D4BL II
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
There have been only 22 censuses in our nation's history. Every 10 years the data that is the result of nationwide count is used for redistricting, to allocate government funding and for research that impacts the social and economic lives of many. This is also the first census where operations wi...
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
In 2009, 13% of the US population were either self-employed or working as independent contractors, in 2016 this number had doubled. And from Silicon Valley to the US Supreme court, the rights of workers are under attack. At the same time, robots capable of driving cars, assembling goods, and cari...
D4BL II Welcome
D4BL II Welcome
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min)
Closing Panel: What is a Movement Scientist?
Closing Panel: What is a Movement Scientist?
Defeating Jim Crow required an army of lawyers and a national legal strategy. But new forms of racism and oppression demand new forms of activism and resistance. And scientists are answering the call. From academics and professional researchers to the everyday citizen scientists among us, people ...
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min) Keynote Address: Meredith Broussard (45 min) Poetry: Joy Buolamwini (5 min)
D4BL II Farewell
D4BL II Farewell
Pain, Place, and Race
Pain, Place, and Race
In cities like Chicago and Baltimore, where you live determines the length and quality of your life. Life expectancies range from the mid-80s in more affluent neighborhoods to 60s in the poorest communities. From gun violence to opioid addiction to suicide to sexual violence, Black and Brown comm...
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
For many Black communities, a storm of policies and practices hit well before the first rains of Katrina, Harvey, Matthew or Florence. And everyday, these storms rage in plain sight. Climate change has magnified the devastating impact of displacement driven by unbearable housing costs. It has rev...
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Almost 65 years after the US Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v Board of Education, public education in this country remains fundamentally separate and unequal. In general, white children from affluent backgrounds receive a world-class public education (OECD), while Black and brown children from lo...
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
As algorithms and automated decisions continue to impact every aspect of our lives, in Black communities nationwide these decision-making systems animate already existing structures of oppression and inequality. From risk assessments to school enrollment algorithms to child predictive analytics a...
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Fingerprints, facial recognition, background checks, gang databases, FBI lists, social media surveillance, credit scores: data has always been central to the expansion of the prison industrial complex, the immigration enforcement industry, and the financialization of our economy. Abolition is...
AI is sending people to jail—and getting it wrong
AI is sending people to jail—and getting it wrong
The Just Data Cube (at D4BL II)
The Just Data Cube (at D4BL II)
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
In this keynote address at the FAcct 2021 Conference, Founder & Executive Director Yeshimabeit Milner calls on researchers to do more than push for fairness, accountability and transparency-- but to demand justice, power and self-determination in the fight to make data as a tool for social chang...
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
We at Data for Black Lives stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an end to Israeli Apartheid.
D4BL II Welcome
D4BL II Welcome
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min)
No More Data Weapons
No More Data Weapons
Data for Black Lives is launching #NoMoreDataWeapons. No more investing in Data Weapons, No more building new Data Weapons, No more disguising Data Weapons as legitimate and neutral.
CA Reparations Task Force
CA Reparations Task Force
The state of California is the first and only state to have created a state body dedicated to the study and proposal of reparations. On January 27 I gave expert testimony on discrimination in technology to the California Task Force to Study and Develop a Proposal for Reparations at the first meet...
Abolish Big Data
Abolish Big Data
Abolition means the creation of something new - the history of big data and a prophecy for big data abolition.
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Conference Welcome: Rafael Reif, President of MIT (5 min) Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (20 min) Keynote Address: Ruha Benjamin (45 min)
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
In a country where we’re still trying to end the dangerous culture of racial profiling - from Starbucks to student lounges to public spaces - we won’t allow one of the biggest tech companies to use their immense resources to fuel the incarceration machine. Facial recognition software is most...
Automating (In)justice: Policing and Sentencing in the Algorithm Age
Automating (In)justice: Policing and Sentencing in the Algorithm Age
The U.S. incarcerates more people than any country in the world, and Black communities are disproportionately impacted by this mass incarceration. The disparities are staggering: although the majority of illegal drug users and dealers are white, three quarters of those imprisoned for these crimes...
What's up with FACIAL RECOGNITION? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 2, Season 1
What's up with FACIAL RECOGNITION? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 2, Season 1
What's up with facial recognition? Facial recognition technology has become well integrated into so many parts of our lives. We unlock our phones with our face, Facebook can automatically recognize our friends' faces, and (most concerning) law enforcement can easily recognize our faces in picture...
Data for Black Lives COVID-19 Movement Pulse Check and Roundtable Report
Data for Black Lives COVID-19 Movement Pulse Check and Roundtable Report
On April 15, 2020 the Data for Black Lives Movement held a roundtable to serve as a pulse check for our movement. Today we release the report of this historic event, a culmination of voices and expertise that provides a roadmap for how we must coordinate, organize and mobilize during this crisis ...
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
In 2017, New York City became the first US jurisdiction to create a task force to come up with recommendations for government use of Automated decision systems (ADS). This report is a community powered shadow report that provides a comprehensive record of what happened during the Task Force’s rev...
Introducing #NoMoreDataWeapons | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 2
Introducing #NoMoreDataWeapons | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 2
Data for Black Lives is launching #NoMoreDataWeapons. No more investing in data weapons, no more building new data weapons, no more disguising data weapons as legitimate and neutral.
What is PREDICTIVE POLICING? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 4, Season 1
What is PREDICTIVE POLICING? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 4, Season 1
What is predictive policing? Well, if you've seen the movie Minority Report, you already have a bit of an idea. Predictive policing involves using algorithms to analyze massive amounts of information in order to predict and help prevent potential future crimes. In this episode of the Crash Course...
Building Black Political Power in the Age of Big Data
Building Black Political Power in the Age of Big Data
In 2012, for the first time in American history, Black people had the highest rate of voter turnout of any racial or ethnic group. And advances in data and technology have created new opportunities to expand the political power of Black people and hold institutions accountable. SMS technology has...
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
As algorithms and automated decisions continue to impact every aspect of our lives, in Black communities nationwide these decision-making systems animate already existing structures of oppression and inequality. From risk assessments to school enrollment algorithms to child predictive analytics a...
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Fingerprints, facial recognition, background checks, gang databases, FBI lists, social media surveillance, credit scores: data has always been central to the expansion of the prison industrial complex, the immigration enforcement industry, and the financialization of our economy. Abolition is...
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent public session Data for Racial Justice will be held in Geneva from 25-29 March 2019. This thematic session will involve specific focus on its mapping exercise and bring together experts to discuss the human rights situation of people of A...
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
On Friday, March 22, Yeshimabeit Milner will speak at the Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium. Her remarks will expand upon the Data for Black Lives #NoMoreDataWeapons campaign, calling attention to harmful applications of AI in the criminal justice system. Please join us in person or via...
MKE Tech Podcast S:3 Ep.5 Data for Black Lives
MKE Tech Podcast S:3 Ep.5 Data for Black Lives
The MKE Tech Podcast focuses on driving equity and diversity in tech and startup spaces. In this episode, Yeshimabeit Milner shares the origin story of Data for Black Lives, and highlights the #NoMoreDataWeapons campaign among other urgent initiatives.
Yeshimabeit Milner | Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center
Yeshimabeit Milner | Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center
This keynote was delivered by our founder and CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner on Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center on February 23, 2024 at 5 PM. The event was hosted in partnership with the Barnard Department of Computer Science and Barnard Library. London-...
Data Activism + Decompress
Data Activism + Decompress
This keynote was delivered by our founder and CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner on Data Activism at The Malcom X and Dr Betty Shabazz Memorial + Education Center on February 23, 2024 at 5 PM. The event was hosted in partnership with the Barnard Department of Computer Science and Barnard Library. London-...
D4BL I
D4BL I
On November 17-19 2017 we brought together community members, organizers, academics, technologists, educators, artists, policy makers, and public servants for the inaugural Data for Black Lives conference at the MIT Media Lab.
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
Where are the Black scientists?
Where are the Black scientists?
Black and brown people are vastly underrepresented in science, tech, and engineering. Although Black people report desiring to major in STEM at the same rate as their white counterparts, they are less than half as likely to end up in STEM-related jobs (US Census Bureau). And in a world that is in...
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Almost 65 years after the US Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v Board of Education, public education in this country remains fundamentally separate and unequal. In general, white children from affluent backgrounds receive a world-class public education (OECD), while Black and brown children from lo...
Just Equations: Mathematics of Opportunity
Just Equations: Mathematics of Opportunity
Just Equations’ sixth annual Mathematics of Opportunity conference will explore the future of equity in mathematics education and showcase the voices of education leaders, policymakers, and equity experts working to elevate math opportunities for the next generation. D4BL founder & CEO, Yeshi...
Datafication and Community Activism: Redrawing the Boundaries of Research
Datafication and Community Activism: Redrawing the Boundaries of Research
A workshop to held in the Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine Irvine, California
Just Equations' Sixth Annual Conference
Just Equations' Sixth Annual Conference
In April 2024, Yeshi Milner delivered a powerful opening keynote at Just Equations’ sixth annual conference, titled The Mathematics of Opportunity: Closing the Divide.
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
For many Black communities, a storm of policies and practices hit well before the first rains of Katrina, Harvey, Matthew or Florence. And everyday, these storms rage in plain sight. Climate change has magnified the devastating impact of displacement driven by unbearable housing costs. It has rev...
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
There have been only 22 censuses in our nation's history. Every 10 years the data that is the result of nationwide count is used for redistricting, to allocate government funding and for research that impacts the social and economic lives of many. This is also the first census where operations wi...
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
MJ Salon: Big Data for Big Organizing: Reducing Harm and Advancing Justice
MJ Salon: Big Data for Big Organizing: Reducing Harm and Advancing Justice
Data, noun. Things known or assumed as facts, making the basis of reasoning or calculation. Data, often presented as objective and unbiased governs much of the public policy that affects the lives of poor people and people of color. Join this important discussion featuring activists and organi...
D4BL Movement Roundtable | Abolition & Self Determination
D4BL Movement Roundtable | Abolition & Self Determination
We convened a roundtable of organizers, activists, and practitioners to discuss how we can organize, mobilize and coordinate in this moment and for the long haul. Together, we ask the questions - what does it mean for us to practice liberation in this moment? To demand and build the infrastructur...
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min) Keynote Address: Meredith Broussard (45 min) Poetry: Joy Buolamwini (5 min)
CA Reparations Task Force
CA Reparations Task Force
The state of California is the first and only state to have created a state body dedicated to the study and proposal of reparations. On January 27 I gave expert testimony on discrimination in technology to the California Task Force to Study and Develop a Proposal for Reparations at the first meet...
D4BL I Thank You
D4BL I Thank You
What is Data Capitalism?
What is Data Capitalism?
Data for Black Lives and Demos released a groundbreaking new report addressing data capitalism and offering solutions that build power for Black and brown communities. In the age of "big data" and surveillance, we need to be concerned about more than just personal privacy. Take a look at how d...
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Conference Welcome: Rafael Reif, President of MIT (5 min) Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (20 min) Keynote Address: Ruha Benjamin (45 min)
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
For many Black communities, a storm of policies and practices hit well before the first rains of Katrina, Harvey, Matthew or Florence. And everyday, these storms rage in plain sight. Climate change has magnified the devastating impact of displacement driven by unbearable housing costs. It has rev...
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
In a country where we’re still trying to end the dangerous culture of racial profiling - from Starbucks to student lounges to public spaces - we won’t allow one of the biggest tech companies to use their immense resources to fuel the incarceration machine. Facial recognition software is most...
An Open Letter to Facebook from the Data for Black Lives Movement
An Open Letter to Facebook from the Data for Black Lives Movement
Give Black researchers, data scientists and Black communities access to our data.
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
In 2017, New York City became the first US jurisdiction to create a task force to come up with recommendations for government use of Automated decision systems (ADS). This report is a community powered shadow report that provides a comprehensive record of what happened during the Task Force’s rev...
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of our social and economic lives. New data systems have tremendous potential to empower communities of color. Tools like statistical modeling, data visualization, and crowd-sourcing, in the right hands, ...
Abolish Big Data - UCI Bren ICS
Abolish Big Data - UCI Bren ICS
At the Donald Bren School of Information and Computer Sciences Abstract: Bid Data is more than a collection of technologies, more than a revolution in measurement and prediction. It has become a philosophy, an ideological regime, one that determines how decisions are made ad who makes the,...
Data Intersections 2020 | The University of Miami Institute for Data Science & Computing
Data Intersections 2020 | The University of Miami Institute for Data Science & Computing
Big Data is more than a collection of technologies, more than a revolution in measurement and prediction. It has become a philosophy, an ideological regime, one that determines how decisions are made and who makes them. It has given legitimacy to a new form of social and political control, one th...
Congressional Briefing on AI and Civil Rights
Congressional Briefing on AI and Civil Rights
Briefing on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Rights With Senator Cory Booker and Data for Black Lives & Leading Advocates
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium
On Friday, March 22, Yeshimabeit Milner will speak at the Ohio State Technology Law Journal Symposium. Her remarks will expand upon the Data for Black Lives #NoMoreDataWeapons campaign, calling attention to harmful applications of AI in the criminal justice system. Please join us in person or via...
Datafication and Community Activism: Redrawing the Boundaries of Research
Datafication and Community Activism: Redrawing the Boundaries of Research
A workshop to held in the Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine Irvine, California
Data Capitalism and Algorithmic Racism
Data Capitalism and Algorithmic Racism
Big companies are using data to preserve the power imbalance that keeps them rich. This economic model is rooted in chattel slavery and relies on the extraction and commodification of data.
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
There have been only 22 censuses in our nation's history. Every 10 years the data that is the result of nationwide count is used for redistricting, to allocate government funding and for research that impacts the social and economic lives of many. This is also the first census where operations wi...
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Speakers will discuss algorithms, race, and justice–the problems and the possibilities.
What is Data for Black Lives?
What is Data for Black Lives?
Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and mathematicians committed to the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. Since the advent of computing, big data and algorithms have penetrated virtually every aspect of ou...
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
In 2009, 13% of the US population were either self-employed or working as independent contractors, in 2016 this number had doubled. And from Silicon Valley to the US Supreme court, the rights of workers are under attack. At the same time, robots capable of driving cars, assembling goods, and cari...
Data for Black Lives Statement of Solidarity with Black Minnesotans
Data for Black Lives Statement of Solidarity with Black Minnesotans
Data for Black Lives Statement of Solidarity with Black Minneapolis -- Campaign to stop the Cradle to Prison Algorithm
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
In this keynote address at the FAcct 2021 Conference, Founder & Executive Director Yeshimabeit Milner calls on researchers to do more than push for fairness, accountability and transparency-- but to demand justice, power and self-determination in the fight to make data as a tool for social chang...
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
We at Data for Black Lives stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an end to Israeli Apartheid.
Closing Panel: What is a Movement Scientist?
Closing Panel: What is a Movement Scientist?
Defeating Jim Crow required an army of lawyers and a national legal strategy. But new forms of racism and oppression demand new forms of activism and resistance. And scientists are answering the call. From academics and professional researchers to the everyday citizen scientists among us, people ...
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min) Keynote Address: Meredith Broussard (45 min) Poetry: Joy Buolamwini (5 min)
CA Reparations Task Force
CA Reparations Task Force
The state of California is the first and only state to have created a state body dedicated to the study and proposal of reparations. On January 27 I gave expert testimony on discrimination in technology to the California Task Force to Study and Develop a Proposal for Reparations at the first meet...
D4BL I Thank You
D4BL I Thank You
D4BL Movement Roundtable | Abolition & Self Determination
D4BL Movement Roundtable | Abolition & Self Determination
We convened a roundtable of organizers, activists, and practitioners to discuss how we can organize, mobilize and coordinate in this moment and for the long haul. Together, we ask the questions - what does it mean for us to practice liberation in this moment? To demand and build the infrastructur...
Pain, Place, and Race
Pain, Place, and Race
In cities like Chicago and Baltimore, where you live determines the length and quality of your life. Life expectancies range from the mid-80s in more affluent neighborhoods to 60s in the poorest communities. From gun violence to opioid addiction to suicide to sexual violence, Black and Brown comm...
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
For many Black communities, a storm of policies and practices hit well before the first rains of Katrina, Harvey, Matthew or Florence. And everyday, these storms rage in plain sight. Climate change has magnified the devastating impact of displacement driven by unbearable housing costs. It has rev...
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Almost 65 years after the US Supreme Court’s landmark Brown v Board of Education, public education in this country remains fundamentally separate and unequal. In general, white children from affluent backgrounds receive a world-class public education (OECD), while Black and brown children from lo...
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
The Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent public session Data for Racial Justice will be held in Geneva from 25-29 March 2019. This thematic session will involve specific focus on its mapping exercise and bring together experts to discuss the human rights situation of people of A...
Congressional Briefing on AI and Civil Rights
Congressional Briefing on AI and Civil Rights
Briefing on Artificial Intelligence and Civil Rights With Senator Cory Booker and Data for Black Lives & Leading Advocates
Oxford Union Debate: AI is an 'Existential Threat'
Oxford Union Debate: AI is an 'Existential Threat'
On October 19, 2023, our Founder & CEO debated Max Tegmark & Jaan Taalin of the Future of Humanity Institute and the authors of the Open Letter to Pause AI. The video of her speech will be live on the Oxford Union YouTube channel soon. We will be sharing it on this page once it is live.
Apartheid Is an Algorithm
Apartheid Is an Algorithm
On October 14, 2023, Founder & CEO Yeshimabeit Milner delivered the keynote speech Apartheid Is an Algorithm at the Milky Way Tech Summit held at Northwestern Mutual Financial in Milwaukee, Wisconsin.
D4BL I
D4BL I
On November 17-19 2017 we brought together community members, organizers, academics, technologists, educators, artists, policy makers, and public servants for the inaugural Data for Black Lives conference at the MIT Media Lab.
D4BL III
D4BL III
November 18-20, 2024 at the Pérez Art Museum in Miami.