[Intro]

The server room is one floor down,
Behind a door without a sign.
Old decisions sleep in rows,
Timestamped, approved and classified.

[Heavy Verse]

Aisha opens twenty-nineteen,
A year the model knows too well.
The green approvals cluster north.
The red refusals form a belt.

Same income, same account age,
Different postcode, different score.
A manager's initials repeat
Beside the automated door.

The Bias Dashboard turns from blue
To amber, orange, red.
The system has not learned intent.
It learned what people did instead.

[Dark Chorus]

There is bias in the basement,
Under every polished floor.
Old decisions keep deciding
Long after they are called no more.
When yesterday becomes the teacher,
Every old mistake keeps score.

[Verse]

The rejected cases lack appeals.
The approved cases carry notes.
One group received a second call.
One group received a code.

The labels say "high risk customer."
No definition can be found.
A human judgement entered once
Now travels silently around.

Victor studies the dashboard
And asks if red can mean "review."
Aisha says, "Changing the colour
Does not change what the numbers do."

[Dark Chorus]

There is bias in the basement,
Under every polished floor.
Old decisions keep deciding
Long after they are called no more.
When yesterday becomes the teacher,
Every old mistake keeps score.

[Bass Interlude]

[Bridge]

[Employee Voices]
We followed the process. We met the monthly target.

[Aisha]
A process is not neutral because it has a field.
Show which human habit became the model's circumstance.

[Build-up]

The four-note motif drops below
The range where Victor hears.

Aisha moves it up an octave.

Now it cannot disappear.

[Final Chorus]

There is bias in the basement,
And it reaches every floor.
There is bias in the basement,
Not an edge case or a flaw.
If yesterday remains the teacher,
We must challenge what it taught.

[Outro]

Aisha prints the red report
And places it inside her book.

The basement lights turn off.

The dashboard does not.
