“Why are indians so smelly?”

A shocking question?

How about this: “Why are black people so loud?”

These questions are, according to Google, the most common searches that begin with “why”:

The top searches beginning with "why " on Google Singapore.

Try it yourself: type in “why”, followed by a space, into the search box on Google Singapore, and see what common searches turn up in the prompts.

But Singaporeans aren’t at all unique in their racism – try this on the Google pages of other countries. Apparently, the world is united by racism.

HP computers are… racist?

Youtube comments:

jwolfenstein (1 hour ago)

There’s nothing to fix. Maybe an adjust in sensibility that would make white people not to be recognized. You can also try a different light, maybe from the side. I bet that a Korean with a strong white light straight from the front is not going to be recognized, and a Korean is not black skinned. Stop making this stupid allegations. HP may or may not be racist but it has nothing to do with a piece of software.

jwolfenstein (1 hour ago)

This is stupid. It has nothing to do with racism. The computer has to find out that there’s a face based on the differences from one pixel to the next. It doesn’t have human capabilities, it’s an algorithm. Take a picture of his face and analyze the color curve, then a picture of her face. You’ll see that the curve for the black guy is more flat. That’s not racism, that’s physics. His skin color with that lightning makes the picture less definite, there’s little contrast. More to follow.

caseyc82 (56 minutes ago)
@jwolfenstein Yes, it is computer error based on that, true. But this isn’t some shareware code written by a couple guys in their basement. This is a product released by a major corporation for the mass market. That means there were meetings upon meetings about it, testing and more testing, iterations and improvements made. And across the board, there was apparently neither a black person involved nor was that concern brought up. And THAT is racism.

(See this CNN report for the response from HP)

Think:
Is the racist claim a fair one? Why or why not?

Question:
Discrimination will never be eradicated from society. Do you agree?
Assess the claim that ‘advanced’ technology still leaves much to be desired.

Have race relations improved since the election of President Barack Obama?

What do people have to say about this? Check out the discussion thread here.

The ‘unfathomable’ arrest of a black scholar

 [...] the recent arrest of Henry Louis Gates Jr., one of the nation’s most prominent African-American scholars, has stirred outrage and debate.

Jelani Cobb, an author and professor at Spelman College in Atlanta, says it’s troubling on many levels when “one of the most recognizable African-Americans in the country can be arrested in his own home and have to justify being in his own home.”

-

‘Why, because I’m a black man in America?’

- Gates, in response to being arrested by a police officer in his own home

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‘You’re not responding because I’m a black man, and you’re a white officer.’”

- Gates

 

 [Full article here]

Question:

Comprehension: Punctuation

Why is the word ‘unfathomable’ in the title in inverted commas?

“Ailing while black”

“Dr. Lauren Shaiova, a pain specialist who treats sickle-cell-disease patients at Manhattan’s Beth Israel Medical Center, says doctors have long allowed African-American sickle-cell sufferers to agonize because they assume blacks will become addicted to pain medication. Call it “ailing while black.”"

- TIME, “What’s Race Got To Do With It?“

http://www.time.com/time/covers/1101010730/cover.html