Andrew Merfeld Blog 8

The article starts out by explaining the AI chatbot created by Microsoft. At first, the AI chatbot was working well, until the Chatbot got into an algorithm that made it post inflammatory and racist content. In my opinion, the reason that this is at the beginning of the article is to show that algorithms are not neutral, and they actually reflect on how humans act. In today’s day and age, we are lucky enough to have AI technology that can help in many aspects of life, but we can also see the bad things that are still happening today like racial discrimination and inflammatory language being used by real humans. The only way for the chatbot to be put into that algorithm is by seeing and analyzing these sayings and words used by real humans in real-time, showing there is still a lot of racial discrimination going on today. 

Going into the “Lynching in America” map, the thing that stood out to me the most was the use of the color scheme. This is a very frightening topic, and I think the use of grayscale and bright reds exemplified the seriousness of the issue. Likewise, the interactiveness of the map is something that stood out to me. I like being able to visualize and interact with some of the states and counties that are depicted on the map. When looking at the map as a whole, however, you can see there is “a sea of red” along the Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas borders that all touch. I think that this has to do with different ideals, laws, and regulations from county to county. As you get further away from these areas — except for a portion of Florida — you don’t see as many bright red counties. Another thing I think could play a role in this, is the idea “If I see someone doing it (lynchings), it’s okay for me to do so as well” and I think the border lines of Mississippi, Alabama, and Arkansas truly show that. 

Like the “Lynching in America” map, it displays recorded lynchings in the states, most predominantly in the southern states. However, the map also shows the lynchings that were taking place elsewhere. The second map, I think, focuses more on the widespread lynchings, rather than trying to use a color scheme to horrify the lynchings just in the south. In one of my other classes, we talked about lynchings, carnivals, parades, etc… that took place outside of the Southern Region (Like Omaha) and I found that very interesting because I never knew that these things were taking place essentially all over the United States. That’s what I think the Monroe map is showing, is more of the widespread severity, as compared to the southern severity, and trying to make it more severe with the use of the greyscale and bright red color scheme.