Ruha Benjamin

😜

We condemn the illegal invasion of Venezuela, and we condemn the fossil fuel corruption that led us here. Young people — once again — are the ones that oil billionaires will feed into the meatgrinder of an unjust, imperialist war.

Why We’re Not Using AI in This Course, Despite Its Obvious Benefits A reading for your students

“The following is how I explain my AI policy to my technology-ethics class, to help get their buy-in at the very start.”

emergingethics.substack.com/p/why-were-n...

An image of the book cover for Imagination: A Manifesto by Ruha Benjamin. Features an image of a black femme with a beautiful braided hairstyle adorned with flowers.

Starting 2026 off right with @thestorygraph.com's January Pages Challenge and @ruha9.bsky.social ✨

#BookSky

🙌🏾🎊

Here u go! bsky.app/profile/ruha...

"The question for the Luddites was never simply whether to accept or reject a new machine, but rather who controlled it, how it was deployed, and whose interests it served. . .

“…but it also forces us into a position where we are adapting our professional practices to the latest tool rather than letting our pedagogical goals determine which technologies, and which uses of them, belong in our classrooms.” 2/2

Teach like a Luddite - Kappan Online Embracing new technologies that don’t advance teaching and learning is a mistake. Educators must ask questions — and resist when necessary.

“Accepting this story of AI’s inevitability — or that of any technology — is a grave mistake for educators. Not only does it cede tremendous power to tech companies that are unaccountable to teachers, students, or school communities…” 1/2

kappanonline.org/teach-like-a...

Data Centers, the Climate Crisis, and Community Defense - UNICORN RIOT As Trump’s Energy Secretary Chris Wright claims you should “build data centers” if “you want low electricity prices,” more than 200 environmental organizations have joined to “demand a halt to the bui...

NEW: Data Centers, the Climate Crisis, and Community Defense

How Local Activists are Interrupting Big Tech AI Investments

unicornriot.ninja/2025/data-ce...

A social sciences and humanities reading list on AI in education 🧵

Israel is still bombing Gaza

The press isn't covering it as much but it's still happening

Read Palestinian Speculative Fiction Reading List The following is a growing reading list for the #ReadPalestinianSpecFic challenge. This is a work in progress to create a list of all available Palestinian speculative fiction. Novels: Novels by Na…

If you’re looking for Palestinian speculative fiction for #ReadPalestine week, I got you: soniasulaiman.com/readpalestin...

ps. writing is my way of metabolizing so that these everyday encounters don’t stay in my body and make me sick, so thx for reading🤲🏾

Better yet, ACT up… like beloved Ms. Satterfield, who has experienced the absolute worst and best of this town and continues to be a beacon for so many of us. www.princetonmagazine.com/shirley-satt...

As Toni Cade urged us: “Don’t leave the arena to the fools.”

So speak up, good people, speak up.

Importantly, those who witnessed the “anti-Semitic” moment looked shell shocked, embarrassed, or oblivious. But none intervened.

Too often, it seems, the malicious are assertive and the good are demure.

Photo of a flyer for “A night for Gaza holiday concert” on December 6 at 7pm at Hopewell train station.

He was followed by someone who shared a fundraiser flyer for the Palestinian Children’s Relief Fund that his grandkids are helping to organize.

And the remaining convos were uneventful.

Then I turned to the next person, who assured me in hushed tones, “Not ALL of us share his views…” followed by a question about how to address AI with his five grandkids.

“You’re fired” guy cut in front of other pol waiting to talk n I was determined not to let him steal my attn + energy. So I replied:

“We disagree.” Then checked his name tag, “I’ll be sure to tell the university you said I shld be fired.”

(So many things I thought about saying after the fact😶)

YALL. I was debating whether to even post this story, but then I realized I accidentally recorded this conversation!?Which I *never* have the foresight to do in these moments, and so I take it as a sign, or at least a nudge, that I’m supposed to share this ‘day in a life’ encounter with you.

Then, like clockwork, one of the first people to elbow forward after the talk followed the predictable script:

“You mentioned Gaza + Palestine, but no Hamas?! You’re anti-Semitic! And you shouldn’t have been put on probation—you should’ve been fired.”

But to my surprise I was greeted with interested nods, audible affirmations, periodic claps, and thoughtful questions. Kudos to the Old Guard!

Poster of “The Phoenix of Gaza” symposium

Photo of an apartheid wall in Ramallah Palestine with CTRL + ALT + DELETE spray painted in blue on the wall

• Bringing it full circle to Phoenix of Gaza XR—Palestinian technologists using immersive storytelling to resist violent erasure (see gazaxr.com)

Slide of book cover “IBM and the Holocaust” by Edwin Black on the left and an IBM punchcard used to collect “deadly data” on the right

• Linking that technology companies’ role in past atrocities, including IBM’s facilitation of the Nazi Holocaust

Slide of news article headline “Probes Reveal Depth of Big Tech Complicity in Israel’s AI-Driven Gaza Slaughter” underneath a dystopian imagine of a decimated Gazan landscape

So, at the Old Guard, I was expecting some predictable pushback to my discussion of:

• Smart weapons obliterating Palestinian life (see www.commondreams.org/news/big-tec...)

But I’ve been doing this long enough, I’m used to audience glares, ppl walking out, disinvites, and even the president of Harvard ghosting a university-wide lecture + dinner his office invited me to after they presumably did a little “due diligence” digging into my background (see Tanner Lectures😏)

More people than expected chuckled and clapped at the “award.” But there were a few mean mugs too.🤨

After Ms. Satterfield’s intro, I joked with the audience that she left out one thing in my bio: that the university “awarded” me probation for standing with students protesting the Palestinian genocide.

*my gentle content warning for those who might not be familiar with my work and commitments

About 170 Old Guard members gathered at the Jewish Center, their usual meeting place. I recognized a dozen familiar faces from around town and enjoyed catching up before the talk.