The point of this essay is to encourage a critical approach to the relationship between race and data. It points to three questions that anyone working with data should ask if they are going to be collecting and using data about race. § If we are not careful, data can divide and sort us in exactly the sort of essentialising ways that the colonial idea of race supported. But if researchers ask the right questions, and know their history, we can use data to advocate for racial justice.

Tools like GPT-3 are stunningly good, but they feed on the cesspits of the internet. How can we make them safe for the public to actually use? § Sometimes, to reckon with the effects of biased training data is to realize that the app shouldn't be built. That without human supervision, there is no way to stop the app from saying problematic stuff to its users, and that it's unacceptable to let it do so.