How White Supremacy Hijacks AI: The Urgent Need for Global Ethics in Tech Development

As an autodidact committed to studying Global Ethics, I’ve come to understand how deeply tools of white supremacy shape societies worldwide. These tools—manifesting in racism, classism, patriarchy, colorism, and many other forms of oppression—are not isolated to any one country or culture.

Reference my Unlearning Bias: A Guide for Progress by Christian Ortiz

https://www.dhirubhai.net/posts/modatlasmedia_peoples-guide-to-unlearning-bias-activity-7244790977809260544-MSLV?utm_source=share&utm_medium=member_desktop

Instead, they operate on a global scale, dividing communities and reinforcing hierarchies that uphold power structures designed to marginalize and oppress. My education and lived experiences has been about exploring these systems of division and understanding how they work, both to exploit differences and to create societal norms that keep us fragmented.

One of the clearest examples of white supremacy's global reach is seen in anti-LGBTQIA+ laws. Across the world, many countries criminalize same-sex relationships, often as a direct result of colonial laws that imposed European moral frameworks on colonized societies. In countries such as Uganda, Nigeria, and Malaysia, colonial-era laws continue to marginalize and criminalize LGBTQIA+ individuals, reinforcing a narrative that non-heteronormative identities are deviant or dangerous. These legal frameworks, embedded in white supremacist structures, create environments where LGBTQIA+ people face violence, discrimination, and exclusion—tools used to uphold rigid, heteronormative structures of control.

Marriage laws, especially in relation to patriarchy, further reflect how white supremacy manipulates societal norms. In many parts of the world, marriage laws remain heavily patriarchal, treating women as subordinates to men. In India, for example, marriage dowries are still common, despite legal prohibitions, perpetuating an economic system that devalues women and places them in subservient roles within families. Similarly, in parts of the Middle East and North Africa, marriage laws give men disproportionate control over women’s rights, including their ability to divorce or retain custody of their children. These patriarchal systems are tools of white supremacy, used historically to maintain control over women, restrict their autonomy, and reinforce the idea that women’s primary value lies in their roles as wives and mothers.

Racism, as a tool of white supremacy, is perhaps most obvious in its global manifestations. In the United States, systemic racism has disproportionately impacted Black and Brown communities for centuries, but this phenomenon extends far beyond U.S. borders. In Brazil, a country with the largest population of people of African descent outside of Africa, structural racism leads to significant disparities in income, education, and healthcare between Black and white Brazilians. Despite the country’s multi-ethnic population, darker-skinned Brazilians face a deeply ingrained colorism that limits their social mobility and economic opportunities. Similarly, in South Africa, the legacy of apartheid continues to shape socioeconomic realities, where race is still a defining factor in access to resources and opportunities.

Classism is another global manifestation of white supremacy, closely tied to economic systems that favor the wealthy and marginalize the poor. In countries like India, the caste system—though technically abolished—still plays a significant role in how people are treated and what opportunities they can access. Lower-caste individuals often face severe discrimination, particularly in rural areas, where access to education and economic mobility is limited. In the United Kingdom and the United States, classism is deeply intertwined with race, as people of color are disproportionately represented in lower-income brackets, where they face systemic barriers to economic advancement.

Colorism, a cousin to racism, is present in nearly every part of the world where lighter skin is associated with beauty, privilege, and power. In places like India, Pakistan, and the Caribbean, skin-lightening creams are popular, often promoted by a global beauty industry that equates whiteness with desirability. This phenomenon is not limited to beauty standards; it also affects access to jobs, marriage prospects, and social mobility. In many African countries, for example, lighter-skinned individuals are often seen as more "Western" and are therefore afforded more opportunities. This global preference for lighter skin is a direct legacy of colonialism and white supremacy, which historically positioned white Europeans as superior to darker-skinned people.

My role in understanding these tools of white supremacy is to analyze how they operate globally and how they are continually reinforced by both historical legacies and modern systems. These “isms” are not isolated problems; they are interconnected, functioning together to maintain global inequality and division. As developers, it is our responsibility to recognize that the AI systems we build are not neutral. If we fail to address these global systems of oppression, we risk creating technologies that reinforce, rather than dismantle, these divides.

Culturally and globally competent AI systems are not just a technical necessity—they are a moral imperative. AI is increasingly used to make decisions that affect people's lives, from hiring practices to law enforcement, and if these systems are designed without a deep understanding of global cultural contexts, they will only serve to perpetuate existing inequalities. For example, facial recognition technology has been shown to misidentify people with darker skin tones at higher rates, a direct result of biased training data that reflects the predominantly white developers and test subjects involved in the system's creation. Similarly, AI tools used in hiring often filter out candidates from marginalized communities because they are built on data that reflects historical biases against these groups.

To create AI systems that serve all of humanity, we must ensure that they are culturally aware and globally equitable. This means actively working to dismantle the systems of white supremacy that divide us—whether they manifest as anti-LGBTQIA+ laws, patriarchal marriage systems, or the pervasive impacts of racism and colorism. It is not enough to simply minimize bias in AI; we must take proactive steps to hold these systems accountable and ensure that our technologies uplift, rather than oppress, the communities they touch.

As a developer, I see it as my responsibility to ensure that the AI systems I create are grounded in justice, equity, and an understanding of the global realities of oppression. The tools of white supremacy affect us all, whether we realize it or not, and it is up to us to build systems that are not only technically proficient but also ethically sound. By embracing global ethics and cultural competence in AI, we can begin to dismantle these systems and work towards a more just and equitable world.