Latest news with #AfroLatina
Japan Times
12-07-2025
- Science
- Japan Times
Tech's diversity crisis is baking bias into AI systems
As an Afro-Latina woman with degrees in computer and electrical engineering, Maya De Los Santos hopes to buck a trend by forging a career in AI, a field dominated by white men. AI needs her, experts and observers say. Built-in viewpoints and bias, unintentionally imbued by its creators, can make the fast-growing digital tool risky as it is used to make significant decisions in areas such as hiring processes, health care, finance and law enforcement, they warn. "I'm interested in a career in AI because I want to ensure that marginalized communities are protected from and informed on the dangers and risks of AI and also understand how they can benefit from it," said De Los Santos, a first-generation U.S. college student. "This unfairness and prejudice that exists in society is being replicated in the AI brought into very high stakes scenarios and environment, and it's being trusted, without more critical thinking." Women represent 26% of the AI workforce, according to a UNESCO report, and men hold 80% of tenured faculty positions at university AI departments globally. Blacks and Hispanics also are underrepresented in the AI workforce, a 2022 census data analysis by Georgetown University showed. Among AI technical occupations, Hispanics held about 9% of jobs, compared with holding more than 18% of U.S. jobs overall, it said. Black workers held about 8% of the technical AI jobs, compared with holding nearly 12% of U.S. jobs overall, it said. AI bias De Los Santos will soon begin a PhD program in human computer interaction at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. Bias has unintentionally seeped into some AI systems as software engineers, for example, who are creating problem-solving techniques integrate their own perspectives and often-limited data sets. | reuters She said she wants to learn not only how to educate marginalized communities on AI technology but to understand privacy issues and AI bias, also called algorithm or machine learning bias, that produces results that reflect and perpetuate societal biases. Bias has unintentionally seeped into some AI systems as software engineers, for example, who are creating problem-solving techniques integrate their own perspectives and often-limited data sets. Amazon scrapped an AI recruiting tool when it found it was selecting resumes favoring men over women. The system had been trained to vet applicants by observing patterns in resumes submitted to the company over a 10-year period. Most came from men, a reflection of a preponderance of men across the industry, and the system in effect taught itself that male candidates were preferable. "When people from a broader range of life experiences, identities and backgrounds help shape AI, they're more likely to identify different needs, ask different questions and apply AI in new ways," said Tess Posner, founding CEO of AI4ALL, a non-profit working to develop an inclusive pipeline of AI professionals. "Inclusion makes the solutions created by AI more relevant to more people," said Posner. Promoting diversity AI4ALL counts De Los Santos as one of the 7,500 students it has helped navigate the barriers to getting a job in AI since 2015. By targeting historically underrepresented groups, the nonprofit aims to diversify the AI workforce. AI engineer jobs are one of the fastest growing positions globally and the fastest growing overall in the U.S. and the United Kingdom, according to LinkedIn. U.S. President Donald Trump holds a signed executive order on AI at the White House in January. | reuters Posner said promoting diversity means starting early in education by expanding access to computer science classes for children. About 60% of public high schools offer such classes with Blacks, Hispanics and Native Americans less likely to have access. Ensuring that students from underrepresented groups know about AI as a potential career, creating internships and aligning them with mentors is critical, she said. Efforts to make AI more representative of American society are colliding with U.S. President Donald Trump's backlash against Diversity, Equity & Inclusion (DEI) programs in the federal government, higher education and corporate levels. DEI offices and programs in the U.S. government have been terminated and federal contractors banned from using affirmative action in hiring. Companies from Goldman Sachs to PepsiCo have halted or cut back diversity programs. Safiya Noble, a professor at the University of California Los Angeles and founder of the Center on Resilience & Digital Justice, said she worries the government's attack on DEI will undermine efforts to create opportunities in AI for marginalized groups. "One of the ways to repress any type of progress on civil rights is to make the allegation that tech and social media companies have been too available to the messages of civil rights and human rights," said Noble. "You see the evidence with their backlash against movements like Blacks Lives Matter and allegations of anti-conservative bias," she said. Globally, from 2021 to 2024, UNESCO says the number of women working in AI increased by just 4%. While progress may be slow, Posner said she is optimistic. "There's been a lot of commitment to these values of inclusion,' she said. "I don't think that's changed, even if as a society, we are wrestling with what inclusion really means and how to do that across the board."
Forbes
09-07-2025
- Business
- Forbes
When DEI Overcorrects: The Risk Of Exclusion In The Name Of Inclusion
Maria Alonso is an award-winning marketing strategist and industry disruptor, redefining advertising with bold campaigns and iconic brands. Diversity, equity and inclusion (DEI) have become pillars of modern business culture, and rightly so. As a Latina woman with a multicultural background, I have long advocated for spaces that reflect the world we live in—where race, gender, disability, identity and socioeconomic background are not barriers to opportunity. DEI is vital to dismantling systemic injustices and amplifying marginalized voices. But like any system, it's not immune to overcorrection. In the race to course-correct decades of exclusion, some companies—particularly in industries like advertising and marketing—have started to operate under a new, unspoken rule: If you don't fit a very specific archetype of what 'diverse' should look like, you may find yourself excluded in the name of inclusion. Yes, you read that right. In the push for greater diversity, we may have inadvertently begun creating another kind of gatekeeping—one where people are judged for not being 'Black enough,' 'Latino enough' or not visibly fitting into a marginalized identity in an easily defined way. This isn't just harmful—it undermines the very essence of what DEI stands for. When Inclusion Becomes Conditional A few months ago, I was consulting with a marketing agency on a multicultural campaign for a major brand. I sat in a brainstorming session where an Afro-Latina colleague pitched a powerful concept rooted in bicultural identity. Instead of being embraced, her idea was met with skepticism—some questioned whether her experience was 'Latino enough' because she didn't speak Spanish fluently. Others felt her Black identity might confuse the audience. The irony was hard to ignore: In a room championing cultural nuance, they were denying hers. Another example: I've seen Asian American creatives be told their 'lived experience' didn't count as underrepresented because their community is often perceived as 'too successful' to warrant inclusion. Meanwhile, white allies who genuinely advocate for equity are afraid to speak up, lest they be accused of co-opting spaces not 'meant' for them. These aren't isolated incidents. I've heard similar stories from countless professionals across the country—stories of being excluded from DEI councils, passed over for multicultural projects or having their identity questioned simply because it didn't conform to narrow expectations. Marketing's Role In Defining—And Distorting—Identity The advertising world, in particular, has always had a complex relationship with identity. It's an industry built on storytelling and, in many cases, simplification. Marketers often reduce entire communities into digestible personas. It's why we still see campaigns that treat multicultural audiences as monoliths: 'the Black mom,' 'the Hispanic millennial,' 'the Asian overachiever.' While the intention may be to represent, the outcome is often reductive. When DEI gets filtered through these same lenses, it creates problems. Instead of seeing people in the fullness of their intersecting identities—Black and queer, immigrant and disabled, white and low-income—we start applying checkboxes. In some marketing teams, you're only allowed in the DEI conversation if your identity is immediately legible, visible and fits a media-friendly narrative. But DEI should not be about optics. It should be about equity. And true equity doesn't come from replicating the same exclusionary patterns in reverse—it comes from expanding our understanding of who belongs. Identity Is Not A Checklist Here's a truth that often gets lost in today's DEI discourse: No one group has a monopoly on lived experience. A Black woman raised in a wealthy suburb will have a different worldview from a Black woman raised in a working-class neighborhood. A white man raised by undocumented parents in a bilingual household may carry layers of cultural knowledge that aren't obvious on the surface. A queer Latinx marketing strategist might not be fluent in Spanish, but that doesn't make them less Latina—or less valuable in crafting an inclusive message. When companies begin to police the boundaries of identity, they move from inclusion to performance. This creates a chilling effect where people feel pressured to 'prove' their oppression or distance themselves from parts of their identity that don't fit a certain mold. What Businesses Can Do To Course-Correct The Overcorrection To avoid these pitfalls, businesses must move beyond tokenism and toward true intersectionality. Here are four ways to do that: 1. Broaden your definition of diversity. Don't rely on visual cues or surface-level demographics. Think about socioeconomic background, education, geography, neurodiversity, religion and lived experience. 2. Avoid identity policing. Let people self-identify and speak to their own stories. There's no need to question whether someone is 'enough' of anything. If they are in the room, they bring value. 3. Decenter performative DEI. Inclusion should not be reduced to optics or ad campaigns. It should be embedded in hiring, mentorship, pay equity and leadership development. 4. Create space for complexity. Host conversations that explore the spectrum of identity within communities. Feature Afro-Latinx voices, Asian adoptees, Indigenous creators and multiracial families. Complexity creates richer stories—and better marketing. The Risk Of Swinging Too Far Injustice is never justified, whether it targets marginalized groups or allies. If we're not careful, we risk creating a new hierarchy of worthiness—where only certain types of 'diverse' voices are elevated and others are silenced. That's not DEI. That's discrimination with new packaging. The goal of DEI is not to trade places at the table. It's to build a longer table, one with more seats and more listening. One where we don't repeat the exclusionary practices of the past in new, subtler ways. We must hold ourselves accountable—not just for including diverse voices, but for making sure we don't silence the ones that don't fit neatly into a campaign brief or visual template. Marketing has the power to shift culture. But with that power comes responsibility. As we strive to tell more inclusive stories, we must ensure that our behind-the-scenes practices reflect that same inclusion. That means moving beyond identity boxes, questioning our biases—even the progressive ones—and making space for complexity. Because inclusion that excludes is just a new form of the same old problem. Forbes Communications Council is an invitation-only community for executives in successful public relations, media strategy, creative and advertising agencies. Do I qualify?
New York Times
02-07-2025
- Entertainment
- New York Times
Tiny Love Stories: ‘Being a 'Throuple' Felt Unthinkable'
Ignoring ChatGPT I went on six first dates in one week — an experiment for my job on how to use A.I. to date effectively. Onur is from Turkey. After only a few dates, he brought me a rose, asked me to be 'his' and kissed me passionately. ChatGPT advised me to block him: 'He's pursuing you too aggressively.' But I couldn't deny the chemistry, or the strange coincidence that I once wrote a romance novel about an Afro-Latina woman like me who falls for a Turkish man named (you guessed it) Onur. Kismet is a concept that a computer can't understand. — Aleichia Celestina Williams When Mistakes Become Mementos My son, Chauncey, died a few years ago of a fentanyl overdose. He was a brilliant, eccentric autodidact, an excellent farmer and chef, but he chose to work as a carpenter and plumber. He was not good at either job. Yet, when he offered to build my new bathroom, I said yes. Now every time I take a shower and see the dribbles of grout on the wall, stand on the still-unattached drain plate or get drenched using the hand nozzle with a mind of its own, I think of him. I will never get them fixed. — Susan Rothchild Want all of The Times? Subscribe.
CBS News
27-05-2025
- Entertainment
- CBS News
Meet the newly crowned Queen of Carnaval San Francisco, Zoel Mendoza
SAN FRANCISCO — For Zoel Mendoza, the newly crowned 2025 Queen of Carnaval San Francisco, this is no ordinary crown — it's a symbol of renewal, identity, and cultural celebration. As she rehearses at Casa de Carnaval ahead of the city's iconic Mission District parade, Mendoza said Carnaval represents far more than music and dance. "Carnaval is a celebration. It is, what we say in Portuguese, 'Uma limpeza' — it cleans energy. It brings in new things. It opens doors. It's almost like the beginning of a new year. It's a renewal," she said. That sense of renewal is deeply personal for Mendoza. As an Afro-Mexicana, she said this year's theme, Afro-Mundo, resonates with her own story — one shaped by a layered and evolving relationship with race and identity. "Afro-Mundo really, really resonates with me. Especially because I'm Afro-Latina. And it's something that I kind of struggled with when I was younger," Mendoza said. "I felt I didn't really land in one camp or the other. So, I had a bit of an identity crisis." Through dance — and with training in Brazil and other cultural centers — Mendoza found clarity and confidence in her identity, as well as a calling to uplift others on similar journeys. In her new role as queen, she hopes to shine a light on fellow artists and deepen the impact of Carnaval's vibrant legacy. "I really believe in community, and I really want to bring on as many artists as I possibly can," she said. "Platform them, work with them, collaborate with them. Because that's how culture grows, and that's how it's passed — by sharing the space." Mendoza currently shares her passion for samba while building spaces where others in the diaspora can also feel seen and celebrated. "Being crowned this year means so much to me because not only have I found my own identity in something that is 100 percent me," she said, "but I'm crowned in a year that really feels like a year that celebrates people like us — who are part of the diaspora, those who are very aware of who they are in the diaspora, and those that are lost, like I was. So it feels like I'm coming home with a win, and I'm very grateful." It's that gratitude, rooted in rhythm and joy, that Mendoza now brings to every step of her Carnaval reign.
