Diversity & Technology Blog, Fall 2020

I believe that Harriet Washington argues against the comparison of the Tuskegee Syphilis Study and the COVID vaccine trials because of the difference in not only the location of the trials but also the informed consent of participants. If the COVID-19 vaccination trials were being done by U.S. citizens there is a need for informed consent of all participants but many countries have the idea of looking toward Africa. They knew there would be an, “… abundance of subjects who had no medical care and would grasp at whatever straw was offered them…” (Washington) there is no oversight in conducting these clinical trials in other continents, and there have been some cases in which researchers lie about the research they conducted. 

When Kaushik Sunder Rajan talks about the term “shell game” he is saying that there is a kind of deception and evasive action when conducting these trials. There are many public and private companies that fund these trials for vaccines, but when it comes time to take the blame for wrongdoing, each party sends out a statement saying they condemn whatever actions that are causing backlash, and no one gets held accountable. Due to no accountability, there is an ingrained distrust of the medical community within minority groups, because of its history of mistreating and ignoring the pleas of underrepresented communities.

I choose to do a “Deep Dive” of The Legacy of Henrietta Lacks when she went to Johns Hopkins Hospital to receive treatment for her cervical cancer her cells were taken from a biopsy and studied by Dr. Gey. The use of her cells helped test the effects of treatments of cancer cells without human participants. The outcome of this is wonderful, except her cells were taken and studied without her consent. When taking into account Henrietta’s SSIs, her being a black woman is important, because it seems that the medical community has a history of mistreating black women. 

This bias can be seen very clearly in the case of Serena Williams, shortly after the birth of her daughter Williams was having breathing problems due to her history of pulmonary embolisms. Williams, knowing her body and having information about this previously life-threatening condition informed the nurse, but the nurse thought the pain medicine was making Williams confused. Williams continued to ask for a CT scan and a blood thinner, and after asking several medical professionals, they finally gave her the CT scan which showed several small blood clots in her lungs. Williams was placed in a life-threatening, pregnancy-related complication, and this is something that black women are disproportionately faced with, due to a bias on how black women are treated by medical professionals. 

While reading chapter seven of Medical Apartheid I was surprised about the complete lack of respect for their unwilling participants. Throughout every step of their study, they were finding ways to try and trick and manipulate the black community in order to use them to get information on how syphilis affects the human body. I was especially surprised when I found out that not all people in the study tested positive for syphilis, some had yaws because the test was not completely accurate. The researchers made deliberate moves so participants would trust the researchers, like how they covered funeral costs in order to allow the researchers to examine their corpses. The overall disregard for human life in this study is absolutely appalling.   

Through my experience, I’ve addressed microaggressions by setting a boundary and outright saying that whatever comment made was insensitive. The most effective tactic for those committing microaggressions and passing them off as jokes is acting dumb and making the person explain the joke, they soon realize how ridiculous their comment is and become embarrassed realizing that the comment they made was inappropriate. The second tactic works at least 80% of the time. I’ve been able to use these tactics as both a target and a witness. 

When reading the Mercer article I was surprised by the optimism the writer sees for the future of gender equality in the working field. I tend to have a more pessimistic approach because the world isn’t changing at the speed I would want it to, but they look at some attainable steps that if taken can help lower the differences between gender and ethnicity in high ranking positions.

I was surprised when I saw all the rankings while reading the World Economic Forum’s article. Leaders of the United States have always seemed to brag about how strong this country is and how advanced we are, but there are countries that are ranked higher in ‘Health and Survival’, ‘Political Empowerment’,  and ‘Educational Attainment’ that are often dismissed by the US.

The Gates article helped illustrate how much worse the recession is now than in 2008. It’s astonishing that I’m only 19 years old but I’ve been able to live through two recessions. The recession has only highlighted the world’s problems in gender inequality.   

Diversity is a complex word that can have multiple meanings depending on the context it is being used in. Being literate in diversity would require some knowledge of how diversity relates to gender, ethnicity, race, and demographics. It is important to see how differently diversity is viewed in specific topics, and how now diverse is used as a general descriptor that shows something that is “non-normative”.

Being technologically literate is something that is becoming increasingly important, especially with a surge of online learning due to COVID-19. People who are technologically literate should be able to work independently, cooperatively, and effectively using the technology they have at their hands. A lot of the things that technology is used for has to do with producing content, collaborating, and spreading information, and this is critical to important information being spread, especially in 2020.

Security is something with an ever-changing definition, my first instinct when thinking about security is its relationship with technology, but in other times people may think about security from foreign nations. 

For my first blog post, I choose gender and ethnicity as the SSI’s I most identify with. The technology I’m interested in learning about is genetic engineering. In Logan’s first blog he speaks about gender as an SSI and the underrepresentation of women in the cybersecurity field. This interests me because I’m a female computer science major with an interest in cybersecurity. 

Who: The founders of WordPress are Matt Mullenweg and Mike               Little, it first became available to the public in May of 2003. 

What: WordPress is a simple, free way for anyone to create their                own website. It also uses open-source code, which allows                  the users to make more customizations for their site than                other platforms.

When: WordPress was released to the public on May 27, 2003. It                 was originally a very simple website, but as demand grew                   new updates provided more for WordPress users.

Where: There isn’t any information on where exactly WordPress                  was created, but it is likely that since its main founder was                born and raised in Houston, Texas that is where                               WordPress was created.

Why: I’m using WordPress because it is easy to use, customizable,            and I can get it through NYU’s resources. 

WordPress’s code of conduct seems to be focused on establishing a sense of community within the users. They emphasize that their software is to spread positivity and be used as a method of collaboration, not to harassment of others. 

Hey!

My name is Amber Martinez and I’m an undergrad student at NYU Tandon. My pronouns are she/her. I am a Sophomore majoring in computer science with a double minor in cybersecurity and computer science education. Most of my experience with technology has been through the guidance of a classroom setting and being my family’s personal tech support. My interests outside of computer science are photography, drawing, and sewing. 

The salient social identities I most identify with are gender and ethnicity, due to the large impact they have on how I see the world and its treatment of those similar to me. The SSI I am most interested in learning about is gender, and a technology I would like to know more about is genetic engineering, specifically gene splicing. I am using this WordPress site to publish my blog posts because it’s very easy to set up using NYU resources.