TRANSCRIPT
0:09
I will start introducing my panelists here, welcome everyone. This is the panel on racial stigmas and social injustice. This is a youth panel that I’m very proud to be the moderator of. So I’m going to start off, introduce the President and the Vice President of the youth council here at data ethics. So let me start. The president of the data ethics for all youth council, and he is a senior at the University of Washington at Seattle. Studying informatics and philosophy. He’s very passionate about exploring ethical and societal impacts in the process of developing new technologies and is currently working on bringing together his interest in technology and ethics by founding an organization called AI and morality. Lorna Kagawa is the vice president of the data ethics for our youth council here. He is a high school junior. President precedent for future business leaders of America, Pasco County,
1:17
Florida, you selected as the District
1:23
of business leaders for the 2021 school year, she looks forward to growing in the release of artificial intelligence and how it will impact the future generations, especially in terms of social stigmas and overall application, Maddie Hoekstra is currently a junior at ice cream, high school, and she is the founder and president of toys shelter animals, Vice President of expertise, treasurer for community companions. She is passionate about all things stem including technology chemistry and biology. She loves to teach molecular biology, chemistry, and anatomy to children as well as reading to elementary schoolers, Mary’s a member of the National Honor Society, California Scholarship Federation science National Honor Society, biomedical engineering. She is very happy to be a part of,
2:18
where she can
2:19
learn about AI to help eliminate bias in today’s society. So welcome you all. And I’m really surprised like this is a youth panel with teenagers and I am reading your descriptions, and it sounds so amazing like you guys have already accomplished so much. So, everybody. I would like everyone to a new round of applause if it was a live event I would have asked for that is not the state children so this panel is about racial injustice and how social stigmas that we use, actually perpetuate those things in our injustice in our society. And so I would like actually Ronak who prepared these questions to start asking them. Do you want to do that?
3:12
So I’ll start off with one opening question, do you think most people have the same social ideas, slash stigmas about the ages, and on the other hand, they all do and why or why not with your money, first
3:25
time so I do think that most people have the same social stigmas about teenagers and they’re mostly that they are rude radical and have bad behavior. I feel like in reality, this is really just for teenagers, just developing and testing out new opinions about just topics growing up, going around in the world, and sharing their views with their parents, but their parents see this as challenging their own values and feel that they’re being rude to them. So you’re labeled teenagers.
4:00
Do you want to tackle that?
4:03
I bought him, Jack. Let me preface this by saying I’m 20 so I’m no longer a teen, but I just turned 20, and my view on teenagers because I’m no longer a teen, I guess, this might be helpful. I think teenagers are really open-minded, especially growing up with the internet being available at least to people I’ve interacted with, which is really awesome. And there are some people like that. I like to be helpful and think that I believe in the next generation. And hopefully, it will make a positive change. So that’s sort of my take on meters, and with the elderly. From my experiences, I’ve had sort of mixed responses. So, some were very open-minded and progressive in some knew what they were believing in. And so I sort of divide those people into those two groups.
5:08
You can also.
5:10
Yes and Jack made some very good points. Similar to race I feel like there are certain social stigmas and generalizations that are made up of various age groups, especially for the youth and the elderly. For teams, for example, I believe that oftentimes people associate teenagers as kind of bratty or acting rashly, which may be true for some truthfully, but for, I would say for the vast majority of teenagers. This is not the case. and the Russian office thinking maybe because those small, small minority of the ages, who happen to be bratty are acting rationally or respectfully. They happen to be the most outspoken, whether or not the most extreme form of negative connotations that many of the older generations see images as, and this kind of viewpoint kind of bleeds into the elderly as well, where there’s almost a negative connotation for the elderly sometimes. I know from high school. People sometimes think like the elderly. They’re all. They like they’re not exactly those kind of things and the negative connotations, and they may be true for some, but they’re not true for everyone, and these generalizations kind of bleed-through, that we could try to get rid of.
6:36
I would like to you know I think he’ll bring you all to bring up good points, but then when in our discussions earlier you brought a very good point, Ron, even some positive social stereotypes can be negative about like how Indian people who are taller can play basketball and things like that so what do you think about the positive social stigmas positive stereotypes and
7:07
some of the quote-unquote positive social stereotypes. I could give some examples and I will explain one of them, which is a lot of people believe aliens are good enough and this. I mean, obviously, when you first approach this, it feels like a compliment. And, at least my high school, there have been situations where like in math class, people are just coming up to me, or some of the ideas in my classes, be like, Oh, you’re Indian seem to be good at math, or and I see it for, not just Indians. But like other races as well. So like, for the example of math I see for Asians in general and then for countless other reasons, like for example, African Americans, I see it for also things like basketball or you play sports or something like that. And, and also for height, where if one person’s tall, then, someone may say Oh, so you must play basketball,
8:05
sometimes these can
8:06
negatively taken, and sometimes, in some cases, it can be taken in a negative way, especially for status as opposed to being seen as positive. Let’s take the Indies been good enough, for example, if there happens to be someone who is not the best, where she has been, it could negatively impact their confidence or negatively impact the way that they think of themselves, to their society and their people and their fellow Indians, and they may, and this constant structure and following up and enforcing the stereotypes, is what we want to try to get away from because even though they may seem positive, sometimes they can be seen in a negative way and we need to keep
8:57
in mind.
9:00
Randy and Jack Do you want to add to that.
9:04
Yeah, I definitely agree. I think even though these are seeing, so-called positive stereotypes they can also be interpreted negatively to, especially my chronic use example if you’re bad at math, in your Indian Everyone thinks you’re good, but you might be really good at English. Like I remember sitting last year in my English class. And there were three boys in our class and the rest of the girls, and it was just like the stereotypes were just enforced like because I’m sure so many other boys would love to have them sitting there in this advanced English class, but just because the society they just weren’t, they were in advanced math and advanced chemistry class,
9:50
you know, actually, at any one of you personally. If you feel uncomfortable share hear anyone use one of those ratios or social stereotypes against you.
10:01
Yeah. I played basketball for 13 years, from Hong Kong and everyone is super tall or was American. So when I went to America for college I was treated like super short. And so immediately I was like okay my basketball career is over, it’s done. There’s no way you know I can even get past these like really tall people. And I’ve had people say to me oh no, like, you know it’s okay like it could be an advantage to be quick, and stuff like that but I’m not that fast anyway so that’s like an example of how I felt. The stereotypes and sort of social stigma have pressured me into giving up something I really enjoy. So instead of, assuming it competitively I just do it as a hobby.
10:47
So sad. Sorry about that, less likely even sell in a positive way you know how it impacts you negatively and, You know, an injustice that’s already out there.
11:08
It’s more socially related like nice examples where I love to do or it’s across and those kinds of things and I’d love to do it for like most of my life I didn’t work on me as a child and then like drawing and stuff. Whenever given an option to do an elective in middle school or high school, I was almost socially driven out to not do it because many times guys are not seeing take upon activities such as arts and crafts, they’re seen as more corporate quote girly activities, and shouldn’t be the case and I feel like it for vice versa for activities as well as something that I still enjoy doing, but my interest in it has lingered because I haven’t had the opportunity to do it as much. And I feel like those kinds of negative reinforcements. Totally. And for gender roles should also not be should not continue on
12:12
to how do we stop it from continuing?
12:15
You have to think of these kinds of situations is an open mind. Think of each person as an individual person, and it’s very difficult because many people make it. First impressions based on lugs, based on gender, race, height, and these are some of the first things that you have to know about a person. But you have to remind yourself that each person is their own unique self, and each person can have their own interests, their own lives, and enjoyments and just keep an open mind.
12:49
I definitely agree, as I’m an athlete, I’m almost six feet and people will walk up to me whenever we’re in sports gear and just be like, do you play volleyball or just ask, and when I say no, they’re like do you play basketball and it’s like no, I actually swim and play field hockey, like, just because I’m tossing I can only play those two stores, and they also think, an important thing about bringing that change is just awareness which is why panels like these are so great, and companies like data ethics are also really good because you have to be aware of the things and want to just stop.
13:22
Exactly, exactly. This is a first step right and then education so this is really great that you guys are coming here and talking to us about it like we are hearing directly from the youth, so that we know what you guys have going on like to move on to the next question which, which was also selected by ironic here. Have you ever had anyone make assumptions about you and how does that make you feel? So I think we are almost obsolete but, let me give you a few assumptions that the elderly, I will not say the elderly, but like all the adults here as an elderly so the older adults make against the teenagers. So one thing is, You wouldn’t last a day without your phone. Instead, one that you may suffer. And the other one is when I was your age and that when I was your age is like, it will have the rest of the sentence continuous subjects. And then these can do and write anymore. What is alone. BMI. Have you guys heard up all these assumptions made about you and what do you have to say about that can go?
14:41
Okay. I definitely heard of, you know my face the glitz industry. My parents definitely yell at me. Put your phone away and all that stuff. And I, I wouldn’t say I’m addicted to my phone, but I would say I’m pretty attached to it. And I think after going through classes with cybersecurity and learning about data breaches and all that security things I’ve definitely deleted a lot of social media apps on my phone, which reduces my screen time. And I think that. And also, like when I was your age, yeah I would be playing outside and all these things, but I guess just like a different time because when I was asking about how much time I spent on my computer as well. And most of thinking about what I’m learning from the internet and building upon my skills meetings I’ve been coming to realize and if I don’t educate myself on anything new technology and tools I would be missing out. So it’s a way to know to be in a loop, remain a competitive applicant, and just be like the lifelong learner. So I guess it’s just like a different type of learning. And we just value different things in society as well. To change the
15:58
the way we do that, sorry, especially the comment about when I was your age, I heard a lot from migraines as long as they heard it from their parents. I think that’s more of a generational thing, and each generation has to learn from the one that follows, and from the one that they report, especially ours obviously we have things to learn from the British version for us. and as stated before deduction for them. But that doesn’t mean that one way is right and the other way is wrong. And going back to the phone screen point. This I under these circumstances we happen to be using electronics because we would have this conference without the electronics and phone. But I do agree that many of us do seem to be attached to our phones. It’s because the world has become more itself around the world of technology, with all the advancements in artificial intelligence of phones gaming console is everything PDS and just the way that people go about life even zoom school classes. All these have changed in the past in very recent years in the past 20 years or so. And that’s maybe a catalyst for the section with technology, especially.
17:35
I definitely agree with both of your guys’ points. I feel especially right now with Corona, very attached to my phone, mainly because now it’s just the only way that I can talk to my friends. I just like the one connection to the outside world. So with Corona just continuing on, just, it really becomes our one bridge, the outside world, because we’re not going to school anymore and we’re not talking to our friends in classes or at lunch, or just sitting in front of a computer, and then we just like, Get up and walk to the kitchen, and that’s it so the phones are really the only way to interact with people our own age and outside of our family’s space, which makes us very more reliant on them, we haven’t asked. That’s really true,
18:17
I do agree with you that during the span of the CONUS because of our only connection to the outside world so I, I do agree with that and I do think that assumption that others have made about you guys is not really true. It’s not like you can’t live without your phones or that you’re so attached to a force and not to other human beings, actually. So, I do. I really have to take responsibility for that because we do make God make. And the next, next. Part of that is, there are some assumptions you guys are made about us. So I’m gonna bring that out. So one of them is you can teach an old dog new tricks for that people are too sensitive. So like, what do you have to say about these assumptions that you guys are made. I will ask my client.
19:18
I can see a little bit on this point. So for teaching a dog new tricks. I feel like anyone can learn personally and I feel like, truly, you’ve learned throughout your life. And no one person has ever done learning. Um, sometimes it may take more time than others, especially with like grandparents. Now, because they didn’t have the iPhone and the newest Samsung phone when they were growing up. So, in order for them to pick up on learning how to use these tools, but obviously it’s very doable for us. I mean, I mean unless they don’t want to learn it, then that’s just something else but. Yeah, I think that truly anyone can learn throughout their lifetime.
20:11
No one’s ever done. I never made that assumption, right,
20:19
obviously, because I taught my parents to try to use like my mom got Instagram like a couple of months ago, and she tried to ask me to help her, use it, and obviously, it was a little frustrating but we got through it, and at times I felt like maybe kind of assumption if that makes sense. At times I felt like in my future, but in the end, we got there, so I
20:51
like that phrase finds its basis meaning, I feel like there’s a communication gap in between just like my parents and me, just because I’ve grown up with technology I know how to use it. And so when I try to show my parents how to use it. They just don’t exactly understand, and so it’s just like upgrades can come on certain days when the person teaching it is just running out of patience, it’s just like, Why don’t you understand that because we’ve just been raised around this, so we know. And so I can certainly find myself on Sundays just being like, having to explain something before being like, Why don’t you understand this, but you just have to just like catch yourself and just go back and just like, just remember they didn’t grow up around this and you have to change them. Have patience. Yeah, I totally agree with that. I remember one time my mom was asking me how to sync her iPhone, sorry not iPhone users and I was like What do you mean just sync it like you just do it. No, I can’t find it’s not working all that thing. And she didn’t even plug in her phone here just the following. But then now as I grew older, I, when I’m thinking about how I teach my grandparents, how to use Skype to communicate. I sort of meet them in the middle so instead of thinking like oh you type it like this and then like that, I feel like, Oh, you have to send this emoji whenever you’re free or like send us Moji whenever you’re, like, not free, and having those sort of shortcuts and meeting them in the middle, I think really helps because sometimes it’d be too much of a stretch like I’ll ask my grandma to do like machine learning algorithms and all those things. And so, definitely, just understanding where they’re coming from their skills and experience and being empathetic towards them I think is really important for next steps. Yes,
22:43
it’s very true right and I think both sides have to make that change right why you guys have to also understand that we didn’t grow up with all of this technology that you guys, that by the time we’re born us are already part of life. And by that money became our part of our life, it was much more
23:03
important. So,
23:05
It’s not very easy for us to easily, you know, get used to them. So, and I do think we had us make a lot of assumptions about you guys that are wrong so one such assumption is, which I have about, as the social media influencers like that I see on Instagram, on Twitter, they have like millions of followers and. And I used to go on the sites and then try to follow them and see what insights, they can give, and then you find out like this just pushing some products and fodders some t-shirt or some brand new sneaker shoe or something. So, what do you think about the social influences DNA social influences, new the new thing that really adds a new value to society.
23:59
Yeah, I think there are two types of influencers from, from what I see on my, my social media accounts. One is, they’re very attractive people, and people follow them because they’re attractive and they wrote stuff, which is more aligned with what you said. And then there are other influencers who are sharing your story, and sort of inspiring people like them, that they can never achieve anything. For example, when I was growing up, I didn’t really have any clear representation in the media. And so, when I started to use social media and find these queer people, influencers, I started to feel more comfortable with myself, such as myself now, made a really big role in, in my, in my story. And so I think. And now there’s a lot of influences we’re talking about accessibility. It really pushing for really good causes, so they’re definitely good influencers and definitely influences that contribute that much. Yeah, that’s my two cents on it,
25:03
too. What about you, Mary.
25:05
Um Well for me I definitely agree, I feel like there are some, you just have to find the right people that you want to follow that have the same interest as you. And sure, sometimes you accidentally follow the wrong person, you just have to recover, but also just following some of the larger platforms, school and then you talk about just what this person posted and it’s just something tired.
25:43
Yeah, I agree with both of your points as well and. Similarly, similarly, I see that emerging especially in YouTube videos where, as my high school, my high school. There’s a specific YouTube channel that we always like a lot of us always watch, and we talk to each other upon it, and we enjoy watching it. Sometimes like we’re hanging out that we just like watch it together. And like Maddy said you can pick and choose your influences because everyone has a voice and everyone has some sort of influence, and everyone has some sort of audience, and it’s up to you to find which one fits you best and which one you would like to be a part of
26:26
that is true I agree with your life I have to pick and choose your influencers, but then sometimes as Manny says like the new I mean your friend group kind of takes over when everybody is like following one person, you naturally want to follow that person as well and that’s sort of a no purpose race in the group. Thank you, and for that like we all become that don’t have this diversity. But I do agree with you, we have to pick and choose for my father. But in my honest opinion I would, I would rather choose to follow someone, not just that, like I do see your point like some influencers are posting about their cancer survival stories and how they have come through on that like, those are like really amazing things to follow, because then if you are a teenager and if you are also going through something like that, as somebody that has gone before. But then, most of them. I haven’t seen much value and the kind of people that I would actually like to follow or like the people that are understood, like you guys. All of you have done so many social impact projects on your wall. Nobody told you to do it. Nobody said you know you have to do it to get a grade to do this for credit, you just start on your own volition, all of these initiatives. So I would like to give a few minutes to each of you to talk about them. So just start with Jack.
27:59
I again. I’m Jack. I’m the president of Youth Council. And what I’ve been doing is a bunch of research projects at my university, and my latest one is studying COVID Project tracing and what people think about the different methods. And this was a survey sent worldwide, and I studied what corresponds to how they felt about their privacy and security with these tabs, and also other methods such as using credit cards are
28:40
really important. And it sets a precedent for all future. Future surveillance in academic-related things. So yeah, that’s something we’re excited about. And yeah, thanks. Maddie. So I’m on the data ethics for all youth council and I’m in the process of getting their Instagram page, running, and so it’s just really just us to spread awareness about the virus and artificial intelligence. And I’m really excited to have this opportunity and just hope. I’m also in charge of the platform for Toys for shelter animals, and that really is just recruiting people in my high school to come and join our club to make toys for animals and shelters, and we do this with materials. Ironic.
29:40
Hi, I’m the vice president of the Ethics Council
29:46
on Remembrance.
29:48
And I’m also the district president for Future Business Leaders of America, it’s a business club that is dedicated to building business leaders as it used to lead the upcoming generation. Technological movement, and currently I’m in charge of coaching and working for over 30 high schools at the school level for FBLA to teach them to compete and be able to effectively produce their competition. And this has been a wonderful opportunity with both data, Ethics Council, and data, data ethics, as well as future business leaders of America, because, As many people know, business is, and has a place in almost every single idea in every single field, and I feel like it’s a very important topic to get into getting interested in, especially to become a business leader of the future.
30:54
I think we have some audience questions, Shilpi Do you have them.
31:01
One of the questions is
31:05
asking what, any thoughts that
31:07
we have on the pressure. Do you feel like there’s a lot of peer pressure, I mean obviously you know your peer pressure is
31:25
pretty, pretty present, especially in high school. In high school, seems to be more towards the people who are what
31:45
give us one second,
31:47
Sir, very painful to hear, because sometimes people want to feel a part of a community, and science activity. If you’re confident with yourself, and generally. That should be the goal
32:22
to strive for.
32:26
I think one other question was about factorization, that somebody
32:39
had experienced.
32:50
What do you what is your take on?
32:57
I am such a huge fan, I’m such a huge fan of the fans, my own experiences, I will stand with myself and be like, No, this is my experience and being open-minded know.
34:01
Let us say, your insights and we now have a glimpse into your world. And thank you for doing that. Thank you.
