The concept of quantum anti-racism draws the following parallels between critical race theory as a practice that impacts and is impacted by microcosmic and macrocosmic forces and the ways in which a quantum computer depends upon the alignment of many qubits to produce a given outcome. Let’s say the stated goal of anti-racist work is a world where everyone has access to quality food, clothes, shelter, housing, mental health support, medical care, physical safety, and emotional wellbeing. Scholars of critical race theory, from which anti-racism work draws heavily, have identified this goal as one that requires the education of individuals who, when working together, compose our established institutions and systems in support of a liberated world. In order to understand how the development of an anti-racist, critical race framework — or an anti-racist worldview — might be supported by this metaphor, let’s begin with a broad description of a quantum computer and some of the more important concepts to quantum computing.

Quantum computing has become one of the next areas of high interest from such major technology companies as Google and IBM. Quantum computers are claimed to operate at 100 million times the speed of today’s binary supercomputers (Singh, 2015). Quantum computers execute algorithmic computations more quickly because they operate on qubits, or bits that can exist as 1s, 0s, simultaneously as 1s and 0s, or even more states depending on the computer’s design. This state of simultaneity is known as quantum superposition. Quantum computers operate on the basis of multiple qubits working together, so it takes more than one qubit to form a quantum computer. For every possible state a qubit can hold, quantum computer scientists assign it a measurable amplitude, which can be roughly translated into the likelihood of a qubit to exist in one particular state or another (see Figure 2). Quantum computers work by coordinating these waves of amplitudes among a series of qubits in order to produce a certain outcome. This coordinated wave is known as a probability string because it strings along a series of qubits to produce a probable outcome. A probability string is simply a series of bits or qubits in a coded sequence. Figure 3 illustrates the difference between a classic 3-bit probability string and a quantum 3-qubit probability string. In the space of quantum computing, classic probability strings are referred to as local, whereas quantum probability strings are referred to as global (Dumon, 2019).

In quantum computers, the amplitudes of different qubits can interfere with each other. So, if something can happen positively in one qubit and negatively in another, those qubits can cancel each other out. For quantum computers to work properly, they have to exploit the interference between qubits in such a way as to get the paths corresponding to a given outcome to interfere with each other, as seen in Figure 4 (“Quantum Computing”, 2017). At the same time, the computer needs to do something to boost the amplitudes of the qubits that align with the desired outcome (Zickert, 2021). Importantly, interference, or the prevention of a given outcome, can occur in a quantum computer as a result of decoherence, or unwanted interaction between a quantum computer and its external environment (Hidary, 2019). Quantum computer scientists have shown that you don’t actually need to eliminate decoherence in order for a quantum computer to function properly, you simply have to reduce decoherence enough such that the loss of certain qubits to decoherence would not destabilize the rest of the qubits. These decohered qubits are called noisy qubits (“Quantum Computing”, 2017). In order to minimize the impact of noisy qubits, quantum computers require constant measurement and analysis - also known as error correction - of the computer to see if an error has occurred and to do so in parallel across all of the qubits (see Figure 5) (Trabesinger, 2017). The point is that even with noisy qubits, it’s still possible to do an incredibly complex quantum computing problem.

So, what does this have to do with the work of anti-racism and critical race theory? Well, nothing until the parallels between the ways we imagine building a more just world are made explicit in connection to the functioning of a quantum computer. Let’s analyze this metaphor using the goal of anti-racism, stated above, as the quantum computing problem at hand, i.e., how can we build a more just and liberated world for all, including this planet we call home? In order to collectively compute this problem we must each operate with the understanding that we are more like qubits than bits. We are human beings capable of existing between the ends of many spectra, capable of doing harm and contributing positively to our surroundings at any given time. In the case of binary computers, this spectrum is between 1 and 0, but in the case of humans this spectrum may be between racist or anti-racist.

Those with less developed and less critical understandings of racism think racism primarily occurs at the person-to-person level, that people either are racist (e.g., Proud Boys) or aren’t racist (e.g. everyone else). The truth of the matter is that racism can either unfold as a result of purposeful action (such as in the case of a Proud Boy or Klan member) or through inaction (such as through claims made by individuals that racism “isn’t my problem”). Anti-racism, in contrast, is something someone actively does in opposition to racism in policy and practice (Kendi, 2019). Therefore, one can exist as racist (1), anti-racist (0), or, more importantly, someone conscious of their existence as a dynamic human being (qubit) aware of the possibility that they may exist between 0 and 1 at any given time (see Figure 6). As people, at any moment, our quantum superposition then becomes the state in which we exist knowing that we are capable of perpetuating systemic forms of violence, disrupting and dismantling the systems that perpetuate systemic forms of violence, or, more likely, often doing both at the same time.

Quantum superposition also refers to the important recognition in critical race theory that we each experience reality differently, yet in valid ways (Delgado et. al, 2017). For example--at the time of its founding, the United States espoused the underlying claim of “liberty and justice for all” if you were an able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual man racialized as white. This was seen as radical by many because it was a more open and less oppressive ideology than the colonial powers--where simply being an able-bodied, cisgender, heterosexual man of any ethnicity was not enough to merit “liberty and justice”--one also needed titles, for example. At the same time it espoused this paradigm, the United States allowed and encouraged oppressive norms for people who were not considered part of “all”--for example women, people of color, the disabled, and religious minorities (Dunbar-Ortiz 2014, Kendi 2016, Ortiz 2018, Zinn 2015). These realities are true at the same time, and the notion that two opposing truths can exist at the same time fits into this function of the CRQC. The amplitude of our qubit is then the degree to which we are either more capable of contributing to the unequal and systemically violent status quo or disrupting and dismantling that status quo. Our individual amplitude can be anticipated by the strength of our individual critical frameworks, which themselves are also ever-evolving, changing, and in flux. In a dynamic world where things are constantly changing, we have to continue working to correct ourselves.

When we as anti-racist human qubits work in alignment with each other, organized toward a shared goal, we set up the conditions for a probability string of social justice to unfold. As mentioned earlier, a classic computer’s probability string can be referred to as local whereas a quantum probability string is referred to as global. The notion of fractals (maree brown, 2017), which suggests the work of liberation must begin with ourselves and our immediate communities, spreading out through our proximal social networks and throughout society from there, could be considered the social justice analog to a quantum probability string. Without each other, we do not make a movement, and without other qubits there is no CRQC. At the moment, the factory-like nature of much of society’s systems serves to dehumanize and separate people from one another. Though we have the potential to recognize our qubit-like, multitudinous nature, we often operate like factory workers, thinking linearly or in binary and simplistic ways. One might call this state of myopia ‘local.’ The image of a series of people who recognize our qubit-like nature working within the framework of critical race theory in community and collaboration with one another, in full recognition of each of our social locations and imperfections, aware of the ripple effect our actions can have, might be referred to as ‘global’ (see Figure 7).

Of course, those without anti-racist critical frameworks produce an amplitude that interferes with the broader goal of anti-racist work (see Figure 8). The work of the conservative right and the moderate middle often run in opposition to the work of progressive, activist communities. They interfere or, in the case of the moderate middle, actively interfere sometimes and passively interfere at others. In 1963, none other than Martin Luther King, Jr. (2017), in his “Letter from a Birmingham Jail” named the moderate white middle as perhaps the most dangerous contingent in the US for its surreptitious ability to appear progressive while simultaneously advocating for change to be made “at a better time” when there’s greater political alignment. If the human anti-racist quantum computer consists of all humans as qubits, then the metaphorical critical race quantum computer itself won’t work until a critical mass of anti-racist qubit-like humans exists. More people need to develop their anti-racist critical frameworks in order for the collective probability string to produce an anti-racist — and generally anti-oppressive — society.