{"id":1400,"date":"2014-08-13T09:26:54","date_gmt":"2014-08-13T17:26:54","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/?p=1400"},"modified":"2014-08-13T10:17:10","modified_gmt":"2014-08-13T18:17:10","slug":"sketch-factor-avoiding-bad-neighborhoods-racist","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/sketch-factor-avoiding-bad-neighborhoods-racist\/","title":{"rendered":"Sketch Factor &#8211; is avoiding bad neighborhoods racist?"},"content":{"rendered":"<div class=\"TweetButton_button\" style=\"float: right; margin-left: 10px;\"><a href=\"https:\/\/twitter.com\/share\" class=\"twitter-share-button\"  data-url=\"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/sketch-factor-avoiding-bad-neighborhoods-racist\/\" data-text=\"Sketch Factor &#038;%238211; is avoiding bad neighborhoods racist%3f\" data-lang=\"en\">Tweet<\/a><br \/>\n<script>!function(d,s,id){var js,fjs=d.getElementsByTagName(s)[0];if(!d.getElementById(id)){js=d.createElement(s);js.id=id;js.src=\"\/\/platform.twitter.com\/widgets.js\";fjs.parentNode.insertBefore(js,fjs);}}(document,\"script\",\"twitter-wjs\");<\/script><\/div>\n<p>A minor internet kerfuffle has erupted over the introduction of an app called &#8220;Sketch Factor&#8221;. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.sketchfactor.com\/\" target=\"_blank\">Sketch Factor<\/a> is a crowd source app where users can upload information they find &#8220;sketchy&#8221; about their neighborhood or wherever they happen to be. \u00a0This is then added to map data and can be used to avoid, or if you&#8217;re looking for sketchiness, to find certain neighborhoods. \u00a0<a href=\"http:\/\/www.bustle.com\/articles\/35065-sketch-factor-app-is-racist-not-on-purpose-but-that-doesnt-make-it-better\" target=\"_blank\">Some<\/a> on the<a href=\"http:\/\/valleywag.gawker.com\/smiling-young-white-people-make-app-for-avoiding-black-1617775138\" target=\"_blank\"> internet<\/a> have <a href=\"http:\/\/blackamericaweb.com\/2014\/08\/08\/avoiding-the-hood-theres-an-app-for-that\/\" target=\"_blank\">declared the app &#8220;racist&#8221;<\/a>. \u00a0Here&#8217;s the logic:<\/p>\n<p>Step 1: \u00a0The app was created by two young white people,<\/p>\n<p>Step 2: \u00a0All smartphone users are affluent white people,<\/p>\n<p>Step 3: \u00a0All white people distrust black people and find them &#8220;sketchy&#8221;,<\/p>\n<p>Step 4: \u00a0Therefore white people will use the app to flag black neighborhoods and black people as &#8220;sketchy&#8221;.<\/p>\n<p>Step 5: \u00a0Racism!<\/p>\n<p>I suppose that my labeling of some neighborhoods as &#8220;bad&#8221; is confirmation of my &#8220;racism&#8221;. \u00a0I am a firm believer in situational awareness and minimizing risk, and so I would find this app usefull especially if I was in a strange town. \u00a0I don&#8217;t see at all how that equates to racism. \u00a0A lot of the discussion of the app seems centered on Washington, D.C. maybe because the Gawker writer lives there (I think). \u00a0Anyway, a <a href=\"http:\/\/www.rawstory.com\/rs\/2014\/08\/10\/dc-news-crew-robbed-while-reporting-on-app-that-identifies-sketchy-neighborhoods\/\" target=\"_blank\">Washington D.C. news crew went out to do a story<\/a> about one of the neighborhoods identified as &#8220;sketchy&#8221;, and while they were doing man on the street interviews with the residents there something happened: \u00a0<em><strong>&#8220;<span style=\"color: #555555;\">but as folks were telling us that it was a good neighborhood, and that not much activity happens around there \u2014 as that was being told to us, our van was being robbed.\u201d \u00a0<\/span><\/strong><\/em><span style=\"color: #333333;\">\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><span style=\"color: #333333;\">So&#8230;Sketch Factor: 10 out of 10. \u00a0I wonder if they reported the incident. \u00a0Probably not, that would be racist.<\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Tweet A minor internet kerfuffle has erupted over the introduction of an app called &#8220;Sketch Factor&#8221;. \u00a0Sketch Factor is a crowd source app where users can upload information they find &#8220;sketchy&#8221; about their neighborhood or wherever they happen to be. \u00a0This is then added to&#8230;<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10,4,9],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1400","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-law-order","category-life","category-technology"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1400"}],"version-history":[{"count":4,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1408,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1400\/revisions\/1408"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1400"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1400"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/ego-vero.net\/main\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1400"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}