Ken Perlin won the 1997 Academy Award for Technical Achievement. This honor has been given to 61 men, 7 organizations and 0 women.

Of those 61 men, 7 are people of color, only is Black. https://twitter.com/eXodiquas/status/1268453280558075904

Perlin noise was developed at Mathematical Applications Group, Inc., a company that first found it's footing running Monte Carlo simulations to look at radiation exposure after nuclear bomb blasts.

Ken Perlin graduated with a BA in theoretical math from Harvard. As recently as 2017, there were no female faculty. https://www.thecrimson.com/article/2017/10/20/everyday-struggle-women-math/

Ken Perlin's lab at NYU lists 15 members. 11 men, 4 women. 6 people of color, no Black people. https://frl.nyu.edu/frl-members/ 

This is not at all meant to point a finger at Ken Perlin. But to imagine any scenario where a piece of technology (any technology) arises from some kind of apolitical soil - or produces apolitical fruit - is absurd.

Everything that makes up this particular world we've inhabited - the machines, the code, the people, the narratives - came from systems that were seeded and grew and flourished in white supremacy.

This might make you uncomfortable. Which is a good first step.

"only 1 is Black"