In today’s academic environment, there often seems a race to racialize common practices or terminology. Publications clamor for such articles and discovering another hidden racist element in society can bring academic accolades. However, others have already staked out many such areas such as mathematics, astrophysics, statistics, meritocracy, climate change, dieting, tipping, skiing, chess, and organized pantries. Most recently, the American Psychological Association declared that merit-based hiring may be racist. However, University of Pittsburgh sociology professor Mark Paterson has raised the alarm over robotic racism due to the fact that many robots are white.Dr. Paterson teaches in the College of General Studies (CGS), Gender, Sexuality and Women’s Studies (GSWS), Urban Studies, and Center for Bioethics and Health Law.In The Conversation, Paterson noted the rise in “socially assistive robotics” and the dominance of robots with white “skin” made of “shiny white plastic.” As a result, he frets that black children (particularly those requiring assistance) “could end up interacting with white robots.”It is all part of the “poverty of the engineered imaginary”:
The cultural imaginary that enshrines robots as white, and in fact usually female, stretches back to European antiquity, along with an explosion of novels and films at the height of industrial modernity. From the first mention of the word “android” in Auguste Villiers de l’Isle-Adam’s 1886 novel “The Future Eve,” the introduction of the word “robot” in Karel Čapek’s 1920 play “Rossum’s Universal Robots,” and the sexualized robot Maria in the 1925 novel “Metropolis” by Thea von Harbou – the basis of her husband Fritz Lang’s famous 1927 film of the same name – fictional robots were quick to be feminized and made servile.
Kathleen Richardson, a robot ethicist at the De Montfort University, wrote that “the development of sex robots will further reinforce relations of power that do not recognize both parties as human subjects.” A supporter of the Campaign Against Sex Robots, Richardson warned “technology is not neutral. It’s informed by class, race and gender. Political power informs the development of technology.”
In Paris, feminists opposed sex-doll brothels on the basis that the dolls cannot consent and allow for violent fantasies. Lorraine Questiaux of the feminist group Mouvement du Nid (Nest Movement) called the brothel a “place that makes money from simulating the rape of a woman.” In Sweden, feminist organizations moved to ban sex bots as advancing the “objectifying, sexualised and degrading attitude to women found in today’s mainstream pornography.” They object to the right of men to create artificial women who “obey their smallest command” and “cannot say no to something that the man wants.”
Notably, Elon Musk could prove the great emancipator from racist robots. While Paterson was raising the alarm, Musk unveiled his robot:
It’s just a matter of time before some woke fool claims that childbirth is racist because there are fewer black births than white births.
Since whites are only 10% of the world’s population, we are massively ” out birthed” by non whites — who by the way fight to live around whitey so they can then disparage him
I sure hope in the future, robots are more practical, and brighter than your average Democrat today.
Do you know why Robots are generally white? It’s because of safety and reliability. If a robot develops a leak or something internally gets hot and burns the outer shell casing it can be spotted quickly. Industrial robots used in manufacturing are generally bright colors for safety reasons such as on an auto manufacturing line. Dumbocrats are pathetic! No common sense!
How about safety yellow.
that is racist against asians…/s
Do liberal psychopaths have nothing better to do with their life?
I have to wonder, how would a Whoopi Goldberg or Tawana Brawley look-alike sex robot go over in the marketplace? What kind of people would buy them, and for what reason? I would love to see the market research on something like this. You know that the day is coming when people can do this – buy a sex robot that looks Marilyn Monroe, or Scarlett O’Hara, whatever. And right after that, they will start offering customizable options where the robot will look like whoever you want.
Imagine the survey result when choices are Whoopi Goldberg, Merino Ewe, or none of the above.
How much BS, I wonder what truly scientific contribution all these crazy opinions have to a robot that in practice can have any cover of any color.
I think the answer is in the last paragraph, it points to its new objective, demonizing Elon Musk, thank goodness our scholar is a light step away from these stupid people!
Wow, I am so glad I got an advanced degree in Robo Pimping from Prof. Bender Rodriguez.
I know that in the future, I’ll be able to put that to good use.