“SKETCH FACTOR APP IS RACIST — NOT ON PURPOSE, BUT THAT DOESN’T MAKE IT BETTER”
“if the purpose of the app is meant to be about safety — real safety, not just perceived safety — then you’d think the app would rely on actual crime data, at least a little bit, as opposed to purely anecdotal reports. But no. The app will only tell you what “seemed sketchy” to other people. And if we are to assume that most of these users are young white people with smart phones, then it isn’t long before people’s internalized biases (the kind you are bound to pick up from a culture that has a serious representation problem) start to rear their ugly heads.”
