Quiz — Chapter 36: Racial Surveillance and the Discriminatory Gaze
Questions vary by type. Point values are noted where applicable. Total: 100 points.
Part A: Multiple Choice (3 points each)
1. Simone Browne's concept of "racializing surveillance" refers to:
a) The practice of recording race as a demographic variable in surveillance databases b) Processes by which surveillance reifies and enforces racial boundaries c) The disproportionate number of people of color employed in the surveillance industry d) The tendency of surveillance systems to over-represent minority populations in training data
2. New York City's 1713 Lantern Laws required:
a) All residents to carry lanterns after dark as a public safety measure b) Enslaved Black, mixed-race, and Indigenous people to carry lanterns when unaccompanied by a white person c) Free Black residents to register with city authorities by displaying a lantern outside their homes d) Tavern owners to keep lanterns lit as a signal that enslaved people were not permitted inside
3. The 2013 federal court decision in Floyd v. City of New York found that the NYPD's stop-and-frisk program:
a) Was constitutional but statistically imprecise in its application b) Had been effective at reducing crime but should be modified to reduce disparate impact c) Had been conducted in a racially discriminatory manner that violated the Fourth and Fourteenth Amendments d) Was an appropriate exercise of police authority that required no modification
4. The primary methodological flaw identified in predictive policing systems like PredPol is:
a) They rely on unreliable witness testimony rather than objective data b) They are trained on arrest data, which reflects historical policing patterns rather than actual crime distribution c) They process geographic data too slowly to be useful for real-time deployment decisions d) They cannot account for socioeconomic variables that predict criminal behavior
5. The Gender Shades study, conducted by Joy Buolamwini and Timnit Gebru, found that commercial facial recognition systems:
a) Performed with equal accuracy across all demographic groups studied b) Performed better for women than men across all demographic groups c) Misclassified darker-skinned women at rates dramatically higher than lighter-skinned men d) Had higher false-negative rates for Black men than for white men
6. The NYPD Demographics Unit, which conducted covert surveillance of Muslim communities, was found to have:
a) Generated several significant terrorism-related leads over its decade of operation b) Produced no criminal leads despite years of operation targeting Muslim communities c) Operated legally under FISA court authorization throughout its existence d) Been created at the explicit direction of the federal Department of Homeland Security
7. Kimberlé Crenshaw's concept of intersectionality holds that:
a) Race is the primary axis of oppression from which all other inequalities derive b) Social categories like race, class, and gender operate independently and additively c) Social categories are mutually constitutive and produce distinct experiences at their intersections d) Legal systems should address racial discrimination and gender discrimination through separate frameworks
8. Robert Williams's 2019 arrest in Farmington Hills, Michigan is significant because:
a) It was the first documented case of a Black man being arrested for possession of a facial recognition device b) It was the first documented wrongful arrest in the United States caused by facial recognition technology c) It led directly to the first federal legislation regulating law enforcement use of facial recognition d) It demonstrated that facial recognition worked correctly but was misapplied by individual officers
Part B: True/False with Justification (4 points each — 1 point for T/F, 3 points for justification)
9. True or False: Predictive policing algorithms are racially neutral because they make decisions based on geographic data rather than individual race.
Briefly justify your answer (2–3 sentences).
10. True or False: The slave pass system and modern identification requirements share a structural logic of requiring certain people to prove their authorization to be in a given space.
Briefly justify your answer (2–3 sentences).
11. True or False: Improving the accuracy of facial recognition algorithms for darker-skinned faces would resolve the primary civil liberties concerns about law enforcement use of the technology.
Briefly justify your answer (2–3 sentences).
12. True or False: The National Institute of Standards and Technology (NIST) found that most commercially available facial recognition algorithms had similar false-positive rates across all racial groups.
Briefly justify your answer (2–3 sentences).
Part C: Short Answer (8 points each)
13. Explain what the chapter means by the "feedback loop" in predictive policing. How does this loop interact with existing racial disparities in policing? Your answer should be 150–200 words.
14. The chapter describes Yara as experiencing surveillance through "uncertainty rather than confirmed knowledge." What does this mean, and why is that uncertainty itself a form of surveillance power? Use at least one concept from the book's recurring themes in your answer. Your answer should be 150–200 words.
15. What is "disparate impact analysis," and why is the chapter's argument that it is "necessary but not sufficient" for evaluating surveillance systems? Your answer should be 150–200 words.
Part D: Extended Response (choose one, 14 points)
16. Omi and Winant's racial formation theory holds that race is not a fixed biological reality but a social category continually remade through political and cultural processes. Using this framework, analyze how predictive policing algorithms participate in racial formation. Your analysis should address: How does the algorithm produce racial categories? How does it enforce them? How does it make them appear natural or objective? (300–400 words)
OR
17. The chapter presents two broad responses to racially biased surveillance: reform and abolition. Drawing on the evidence presented in this chapter, construct the strongest version of each argument. Then explain which you find more persuasive, and why. Your answer should engage seriously with the position you ultimately reject, rather than dismissing it. (300–400 words)
Answer Key and Rubric available in the Instructor Resources.