But what if I was planning on going on a vacation there?
Posted on 08/09/2014 9:16:42 AM PDT by chessplayer
What if you were moving to – or visiting – a city where you didn’t know your way around? And what if you were worried about wandering into a high crime area, but didn’t know the layout of the city? What if you were looking for good deals on hotels before your trip, but weren’t sure which areas were safe to go out and grab a cab in? What if you wanted to avoid dimly lit sections of town with scant law enforcement coverage? And if you were to find an app for your phone which could provide all of this information on a map ahead of time, what might you say to the people who developed it?
Well, duh… they’re clearly racists.
At least that’s the very clearly stated opinion of Sam Biddle at Gawker in his “review” of a new app called SketchFactor which does just what I described above.
Is there any way to keep white people from using computers, before this whole planet is ruined? I ask because the two enterprising white entrepreneurs above just made yet another app for avoiding non-white areas of your town—and it’s really taking off!
Crain’s reports on SketchFactor, a racist app made for avoiding “sketchy” neighborhoods, which is the term young white people use to describe places where they don’t feel safe because they watched all five seasons of The Wire
Was I too fast in assuming that the author was trying to insert some hot, race card goodness into the discussion of a new app for your phone? I really don’t think so, given that he goes on to identify the co-developers of the product as grinning caucasians Allison McGuire and Daniel Herrington. Oh, and the actual title of the article was, Smiling Young White People Make App for Avoiding Black Neighborhoods. Oh, that’s not too racially charged now, is it?
This is all a pretty damning condemnation of both the developers and the app… unless, that is, you actually look at what it does. Not only does it not identify places where users see non-white people, but there doesn’t seem to be a category to report the presence of Black Neighborhoods, or ethnic statistics of any kind. But aside from the aforementioned low lighting, higher crime areas, what other sorts of things can all of these racist white people report to the app?
The only thing you need to know is where Dr. Martin Luther King Boulevard is.
Anecdotal evidence is that Martin Luther King Blvd. in many cities is in the heart of the ghetto.
I’m sure there are other indicators such as avoiding Martin Luther King Blvd., used by people, to enable them to avoid certain areas.
Since your life is in danger if you wander into bad neighborhoods, this app makes sense to me.
I was suggesting this app years ago when I got a GPS. I was thinking what if...............
But what if I was planning on going on a vacation there?
Lots of liberal whining about it under the iphone reviews area. I plan to give it 5 stars.
Early President named streets seem also to be in bad inner city areas..Washington, Adams etc.
We just returned from a trip to Chicago..and had our GPS guiding us..we would like it to have such an ap that let’s you know when you enter a high crime area.
In Chicago that can be just across the next intersection.
When we are in our own city, we know just from living there, which areas are bad neighborhoods.
When traveling, you won’t always know that.
This app could be very helpful for travelers to avoid bad areas and motels with a bargain price, which are a bargain price because they are in bad areas.
I can think of a few places in my city, in which a main highway has many cheap motels. But the people who stay there are doing God knows what in those rooms. You do not want to stay in those places. It’s helpful for out of towners to know which places to avoid.
I have no doubt that many non whites would like to have this app also. Being non white does not spare you from being a victim of crime in a bad neighborhood.
While looking at the app on your smartphone you will not notice the bad guys behind you coming up to rob you....
Typical users.
http://cdn.bgr.com/2013/10/smartphones-woman-man-street.jpg
The Clinton administration called it racism and blackmailed the banks in to making the risky loans. That gave us on of the causes of the Mortgage Bubble.
I used to live in Chicago. I know exactly what you mean about bad neighborhoods starting when you go a few blocks, one way or the other.
It is good to know when you are in a high crime area. The app being discussed here sounds like a good tool to have to have a safer trip.
No..the app reacts to crime data.
The ones ascribing “race” to the data are the racists.
Does the insurance industry use red lining?
I’m sure they would be called racist if they do. Just thinking though, that there is solid evidence, crime statistics, etc. that certain areas are a bigger risk for insurers, and thus, they could justify charging more for insurance in certain areas. Just wondering.
But the liberals and race baiters then extrapolate from this, that it identifies minority areas as being high crime areas. Which offends the sensibilities of liberals and race baiter types.
Agree that non-whites would also like to have this app.
And wondering why it isn’t racist to assume otherwise...
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