To the AWM leadership,

We are outraged at the AWM’s response to the justifiable criticism and anger from the mathematics community with regards to the announcement of Andrea Bertozzi as the winner of the 2021 AWM-AMS Emmy Noether Lecture.

Although the Noether lecture at JMM was cancelled, the statement released by the AWM suggests that the only problem with their decision was "the timing," which not only misses the point, but is deeply insulting and dismisses the real concerns at the heart of the Black Lives Matter movement. In particular, it suggests that (1) AWM continues to support predictive policing and (2) the AWM thinks that the recent outrage is temporary and that people will get over it with time. The problem with predictive policing is not that it might be temporarily upsetting to people who are grieving, but that it perpetuates, reinforces, and legitimizes a racist system that is actively killing Black people. Additionally, the AWM has not made it clear that the award associated with the lecture, the $500 prize, honorary plaque, and featured article, have also been rescinded.

The weaponization of mathematics, such as predictive policing, against Black people is being thoroughly studied in the growing and active field of (algorithmic) fairness in machine learning. It is well-established by fairness experts that race-blind algorithms are biased. Moritz Hardt, a computer scientist and fairness expert at UC Berkeley, says that “There is no such thing as fairness through unawareness” (https://simons.berkeley.edu/news/algorithms-discrimination). This means race-blind algorithms are racist and anti-Black. Until we completely understand how to mitigate biases--biases that with 100% certainty exist in the data, the analysis of the data, and hence the resulting models--it is extremely dangerous to use these models against people, especially Black people. Unfortunately, experts in fairness do not know how to practically counteract these biases, including racism and anti-Blackness. It is very likely the case that there can never be a "fair" policing algorithm. In fact, Kristian Lum, an expert on fairness and predictive policing, said, "Sometimes the best solution is to abandon the quantitative or technical approach" (https://psmag.com/social-justice/justice-by-the-numbers-meet-the-statistician-trying-to-fix-bias-in-criminal-justice-algorithms).

Joy Buolamwini, a leading expert in algorithmic fairness, computer scientist and Founder of the Algorithmic Justice League, writes, “Because algorithms can have real world consequences, we must demand fairness" and "Mitigating bias is not just a technical challenge. How and when machine learning should be used is a matter of ongoing discussion” (https://medium.com/mit-media-lab/the-algorithmic-justice-league-3cc4131c5148).

When statisticians Kristian Lum and William Isaac applied Bertozzi and Brantingham’s algorithm to publicly available drug use data (https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1740-9713.2016.00960.x), “the algorithm instructed police to almost exclusively target poor, minority neighborhoods, even though public-health data suggested drug use was spread more evenly across the city” (https://psmag.com/social-justice/justice-by-the-numbers-meet-the-statistician-trying-to-fix-bias-in-criminal-justice-algorithms). In light of these facts, Andrea Bertozzi’s ongoing work in predictive policing and her profiteering from predictive policing are indefensible.

Predictive policing is extremely dangerous. The AWM’s silence and unwillingness to condemn predictive policing are even more dangerous. If we, mathematicians and machine learners with PhDs, do not speak out against predictive policing and other dangerous algorithms, non-experts of math will incorrectly assume these algorithmic tools are unbiased and weaponize them against people since “math is objective.” The AWM and the mathematics community must condemn both the use and promotion of algorithms in settings like predictive policing. To stay silent is to be complicit in the violence against and the murders of Black and Brown people.

We call on the AWM to explicitly condemn predictive policing and other weaponizations of mathematics and data science that perpetuate, reinforce, and legitimize racism and in particular, anti-Black racism. We call on the AWM to make strong and concrete commitments to anti-racism which include actively fighting racism in AWM, holding other mathematics institutions accountable, and commitments to better support Black women mathematicians and Black mathematicians of minority genders.

AS AWM CHAPTER LEADERS, WE URGE AND DEMAND THAT THE AWM LEADERSHIP DO THE FOLLOWING:

1) Publicly condemn predictive policing research and profiting off of predictive policing.

2) Explicitly state that all aspects of the Emmy Noether award, including the $500 prize, honorary plaque, and featured article in the AWM Newsletter will not be given to Andrea Bertozzi.

3) Commit to boycotting collaboration with police, by promoting and signing the Letter to the AMS notices (https://docs.google.com/forms/d/e/1FAIpQLSfdmQGrgdCBCexTrpne7KXUzpbiI9LeEtd0Am-qRFimpwuv1A/viewform).

4) Actively practice Bystander Intervention at the institutional level in collaboration with organizations such as NAM and the Algorithmic Justice League. In particular, call out ICERM for holding a predictive policing workshop led by Andrea Bertozzi in collaboration with Providence Police!

5) Promote the work of Black women mathematicians and Black mathematicians of minority genders who study fairness and accountability of social algorithms, such as Rediet Abebe, Timnit Gebru, and Joy Buolamwini.

6) Acknowledge that predominantly white women spaces perpetuate racism, and commit to changing this racist environment. In particular, the AWM leadership should actively seek to have Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC) in leadership positions.
 
7) Encourage and demand that mathematics departments acknowledge that Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) service is disproportionately carried out by Black women mathematicians, BIPoC women mathematicians and BIPoC mathematicians of minority genders. Demand that this service burden and the resulting psychological toll be recognized when it comes to hiring and tenure decisions.

The AWM said they stand in solidarity with our Black colleagues and the Black community. This means committing to actively fighting racism and anti-Blackness. This includes holding members of the mathematics community as well as other mathematical institutions accountable for their racism and anti-Blackness. The AWM’s silence is complicity. Complicity is oppression. Stand up for your Black colleagues and the Black community. Stand up for your Black, Indigenous, and People of Color (BIPoC) colleagues.

Don’t just preach anti-racism. Do Anti-Racism.

Black Lives Matter.



To add your name to this petition, answer the questions below.  We encourage you to also share this with others in your department.  We will send the letter and list of signatories to AWM on Thursday, July 2nd.