week 10 revisiting marginality and difference Flashcards
Q: Who is Simone Browne and what is her main argument about surveillance?
A: Simone Browne is a scholar who argues that surveillance is a racializing practice. She sees surveillance as a technology of whiteness that reinforces social divisions and disproportionately targets Black people and other racialized groups.
Q: What does Browne mean by “surveillance as a technology of whiteness”?
A: Surveillance systems draw invisible boundaries in cities that Black people cannot cross but white people don’t even see, reinforcing racial segregation (pg. 72).
Q: How can surveillance reproduce racial bias even when it claims to be neutral?
A: Technologies and policies may not mention race but can still disproportionately harm racialized people, reinforcing structural privilege.
Q: What were the 18th-century “lantern laws”?
A: Laws requiring enslaved people over 14 to carry lanterns at night — an early form of racialized surveillance that enhanced visibility and control.
Q: How are lanterns like surveillance technology?
A: They mediated the environment to make certain people visible, helping separate and control them without storing data — similar to lo-fi surveillance like the short-handled hoe.
Q: What were slave patrols and how do they relate to surveillance?
A: Armed groups of citizens in the U.S. South legally required to monitor and control enslaved people. They acted as early police forces enforcing racial hierarchies and surveillance through strategic control.
Q: What institutional goals did slave patrols serve?
A: They maximized labor control and supported the capitalist system by treating humans as property and extracting surplus value.
Q: How does surveillance relate to political economy and race?
A: Surveillance supports systems of ownership, racism, and capital accumulation, reinforcing racial hierarchies to maintain economic gain.
Q: What does Browne say about the reification of race?
A: Surveillance helps reproduce race as a social construct alongside class, gender, and sexuality, using visibility and risk to sort and control.
Q: What are UAVs and what is a “payload”?
A: UAVs (Unmanned Aerial Vehicles) are drones used for surveillance. A payload is the tech attached to them, like cameras or Dirtboxes (which intercept mobile signals).
Q: Why are UAVs called “force multipliers”?
A: Because they extend the power of existing surveillance tools by adding mobility, aerial views, and wider data collection — often without the subject’s knowledge.
Q: What are the legal concerns with drone surveillance in Canada?
A: Raises privacy concerns due to broad, incidental data collection
May not meet the “reasonable expectation of privacy” threshold
Triggers questions about the need for a warrant under Section 8
Q: How is drone surveillance regulated in Canada?
A: RCMP uses UAVs since 2005
Regulated by Transport Canada (flight paths, safety)
Privacy Act applies to RCMP, but they often claim data is not “personal”
Constitution governs if a warrant is needed
Q: What did the RCMP’s 2013 privacy assessment reveal?
A: They failed to consider how sensitive the info they collected was and didn’t properly assess its implications for privacy.
Q: What is the RCMP’s interpretation of using drones in public spaces?
A: They argue that drones don’t violate privacy because there’s a “diminished expectation of privacy in public”, and claim they don’t collect biographical core info.
