Black History Month Racism Rise

To say February has been purposed as a month to celebrate the achievements and contributions of African Americans, the first half of the month has been filled with controversial news stories that are reminiscent of post-abolition America. These stories continue to showcase the racist and highly dangerous world we African Americans live in. Such stories have highlighted ongoing issues with corporate racism and their lack of diversity, colorism, and other daily struggles of African Americans. It’s Black history month and America is reminding us she’s still as racist as ever.

Unprovoked Attacks

When slavery was abolished in 1865 the world became an even more dangerous for African Americans. Released into a land filled with contempt for the mere existence, African Americans were faced with violence, fires, and bombings by neighbors, random strangers, and groups like the KKK. A Black person could just be walking and attacked by a white person, and the act and thought process is still occurring to this day.

While making the rounds of his press tour for his new film, the actor revealed to the world that he once harbored thoughts of killing a Black man, and actually roamed the streets, armed with a club with the intentions of doing so. This occurred after learning that a good friend of his was attacked and raped by a stranger who happened to be black. According to Neeson, learning of this was enough to trigger the actor to go out for a week patrolling the streets with hopes of encountering a “black bastard” who would randomly start trouble with him (because that’s what Black men do) so he could kill him. Naturally, following the public backlash, the actor began his apology tour, where he reinforced his previous comments while also assuring that he was cured of such thoughts after seeking therapy and using power walking as an outlet.

Regardless of how one chooses to label Neeson’s comments, rather they are racist or not, what cannot be misconstrued is the fact for many African American’s skin color alone is enough to prompt a random, racist attack. Ironically Neeson’s comments come a little after a week following singer and actor Jussie Smollett allegedly attacked by a group of white men. Funny enough, however, Smollett’s encounter was met with criticism from some who questioned the authenticity of an unprovoked racial attack. For any who may believe that the idea of white men targeting and leading an unprovoked attack is too unrealistic for today’s society, refer to Liam Neeson.   

Black Face Mockery

It’s Black History Month 2019 and there are still people in the world who are still refusing to acknowledge the racist history and imagery of blackface. Minstrel shows date back to before slavery was abolished, and used to insult African Americans and portraying the group as lazy buffoons. While the racist act normally doesn’t have to be addressed until Halloween the conversation has trickled over into the New Year with yet another international fashion brand invoking blackface imagery for the sake of sales.

Gucci set social media ablaze when images of a black face inspired sweater appeared on the company’s website. After the fashion brand was swiftly called out for the racist imagery the sweater was immediately removed from the website, followed by the usual generic apology. This comes only a few months after Prada faced backlash for using similar imagery for a product. If the sweater wasn’t enough of a fashion insult, Katy Perry released a new shoe that has many calling out its racist imagery. This item was also removed from the host website, but there hasn’t been any official word from Katy Perry yet.

 Colorism

Colorism is the discrimination of one based on skin tone. In Black and Latino communities, it’s a belief that fairer or lighter skinned individuals are better and more desirable than other members of ethnic communities. It’s a practice found predominately in areas that were colonized. It grew from slavery and plantations to extend to Greek organization on college campuses and is still used as a marketing strategy for companies. As damaging as colorism is for people of color we’re seeing proof that the mindset will be carried into the next generation.

NFL player Jahleel Addae and his Caucasian wife are receiving backlash after the couple uploaded a video of themselves and friends toasting to having more light-skinned children in the future. As swiftly as the video was uploaded,  Addae made his Instagram private to protect himself against was sure to be great ridicule from members of various ethnic groups. Even if the player does speak out and apologize it won’t change anything, we know how he feels now about himself and his race. 


Hopefully, the second half of the month will be more uplifting for African Americans.

Google so Racist?

What's the difference between being labeled an African-American and Black? Is there a difference? Will there ever be? These questions and more were brought up during a facebook discussion centered around the search engine Google and its implied distinction between the two terms. Close your eyes and imagine three black teenagers. Their activities and actions are completely up to you. So, what do you see? More importantly, how do you see them? According to the search engine, Google, it is not positively. When 'three black teenagers' is searched through Google images what appears is a yet another example of the discrimination person's of color (POC) face as compared to White counterparts. Whereas searching 'three black teenagers' pulls primarily negative, and somewhat stereotypical images, searching for images of 'three white teenagers,'  presents that there is a stark contrast to how Google sees the two groups.
Strangely, searching Google for images of three black teenagers pulls a majority of mugshots. In the above photo, a snippet of the collective images presented, only one is a staged model, unlike in comparison to the images presented when 'three white teenagers' is searched. A snippet of 'three white teenagers' search results shows a majority of staged models, smiling, hugging, and laughing; nothing remotely negative. Why the different imagery?

As the discussion continued there were, of course, those who came to the defense of Google. One facebook user wrote, "use the proper term and you'll get the proper results."  It seems when 'three African American teenagers' is searched the images are more positive, and by positive I mean the photos are of staged models. Let's be very clear, regardless of referring to the teens as Black or African-American, there is no difference or distinction, and to present two clearly different portraits for one race is racist on Google's part.

My mission became clear, obviously more had to be done besides a Facebook discussion and the first step was to call bring the discrepancy to Google's attention. I reached out on the company's official Facebook page but have yet to receive a response.

With no help from Google, I decided that the best place to find the answers to my questions was the company website. So I asked, "how does google determine what image to pull up?" It's an interesting, and short video. but here's a brief synopsis:
Google searches over 60 Trillion individual pages, where after going from page to page, they sort the material by content and "other factors' and keep it all inside The Index. Using programs and formulas to deliver the "best results possible" and algorithms to "better understand" what the user means, these clues helps to pull "relevant documents" from The Index. Google uses over 200 factors to rank the results, which are delivered in a variety of formats. Maintaining that the company fights spam 24/7 to "keep results relevant" if any spam is found manual action is taken. "And that's how search works." To watch the video visit: https://www.google.com/insidesearch/howsearchworks/thestory/

So out of 60 Trillion pages of material the best, relevant results of 'three black teenagers' are a plethora of mugshots? Not to mention there's even a noose if you scroll down past the third row of images, but that's an even bigger issue. Confused? Angered? Me too.
Google has been given the chance to respond and has yet to do so. It's time for our voices to be heard. In the past few days, the conversation has moved from Facebook to different platforms with even a youtube video being made on the topic. Google has still yet to respond, but to be honest we don't need one. What we need is for them to correct this error and acknowledge they made it, but at the end of the day you have to determine for yourself if Google is racist.