The New Jim Code

CTL-E-6348 · Practice · other · 2019–present

VERIFIED evidence grade — build store (JSON graph)

Combined Graph record U-07534 · provenance: build store (JSON graph), record CTL-E-6348.

The New Jim Code is Ruha Benjamin's framework in Race After Technology: Abolitionist Tools for the New Jim Code (Polity, 2019). Benjamin defines it in the book as "the employment of new technologies that reflect and reproduce existing inequities but that are promoted and perceived as more objective or progressive than the discriminatory systems of a previous era." The name plays on Michelle Alexander's The New Jim Crow, extending that analysis of racial control into coded, digital systems. Benjamin argues automation can "hide, speed, and even deepen discrimination, while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to racism of a previous era." The book organizes the framework through four forms, listed in its contents as "Engineered inequity," "Default discrimination," "Coded exposure," and "Technological benevolence." Together they name discriminatory designs that amplify hierarchies, replicate divisions by ignoring them, or worsen bias while aiming to fix it.

Notes

STAGING: temp id EB-04. TYPING FLAG: proposed type Topic is not in schema.json; typed Practice/other per the abstract-phenomena precedent — for the classification sitting. The Polity publisher page itself was not fetched in this pass; bibliographic facts rest on two university library catalogs reproducing the publisher summary. CURATOR'S JUDGMENT (DRAFT): Benjamin's framework is the packet's bridge from search bias to design: it names the mechanism, not just the outcome.

Relationships

• Ruha Benjamin — related to
  The New Jim Code is Ruha Benjamin's framework, defined in her Race After Technology (Polity, 2019). Benjamin is live record CTL-E-1093 (Person); related_to is used because the schema gives a Practice no authored_by-type predicate to a Person.

Sources

• Civics of Technology (accessed 2026-10-29): 'Her term the New Jim Code, playing on Michelle Alexander's the New Jim Crow, offers a clear and helpful shorthand'; 'In her 2019 book Race After Technology, Benjamin defines the New Jim Code as existing when new technologies are employed "that reflect and reproduce existing inequities but that are promoted and perceived as more objective or progressive than the discriminatory systems of a previous era" (pp. 5-6).' (build store)
• Berkeley Law Library catalog (accessed 2026-10-29): 'Race after technology : abolitionist tools for the New Jim Code / Ruha Benjamin. / Imprint: Cambridge, UK ; Medford, MA : Polity, 2019.'; 'Formatted Contents Note, Engineered inequity, Default discrimination, Coded exposure, Technological benevolence.' (build store)
• Stanford SearchWorks (accessed 2026-10-29): 'Benjamin argues that automation, far from being a sinister story of racist programmers scheming on the dark web, has the potential to hide, speed up, and deepen discrimination while appearing neutral and even benevolent when compared to the racism of a previous era.' (build store)
• E3W Review of Books, UT Austin (accessed 2026-10-29): 'Out of Benjamin's race critical code studies, Race After Technology sets forward four dimensions of the New Jim Code: engineered inequity, default discrimination, coded exposure, and technological benevolence.' (build store)

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Record CTL-E-6348 · Combined Graph record U-07534 · CultureTechLens Knowledge Graph · 4 sources · 1 mapped relationship.
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Researched and maintained by the CultureTechLens research program · CultureTechLens Combined Graph, Release 2026-11-04. Corrections are public: the corrections log.

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