It began as a series of isolated references — the term would appear in a historical article here, a book there. Edward Jones-Imhotep soon began noticing references to “Black androids” everywhere.
They were historically called “automata” — automatic machines that, in this case, replicated the actions of human beings.
![Headshot of Amita Parikh beside the cover of her book "The Circus Train"](https://www.artsci.utoronto.ca/sites/default/files/styles/ne_3btn_widget/public/amita-parikh-book-lead.png?itok=F2cDDs_3 "Headshot of Amita Parikh beside the cover of her book "The Circus Train"")
