I think it is important to note that many racialized people are faced with systemic barriers that often limit their income. Having this flexibility provides them with the opportunity to pursue higher education without feeling the burden of thinking they have to leave their job

This is another form of colonialism where they are representing a unilateral way of learning. As we all know, across our various backgrounds, cultures, and other identities, there are multiple ways to learn and achieve the same/similar outcomes. It's like this system wants to produce robots that all act exactly the same way, with no difference.

I think that it is important to understand that limited accountability measures can also stem from the power dynamics that are present within the schooling system. The majority of administrators are predominantly white, as are teachers. When I was in high school, a white male accused me of bullying him when we had not spoken for 3 months. The vice-principal at the time did not ask me for my side of the story when she brought me into the office. She believed him and started telling me that I'll never go to university, that I'll be expelled, and that my future is over. It was not until my white best friend, who was with me during the time of this accusation, said that I was not involved, that she believed me.

When I was graduating from high school, my school got their first BIPOC VP. Now reading this, I genuinely wonder how hard it was for them to get into that position. I remember being so happy to see someone who looked like me in a position of power, but I hated that it was in my last year of high school.

When I was in my M.Ed degree, I was a teaching assistant, and there were multiple professors who, once they saw me, questioned whether I was qualified to mark their students' work. One professor got to the point where they would log in to the LMS and monitor every grade I entered and the time I spent on the site. Yet, the university expresses that the TAs' positions are on a trust basis...

McQueen (2023) highlights the double-bind, which expresses that racialized women in higher education often experience two forms of discrimination at the same time, such as microaggressions against their race and gender. She expresses that the 'holistic' university experience is oftentimes limited or nonexistent to this demographic due to systemic discrimination

Settler-colonialism works alongside the colonized mind. As a person who was born in Canada and went through the Canadian public school system, many of the ideas and ways of learning are a result of colonialism. For example, I had a professor who used APA 7 formatting for papers due to university standards, but never enforced the formatting because it was a colonial and unilateral way of learning.

By 'removing' all biases, it creates space for tokenization of students and surface-level policies, because it is extremely difficult to eliminate unconscious biases. To create more inclusive policies that move beyond the surface-level requires having more BIPOC administrators and teachers present in these spaces and aiding in creating more inclusive policies that reflect the lived experiences, alongside white allies.

Terms such as these are considered race-neutral. While people should be hired based on their qualifications, there should also be an acknowledgement that there has been a history of racial discrimination within the schooling systems. Taking accountability can create meaningful and long-lasting change. Rather than remaining neutral, it turns into active anti-racist practices.

This was my experience growing up as a racialized person, even through higher education. Most of my professors were white, and they were teaching racialized students. In my undergrad, the only professor who was a person of colour had more inclusive learning material compared to the white male professors. I think it shows that sometimes professors have a choice when it comes to creating inclusive learning environments

This is such a powerful line. Especially when countries such as the US takes such pride in freedom of speech, but the recent tiktok ban last year changed the algorithm so that certain words and phrases cannot be searched such as 'women's rights' in the United States. Excluding these words on such huge platforms can and will lead to the erasure of women's rights in the US because it limits knowledge mobilization. Therefore, new generations won't be able to learn what women's rights are, and if they do, a limited, surface-level version of it.

This is important to note that many of online information does come from a place of privilege. What I mean by that is, to post something online, you will need some sort of updated device that can have access to the internet. In Western countries, having a device and internet has become so normalized that you can walk pretty much anywhere and still be connected online. However that isn't the case in other countries, thus when these language models are created, they are usually created with a WEIRD mindset.

Today, Dr. Bonnie asked what do we think our PhD dissertation will be in 10 years with the development of AI. I feel as if my work regarding to women of colour with invisible disabilities will be dismissed and underrepresented because of how AI models are being trained. It will misrepresent the severity of mental health illnesses and further perpetuate the superwoman schema that many women of colour battle every day. The training on these AI models need to be more inclusive and represent the lived experiences of marginalized communities effectively.

I once asked my supervisor how come it takes so long to create change? This was about a month ago. He explained that all these inequities and hierarchies are created and rooted in the foundations of structures, and to change it, we must break down these structures. But breaking down these structures take time because there are always people who benefit from them that want to keep them in place. This sentence reminds me of how normalized inequality and colonialism is that sometimes we don't notice, but it's just considered 'common sense'

Creating an output like this, especially to the public, creates a widespread of misinformation. A lot of young and impressionable teenagers use social media on a daily basis (ie. tiktok, instagram, X) and most of these platforms now have some sort of AI feature added into the app itself. Outputs such as these can perpetuate misogyny and further oppress women, ultimately spreading hate against a specific group of people.

Misinformation is quickly widespread, especially in a day and age of social media where it can be spread in a matter of seconds. When AI's are generated to spread misinformation, people who are unfamiliar with AI or novice AI users, will be unable to differentiate from what is real and what is misinformation. While this can sometimes be unharmful, (ie. my grandfather seeing a newborn baby dancing on facebook), in other ways, it can be extremely harmful (ie. creating stereotypes for underrepresented groups)

This is such a common stereotype, especially in young black girls, which is often also reinforced by their cultures and families. By creating systems that reinforce this stereotype further perpetuates an image that is not true, but also sends out harmful messages to young black girls. It sends out the message that they are sexual objects, which is misinformation and honestly just hurtful.

I think if cultures and values want to survive the AI age, it also comes with a bit of removal from AI. What I mean by that is, yes AI is an extremely useful tool that can help us in multiple ways. However, it is important to understand that is all AI is: a tool. By understanding the biases behind the tool (whether that be colonization and white hierarchy) it can help us understand where the tool is faulty and unreliable.

This reminds me of what someone in the class said to me. They expressed how easy it is for misinformation to travel, but not only travel, but how difficult it is to correct misinformation with factual information. When people such as Elon use their personal biases and opinions to spread misinformation on such large platforms, it ultimately removes the sense of agency. Also, when trying to correct misinformation, most of the time the factual information does not get as many views compared to the misinformation

This correlates to how AI also depicts various intersecting identities as well. For example, the idea of a woman of colour often gets stereotyped within AI, but not only that, when inputting into AI topics such as racism and sexism, it downplays and dismisses the lived experiences behind it, further perpetuating white normativity.