Data.” It includes a list of good-faith principles in tech and policy making, placing as top priorities a people-first strategy and informed consent. She also suggests leaders in big tech ask themselves two questions about the systems they create: “Does the tool increase the self-determination and agency of the poor?” and “Would the tool be tolerated if it was targeted at non-poor people?” (212).