"The algorithm is the improved whip”: (re)designing racial capitalism in the digital age

Abstract

This article aims to analyze the experiences and perceptions of racism among delivery couriers in the Federal District in Brazil during Covid-19. We here attempt to understand how racialization practices that are established in digital labor from the analysis of statistical data and semi-structured interviews with delivery couriers. The literature has commented on the effects of the platformization process on the world of work, demonstrating the homogeneous profile of delivery couriers, consisting of black men who work longer hours and receive lower pay compared to white people. However, little attention is paid to the centrality of race in understanding the relations of power and resistance around the delivery platforms’ system of control, which is riddled with customer racism. In this sense, the article shows that the structure of racism is built into the algorithmic mechanisms of monopolistic big tech companies to exploit and oppress black people who have had a precarious insertion into this work.