Image filters and racial standardization

reflections on algorithmic racism, augmented reality, and English language teaching

Authors

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.46230/lef.v17i3.16068

Keywords:

image filters, artificial intelligence, augmented reality, algorithmic racism

Abstract

The use of image filters, enhanced by artificial intelligence (AI) technologies, has become a common practice on social media. Built with Augmented Reality (AR) technologies, these filters overlay digital elements onto the physical world in real time (Peddie, 2017) and, while entertaining, reinforce exclusionary aesthetic standards (Noble, 2018). By favoring whitened features, such tools can negatively impact the self-esteem of Black individuals, producing forms of algorithmic racism (Silva, 2020). Motivated by the frequent use of these technologies by Black students, this article seeks to understand how a decolonial education (Canagarajah, 1999; Josiowicz et al., 2025; Landulfo; Matos, 2022) can contribute to the deconstruction of racist stereotypes reproduced by digital tools. To this end, we developed an autoethnographic essay (Chang, 2008; Adams; Jones; Ellis, 2015; Silva, 2022), with a qualitative and descriptive approach (Paiva, 2019), dialoguing with our pedagogical and digital experiences. The didactic sequence constructed fostered a debate on racial identity and image, revealing that Black students feel either made invisible or altered by filters that do not recognize their features. We also identified that the critical use of the English language, combined with sensitive listening and the analysis of visual codes, fosters the reframing of these experiences. We conclude that it is through dialogue, representativity, and critical inquiry that decolonial education can transform the English language classroom into a space of resistance, belonging, and identity reconstruction (Pinheiro, 2023).

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Author Biographies

Inês Cortes da Silva, Sergipe Federal University

Inês Cortes da Silva is a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Education at the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), Brazil, where she also earned her Master’s degree in Education. She currently works as a high school English teacher in the public education system of Sergipe and is a member of the TECLA research group (Technologies, Education, and Applied Linguistics) at UFS.

Giulia Pereira Santos, Universidade Estadual de Feira de Santana (UEFS)

Graduated in Portuguese-English Language and Literature from the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS – 2020), she holds a Master’s degree in Education with a CAPES scholarship (UFS – 2022) and is currently a Ph.D. candidate in the Graduate Program in Education (PPGED-UFS), within the research line Technologies, Languages, and Education. She also completed a sandwich doctoral program at Virginia Commonwealth University (VCU), in the United States, supported by a CAPES scholarship. She is currently a tenured Assistant Professor at the State University of Feira de Santana (UEFS), in the Department of Letters and Arts. Her academic background is in Language and Literature, with emphasis on multiliteracies, applied linguistics, English language teaching, and technologies. She is a member of the research group TECLA: Technologies, Education, and Applied Linguistics (UFS/CNPq), as well as a collaborator in the research project Núcleo de Línguas do Idiomas sem Fronteiras na UEFS: Institutional Language Policies and the Construction of Plurilingual Spaces.

Jayne dos Santos Oliveira, Sergipe Federal University

English language teacher, graduated in Portuguese-English Language and Literature from the Federal University of Sergipe (UFS), and holds a Master's degree in Education from the Graduate Program in Education (PPGED-UFS). She is currently a member of the research group TECLA: Technologies, Education, and Applied Linguistics (UFS/CNPq) and works in the private education sector.

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Published

2025-12-10

How to Cite

SILVA, I. C. da; SANTOS, G. P.; OLIVEIRA, J. dos S. Image filters and racial standardization: reflections on algorithmic racism, augmented reality, and English language teaching. Linguagem em Foco Scientific Journal, Fortaleza, v. 17, n. 3, p. 146–167, 2025. DOI: 10.46230/lef.v17i3.16068. Disponível em: https://revistas.uece.br/index.php/linguagememfoco/article/view/16068. Acesso em: 27 jan. 2026.