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Data for Black Lives is a movement of activists, organizers, and scientists committed to the mission of using data to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people.
Data for Black Lives
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Learn more about D4BL III, our next conference at the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts in New York City.
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Our mission can be summarized in a few words: make data a tool for social change instead of a weapon of political oppression.
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DECOMPRESS FEST
Event
December 07, 2023
"The verb decompress has meaning in everyday language and technology: to relieve pressure to unwind and the process that a data file must undergo to be used for a purpose. Now more than ever, we ne...
Decompress
DECOMPRESS III
Event
November 04, 2023
It is with great joy that we invite you to the third Decompress Miami event this Saturday, November 4, 2023. We are thrilled to feature artists and performers Ezili Jean, Speaker Music (DeForrest Brown), Suzi Analogue, and idealblackgirl (Amanda Williams). Doors open at 7 PM, panel conversation at 8 PM, and performances start at 10 PM. This event will be recorded. Register at the link below.
Decompress
Organizing
Oxford Union Debate: AI is an 'Existential Threat'
Event
October 19, 2023
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.
Algorithms
Democracy
Congressional Briefing on AI & Civil Rights
Video
September 28, 2023
Our Founder & CEO, Yeshimabeit Milner, was invited to deliver remarks on legislative and governance solutions at a Congressional Briefing on AI & Civil Rights hosted by Senator Cory Booker and the ...
D4BL III
Conference
TBA
We will be announcing our 2023/2024 conference dates soon.
Abolition
Data weapons
Algorithms
Economic justice
Social determinants
Data governance
Democracy
Climate justice
Massive benefits of AI come with environmental and human costs. Can AI itself be part of the solution?
Press Item
September 08, 2023
Abolish FICO
Update
August 17, 2023
Remarks of Founder & CEO Yeshimabeit Milner at the White House Roundtable on Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices
Readout of White House Roundtable on Protecting Americans from Harmful Data Broker Practices
Press Item
August 16, 2023
DECOMPRESS presents Vanguards
Event
August 12, 2023
We launched Decompress on Juneteenth with trailblazing voices in electronic music, such as Kenny Larkin, house music legend DJ Heather, Greg "Stryke" Chin, Godfather of the Miami electronic music s...
Decompress
Organizing
Announcing the second round of grantees from the Wikimedia Foundation Knowledge Equity Fund
Press Item
August 03, 2023
33 Leaders Standing Up to Big Tech in the Age of A.I.
Press Item
July 31, 2023
Music Is a Black Technology
Video
June 19, 2023
To commemorate Juneteenth and the launch of Decompress, we convened a powerful panel discussion featuring electronic music pioneers DJ Heather, Daygee Kwia, Eddy Andre Samy of Paperwater, and Greg ...
D4BL HQ
Event
Spring 2023
D4BL Decompress is a co-working lab, studios for artists/ practitioners, and a multi-use venue for events.
No Humans Involved
Update
September 14, 2022
The battle for the soul of AI is not about preventing tech from becoming human but about preventing AI from being used to define who is human and who is not.
Abolition
Algorithms
Data for Black Lives and Brennan Center Sue DC Police for Surveillance Records
Update
March 01, 2022
Our DMV Hub has spent months working with the Brennan Center to push for transparency and accountability from the MPD regarding their social media monitoring policies. Today we explicitly and publicly name MPD's use of social media as the weaponization of data.
CA Reparations Task Force
Video
January 27, 2022
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 techn...
Data governance
Democracy
Data weapons
Consentful Tech Curriculum
Report
November 28, 2021
In 2021 Data for Black Lives joined forces with the Consentful Tech Project to release a curriculum guides practitioners through a process to develop technology in truly inclusive but also consentf...
Participatory ML
Research
Algorithms
Retail stores are packed with unchecked facial recognition, civil rights organizations say
Press Item
July 14, 2021
Data for Black Lives Statement in Solidarity with Palestine 🇵🇸
Campaign
June 28, 2021
We at Data for Black Lives stand in solidarity with the Palestinian people and demand an end to Israeli Apartheid.
Democracy
Data weapons
Data Capitalism and Algorithmic Racism
Report
May 17, 2021
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.
Data governance
Introducing #NoMoreDataWeapons | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 2
Video
May 10, 2021
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.
Crash Course
Data weapons
Yeshimabeit Milner FAccT 2021 Keynote
Video
March 15, 2021
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 ...
Democracy
Economic justice
Data weapons
Detroit: On a Journey to Be Seen
Update
March 05, 2021
After struggling for decades against pervasive narratives and disinvestment, Detroiters are making policy work for them.
No More Data Weapons
Campaign
February 26, 2021
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.
Data weapons
Introducing #NoMoreDataWeapons
Update
February 26, 2021
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.
Black Health in America: Exploring Racial Disparities in COVID-19 Vaccination Data
Update
February 25, 2021
Black people, overrepresented in COVID-19 deaths, are underrepresented in vaccinations.
What's up with FACIAL RECOGNITION? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 2, Season 1
Video
January 22, 2021
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...
Crash Course
Data weapons
What is Abolition? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 3, Season 1
Video
January 22, 2021
What is abolition? More specifically, what does it mean to "abolish the police" or "abolish big data"? Why may we even want to abolish policing and big data? These phrases were thrown around a lot ...
Crash Course
Abolition
What Even IS an Algorithm? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 1, Season 1
Video
January 22, 2021
What even is an algorithm? Algorithms seem to have this vice grip on our lives. However, most of us don't even know exactly what an algorithm is or does. Here at Data for Black Lives, we aim to fig...
Crash Course
Algorithms
What is PREDICTIVE POLICING? | Crash Course: Data for Black Lives | Episode 4, Season 1
Video
January 21, 2021
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 informati...
Crash Course
Data weapons
The 2020 Good Tech Awards
Press Item
December 30, 2020
Meet The Black Women Trying to Fix AI
Press Item
December 01, 2020
What is Data for Black Lives?
Video
September 02, 2020
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....
Democracy
Economic justice
Algorithms
Data governance
Data weapons
Abolition
Climate justice
Social determinants
Race and America: why data matters
Press Item
July 22, 2020
Predictive policing algorithms are racist. They need to be dismantled.
Press Item
July 17, 2020
Beyond Fairness and Ethics: Towards Agency and Shifting Power - A talk at The International Conference on Machine Learning (ICML)
Update
July 17, 2020
When we consider power imbalances between those who craft ML systems and those most vulnerable to the impacts of those systems, what is often enabling that power is the localization of control in t...
D4BL-DMV Virtual Panel: Equity Implications of COVID-19 in the DMV (6/25/2020)
Video
June 25, 2020
Learn about the disparate impact that Black and Brown communities in the DMV have been facing as a result of COVID-19, highlight the work that local DMV organizations are doing, and provide ways fo...
Organizing
Social determinants
Coronavirus contact tracing apps aren’t worth the health risk to Black and Latinx people
Press Item
June 24, 2020
D4BL Movement Roundtable | Abolition & Self Determination
Event
June 17, 2020
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 - w...
Data governance
Political education
Abolition
D4BL Movement Roundtable | Abolition & Self Determination
Video
June 17, 2020
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 - w...
Political education
Abolition
Democracy
Advancing Community Engaged Approaches to Identifying Structural Drivers of Racial Bias in Health Diagnostic Algorithms
Report
June 01, 2020
Following an initial system dynamics workshop at the Data for Black Lives II conference hosted at MIT in January of 2019, a group of conference participants interested in building capabilities to use system dynamics to understand complex societal issues convened monthly to explore issues related to racial bias in AI and implications for health disparities through qualitative and simulation modeling.
Algorithms
Participatory ML
Research
Data for Black Lives Statement of Solidarity with Black Minnesotans
Campaign
May 29, 2020
Data for Black Lives Statement of Solidarity with Black Minneapolis -- Campaign to stop the Cradle to Prison Algorithm
Democracy
Political education
The Impact of COVID-19 on Black Communities
Dataset
May 03, 2020
In this critical moment, COVID-19 data is being collected, released, analyzed, interpreted, and used to inform recovery and response efforts. D4BL has worked to consolidate state level data to expl...
Social determinants
Political education
Data for Black Lives COVID-19 Movement Pulse Check and Roundtable Report
Report
April 30, 2020
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 exp...
Social determinants
Data weapons
Political education
Movement Roundtable + Pulse Check: COVID-19
Event
April 15, 2020
Social determinants
Economic justice
D4BL Movement Roundtable + Pulse Check: COVID-19
Video
April 15, 2020
On April 15th, 2020, Data for Black Lives hosted a virtual roundtable and pulse check for our movement in response to the COVID-19 pandemic. The roundtable features experts including Black epid...
Social determinants
Economic justice
D4BL COVID-19 Disparities Tracker
Dataset
April 10, 2020
COVID-19 Black cases & deaths
Social determinants
Data for Black Lives - Covid-19 Data by Race
Dataset
April 08, 2020
States that are publicly reporting covid-19 cases by race
Social determinants
Data Intersections 2020 | The University of Miami Institute for Data Science & Computing
Video
February 21, 2020
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 ma...
Abolition
Data governance
Algorithms
From Credit Scores to Job Applications: California's Reparations Task Force Looks to Algorithms
Press Item
February 03, 2020
Abolish Big Data
Video
December 31, 2019
Abolition means the creation of something new - the history of big data and a prophecy for big data abolition.
Abolition
Data weapons
Why We Need Data For Black Lives
Press Item
December 11, 2019
Forbes 30 Under 30
Press Item
December 06, 2019
AI Now Institute: Confronting Black Boxes: A Shadow Report of the New York City Automated Decision System Task Force
Report
December 01, 2019
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 pow...
Data weapons
Algorithms
Data governance
What is Data Capitalism?
Video
May 21, 2019
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 ...
Data governance
Algorithms
Data for Black Lives Fast Facts
Video
April 28, 2019
Economic justice
Social determinants
Algorithmic Justice: Race, Bias, and Big Data
Video
April 19, 2019
Speakers will discuss algorithms, race, and justice–the problems and the possibilities.
Algorithms
Democracy
Economic justice
24th Session of the OHCHR Working Group of Experts on People of African Descent
Event
March 27, 2019
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 ...
Democracy
Data weapons
Political education
Abolish Big Data - UCI Bren ICS
Video
March 09, 2019
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 beco...
Abolition
Data governance
Datafication and Community Activism: Redrawing the Boundaries of Research
Event
March 08, 2019
A workshop to held in the Department of Informatics, University of California, Irvine Irvine, California
Abolition
Data governance
Education justice
AI is sending people to jail—and getting it wrong
Press Item
January 21, 2019
D4BL II Welcome
Video
January 19, 2019
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min)
Abolition
Political education
Data weapons
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Video
January 19, 2019
Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director (10 min) Keynote Address: Meredith Broussard (45 min) Po...
Data governance
Algorithms
Democracy
The Just Data Cube (at D4BL II)
Press Item
January 14, 2019
Black People vs Robots: Reparations and Workers Rights in the Age of Automation
Video
January 13, 2019
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 wo...
Economic justice
Democracy
We Will Be Counted: the 2020 Census
Video
January 13, 2019
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 t...
Democracy
Data governance
Closing Panel: What is a Movement Scientist?
Video
January 13, 2019
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 ca...
Political education
Democracy
Organizing
D4BL II Farewell
Video
January 13, 2019
Organizing
Abolition in the Age of Big Data
Video
January 12, 2019
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 comp...
Abolition
Economic justice
Data weapons
Pain, Place, and Race
Video
January 12, 2019
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 co...
Economic justice
Social determinants
Political education
Democracy
“The seas are rising but so are the people”: Data, Disaster & Collective Power
Video
January 12, 2019
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...
Climate justice
Social determinants
Democracy
Data governance
Economic justice
Rising Above the Gathering Storm: Education Justice and Mathematics
Video
January 12, 2019
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 afflue...
Education justice
Economic justice
Democracy
We are the Leaders We Have Been Looking For: Organizing for Algorithmic Accountability
Video
January 12, 2019
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 a...
Algorithms
Data weapons
Abolition
Abolish Big Data
Campaign
January 11, 2019
A call to action to dismantle the structures that concentrate the power of Big Data into the hands of a few and to put data in the hands of people who need it the most.
Abolition
D4BL II
Conference
January 11–13, 2019
This weekend we will turn a critical eye to the role that data and technology have played in Black communities. In panels, workshops, and over meals, we will chart out a bold new vision for the fut...
Data weapons
Education justice
Climate justice
Data governance
Democracy
Amazon is selling facial recognition software to the police - here's why it matters.
Video
June 01, 2018
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...
Data weapons
Data governance
Political education
An Open Letter to Facebook from the Data for Black Lives Movement
Campaign
April 04, 2018
Give Black researchers, data scientists and Black communities access to our data.
Data governance
MJ Salon: Big Data for Big Organizing: Reducing Harm and Advancing Justice
Video
March 14, 2018
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 liv...
Data governance
Political education
Data for Black Lives Is an Organization Using Analytics as a Tool for Social Change
Press Item
February 01, 2018
Data 4 Black Lives Catalog
Dataset
January 31, 2018
Catalog of datasets related underserved communities. An intermediate between community organizers and data scientists.
Organizing
Political education
Data for Black Lives: How to Design Justice
Press Item
December 18, 2017
D4BL I Thank You
Video
December 15, 2017
Organizing
Data governance
Democracy
Calculating the cost of tech-fueled discrimination
Press Item
December 13, 2017
Closing Keynote and Farewell
Video
November 19, 2017
Keynote Address: Ronald Sullivan Farewell: Yeshimabeit Milner, Lucas Mason-Brown, and Max Clermont
Economic justice
Political education
The Revolution Will be Digitized: Music, Technology, and Black Cultural Production
Video
November 19, 2017
Black artists have shaped the history of American music and continue to do so every day. Virtually every form of popular music around the world has roots in the powerful African-American musical tr...
Economic justice
Black Work, Black Wealth, Black Futures
Video
November 19, 2017
New innovations in technology are radically changing our economy. Self-driving cars are poised to transform the trucking industry, putting over eight million people at risk of losing their jobs. Ex...
Economic justice
Building Black Political Power in the Age of Big Data
Video
November 18, 2017
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...
Political education
Data weapons
Code Black: Closing the Health Equity Gap
Video
November 18, 2017
The distribution of health and disease is not random. Health disparities between Blacks and whites run deep, no matter the age or ailment. Here are the facts: Blacks have a higher mortality rate th...
Social determinants
Automating (In)justice: Policing and Sentencing in the Algorithm Age
Video
November 18, 2017
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 major...
Economic justice
Algorithms
Data weapons
Opening Panel: Data for Black Lives
Video
November 18, 2017
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 ...
Algorithms
Data governance
Economic justice
Where are the Black scientists?
Video
November 18, 2017
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 l...
Education justice
Opening Remarks and Keynote Address
Video
November 17, 2017
Conference Welcome: Rafael Reif, President of MIT (5 min) Opening Remarks and Introduction of Keynote Speaker: Yeshimabeit Milner, D4BL Executive Director...
Algorithms
Data weapons
Data governance
D4BL I
Conference
November 17–19, 2017
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.
Data weapons
Democracy
Algorithms
Political education