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The Bullwhip's Algorithm: Artificial Intelligence and America's Racial Caste System

by Kamau Bobb

AI in education, viewed through the history of race

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Awards & Recognition

  • Critical praise

    Praise from Bettina L. Love

    Direct praise for the book, describing its writing as piercingly clear and its effect on readers as sharpening a...

AlbakiReads Editorial

AI in education, viewed through the history of race

Kamau Bobb examines the promises made for artificial intelligence in education against the history of American schooling, including segregation, abuse, and unequal conditions. The book argues that enthusiasm for AI can obscure this history, and asks how technology may alter education’s structure and affect outcomes in already segregated schools. Its central inquiry links the future of educational technology to the country’s unresolved racial past, challenging claims that AI tools will close gaps or improve learning for all students. Bobb draws on that history to consider the work of pursuing equitable education as AI reshapes the field.

Good fit for readers who enjoy

  • Readers interested in race, technology, and American education
  • Educators and students exploring equity and AI in schools
  • Readers concerned with the historical context of educational reform

Themes

Artificial intelligence in educationRacial inequality and segregationAmerican educational historyEquity and democracy

Based on publisher information and book metadata.

Book overview

"Kamau Bobb writes with a piercing clarity about race, history, and technology that does not comfort but confronts. His words do not allow you the luxury of distance. They leave you sharper, more aware, and undeniably changed about the AI crisis we are living through."--Bettina L. Love, author of Punished for Dreaming: How School Reform Harms Black Children and How We Heal

A meditation on race, technology, and the fight for equitable education


Educated citizens are the lifeforce of democracy. Across all aspects of modern life, and especially in education, AI is raising existential questions. Like any new technology, it is both transformative and problematic.

In this smart exploration of tech, race, and society, Dr. Kamau Bobb meditates on the convergence of American memory and the promises of AI in education. At this critical milestone in American history, this book argues that enthusiasm and clamor for AI are a veil for the vacuous neglect of our nation's racist past. Bobb encourages readers to pause and examine the actual foundation on top of which the grand claims of AI's potential in education are being built, raising questions like:

  • How does AI change the fundamental structure of American education?
  • How does the application of AI enabled tools affect educational outcomes in schools that are profoundly segregated?
  • When the purveyors of these technologies claim that they will close gaps and improve the educational experience for all students, what does that really mean?

American educational history is overflowing with abuse, segregation, substandard structures, and smoldering scorn. This book grapples with the challenges ahead in achieving equitable education as AI transforms and the nation retracts. At this convergence of technology and racial backlash in education, Bobb provides lessons from America's past to light the path ahead.
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