Google says sorry over racist Google Maps White House search results. Searches using a racist slur return results pinpointing the White House in Washington DC (UK Guardian).
Here are screen shots which show what one will find with searches using other racially, culturally, or ethnically charged terms.
First "Cheap Jew". This brings up a number of Jewish hospitals and establishments in the United States. Not much in Europe. Surprisingly not Israel, when the ethnic slurs point to people who have a homeland there is rarely a slur posted within that homeland.
"Dumb Pollock" gets a couple of hits interestingly they are related to Oktoberfest. (Wheter I use one l or two).
Next "greasy Italian" gets a number of questionable hits. Most of these point to restaurants.
Then I tried "Illegal Mexican". For this one I found a large number of hits which are not hacks of Google Maps but actual restaurants which use the word illegal in them. This is something which many consider racist or at least culturally appropriative.
Finally the most hacked racial slur on Google Maps "white crackers". The sheer density of such hits means that if even half of them are actual racist labels then white people are, in this case, the most targeted group. In the below many urban areas in the US have so many dots they look like one dot.
Conclusion: This is a sad social commentary on the global culture when racial slurs can infest an information source like Google Maps. This shows that in spite of the fervent hopes and dreams of the educated and politically correct racism still lays beneath the surface. Whenever people can express these dark thoughts with anonymity they will.
The solution for this issue is likely just to ban those phrases from Google Maps. Google already does this with the text recognition in Android.
Comments