User:Chad117gram/Data for Black Lives

Data for Black Lives is a movement of a collection of data scientists, mathematicians, researchers, activists, and organizers of whom have the mission of using data science to create concrete and measurable change in the lives of Black people. The founders of this movement are Yeshimabeit Milner and Lucas Mason-Brown.

The invention of D4BL started from the confidence of a young black student in Miami.  Yeshimabeit Milner witnessed racial discrimination, she watched her peers suffer from police brutality.  She dedicated her time and research to statistical research in the black community.  Milner discovered that black children were getting suspended at a much higher rate than the white children.  After graduating from Brown, she incorporated her love for data science into her research.  D4BL would begin from the statistical research of a young mathematician, who would later expand her team with others who shared her passion for data analysis. This is how D4BL was created.

Data was being used as an instrument to marginalized black people which led to exclusion of black communities from different services over history.  Activists, organizers and mathematicians are working together to ensure that black people have the tools to collect, analyze and interpret data. This organization not only works in areas in which data can benefit black people, but also calls out areas in which digital technology and algorithmic decision making can do immense harm.

In November of 2017, Data for Black Lives was created. The website started processing in the year 2018. For the years of 2019 and 2020, there is still work that needs to be done and added. Recently, the Data for Black Lives blog was created in 2021 in which provides information about recent research such as CoronaVirus and many other situations. Taking over discrimination, it is still present and established.

The nonprofit organization has its headquarters in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Milner attended Brown University and noticed discrimination towards the black community and organized a group of scientists to combat the mistreatment of black people within data algorithms.

Between 2019 and 2021, this nonprofit organization was awarded $900,000. Through campaigning, movement-building, and leadership development, it is attempting to aid a network of grassroots racial justice organizations in combating discriminatory uses of data and algorithms across systems. With the support of a statewide network of thousands of scientists and activists, it is attempting to build a future in which data and technology are forces for good rather than weapons of oppression in Black communities. The grant offers broad operating support to the organization.

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References

Data 4 Black Lives