Any views expressed within media held on this service are those of the contributors, should not be taken as approved or endorsed by the University, and do not necessarily reflect the views of the University in respect of any particular issue.

Month: October 2020

Ratchetdemic presentation!

Welcome to Camila’s ratchetdemic blog!

 This blog purpose is to share my experience as a black Brazilian woman from the hood [proudly], but not romanticizing it. Being from the underprivileged neighborhood in Brazil has become part of the construction of my sociological perspectives and studies during my master. It is vital and meaningful to bring my background, how it shapes my sociological perspective of life and social structures, we all are part. Another essential detail and can be one of the reasons “I got lucky”, hacked some of the “social structure” I lived in1, and I am here studying in Scotland. It had a lot with the fact I am a light-skinned black woman, no matter how well aware of my privileges am I, sometimes I can be “colourism crazy”. I see it everywhere and I talk about it all the time.

Colourism is not something new, and it is around us more than we think, it is part of daily life and social structure. I will talk more about colourism in my posts and how it is related to technology. Also, to understand and give a glimpse of my journey as a master’s student!  I am currently an MSc student in Digital Society at the University of Edinburgh, with a Chevening scholarship.

Chevening is soft power strategy to connect people from emerging countries and have an exchange between emerging countries and the UK. The Chevening program, consist of full fund professionals each year, from more than 160 countries to study masters in the UK, in diverse areas.

About my professional career, I used to work in tech, and I was a person who tried to get in the tech area almost my whole youth until I gave up and happened. I saw the position of executive assistant for six months contract at Microsoft, and I gave my shoot and stayed there for almost three years. I got a promotion to a position of business manager and led the Blacks at Microsoft Brazil, Microsoft’s ethnic/racial diversity pillar for two years.

The idea of constant learning and change is incredible for me, I love tech and the digital world, the interaction andsocial perspectives. How digital and tech shaped society, equally, how society shaped tech and digital. Just think about your daily day, how you interact with people, groceries shop, pay your bills, see your bank balance, get the information, connect with new people. If we think about our lives, digital technologies, media, and mobile technologies are an intrinsic part of our lives. Besides digital technologies and sociology discussions, I am a hip hop lover [I got love for the game2!]!

My goal here is to bring all of that together and make the connection between those subjects. I want to mix my journey in the MSc in Digital Society, sociological perspective, social concepts, blackness, digital world, technology and hip hop. Let’s see what will come out of that!

Just an observation, the word ratchetdemic is not my creation, is something that came while I watched Christopher Emdin’s TEDx about being rachetdemic, a concept of being ratch and academic, at the same time. That both of those personas can live together, as it is part of you, and I related as I am ratchetdemic!

He talks about to be proudly from where he is from and bringing things from those places to the academic world, becoming a rachetdemic!

Check it out.

 

See you soon!

Camila Ramos a.k.a Ratchetdemic

Notes: 

1 – In 2003, when I finish my high school, only 14% of the population between 18 and 24 were in the university or college, and in the 2000’s was when Brazil reduced the number of Brazilians below the poverty line from 44% to 34% of the population. (Brasil, 2000) 

2 – Dj Jazzy Jeff song about love for hip hop, “For Da Love Of Da Game” from his album The Magnificent: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xvSq8nix3g8 

 References: 

BRAZIL. Presidência da República. Projeto Alvorada. Brasília, 2000, p.23. http://www.mds.gov.br/relcrys/alvorada/apresentacao.htm 

 

 

Coded Bias by Joy Buolamwini

As part of my journey in the university and the digital sociological conversation, we to watch Coded Bias by Joy Buolamwini. 

Joy Boulamwini is not new for me, while I worked in tech and had projects focused on bringing more black people to the tech environment, I start to research about black in tech and what were the impacts black people were making in the industry. 

I found a lot of exciting information, and I discovered that Nas [an American rapper, well known by his first and most incredible hip hop creation, the Illmatic] invests in tech through the Queensbridge Enterprise. 

Yes, I found the connection I wanted! 

In the same research, I found the incredible Joy and her way of tech talk bring symbolism to her narrative and MIT tech kind of conversation. 

Coded Bias, It is a documentary that approaches tech, but also in a symbolic way for black people. A scene that impacted me in such different forms was, see a black woman braiding her hair [Joy is in a hair salon] while she is talking about her journey at MIT, it is symbolic on another level. She brought poetry, rap, tech, race conversation, colourism, access to different worlds, and connection, all that in a documentary. 

Also, the documentary brings information about the Dartmouth Summer Research Project in the ’50s, a moment that was crucial for the “foundation” of AI as a field. Talks about the “1984, George Orwell” book, China Social credit score, bringing the big tech players in AI and their role in it. Also brings the US and the UK, country approach on face recognition. 

It is a must to watch! 

 

Powered by WordPress & Theme by Anders Norén

css.php

Report this page

To report inappropriate content on this page, please use the form below. Upon receiving your report, we will be in touch as per the Take Down Policy of the service.

Please note that personal data collected through this form is used and stored for the purposes of processing this report and communication with you.

If you are unable to report a concern about content via this form please contact the Service Owner.

Please enter an email address you wish to be contacted on. Please describe the unacceptable content in sufficient detail to allow us to locate it, and why you consider it to be unacceptable.
By submitting this report, you accept that it is accurate and that fraudulent or nuisance complaints may result in action by the University.

  Cancel