Is there any way to keep white people from using computers, before this whole planet is ruined?

[ashling]

[font size = 2]Smiling Young White People Make App for Avoiding Black Neighborhoodshttp://valleywag.gawker.com/smiling-young-white-people-make-app-for-avoiding-black-1617775138

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/local-news/new-smartphone-app-is-designed-to-help-you-avoid-sketchy-neighborhoods.php



Tone-Deaf App Helps Naive Travelers Avoid "Sketchy" Neighborhoods
http://gothamist.com/2014/08/07/sketchfactor_app.php



New Smartphone App Is Designed to Help You Avoid “Sketchy” Neighborhoods[/font size = 2]
Most of those neighborhoods happen to be some of DC's more diverse areas, but app’s developers swear it’s not racist.

http://www.washingtonian.com/blogs/capitalcomment/local-news/new-smartphone-app-is-designed-to-help-you-avoid-sketchy-neighborhoods.php

[AverageJoe90]

1. Not sure I get your point, to be truthful with you.

Don't get me wrong, I wasn't particularly offended by this OP. Sincerely speaking, however, I doubt there was any racist and/or otherwise prejudiced intent on the part of the app makers(though I agree with many that is does have the potential to be abused by unscrupulous parties). And it is a sad truth that a good number of the most run-down neighborhoods in many cities do happen to be plurality or majority P.O.C.; not that they themselves are really to blame, of course. Decades of bigoted, and frankly goddamn corrupt, housing manuevers by crooked real estate developers(coupled with often total cowardice, or even outright complicity on the part of local and state governments) are a very large part of that problem, not to mention other forms of institutional discrimination.

Though, in all truthfulness, I wouldn't want to go anywhere near places like Elohim City, Okla, or Hayden Lake, Ida., either; if there's one thing that ruins a neighborhood above all else, it's hatemongers.

[LuvNewcastle]

3. I live in a sketchy neighborhood.

In fact, more and more of America is turning sketchy. If things don't change, yuppies aren't going to be able to get off the interstate. They're going to have to carry bedpans in their cars and pull off on the side of the road if they want to avoid areas like where I live. Too bad there isn't an app for getting yuppies to quit voting Republican.

[2pooped2pop]

13. lol, now that's funny

Too bad there isn't an app for getting yuppies to quit voting Republican.

an app for that, really would be helpful.

[ashling]

10. No point - just found the whole thing interesting

The line about white people using computers was one used in one of the articles. ... a little humor never hurt anybody ... well, not too many, anyway.

[el_bryanto]

2. Speaking as a white person - i would really miss World of Warcraft. nt

[BainsBane]

4. I don't mind it

Not because I don't think it racist, but because I don't mind them in my neighborhood.

[edbermac]

5. How about designing an app for avoiding stupid people?

[pennylane100]

6. I do not think there is anything wrong with not wanting to live in a sketchy neighborhood

especially when you are raising a family. I think that people of all colors would prefer that. I do not see how that makes a person racist. It is not the color of the people that makes some places undesirable, it is the amount of crime that is the real problem.

[AverageJoe90]

8. My family lives in a rather diverse neighborhood. It is *very* safe.

In fact, not a single serious crime has happened in this particular area of Collin County, TX since we moved here in Feb., 2012. TBH, it probably helps that we're still semi-rural and have a higher-than-average income, but still.....

[pennylane100]

9. Most problems come from areas that have a lower than average income

so I can imagine that your neighborhood would not be considered sketchy. Unfortunately, it is low income areas that generally determine how safe a neighborhood is. When I was raising my children on a very modest family income, our area was generally working class with neighbors from all over the world. It was very safe then but had gotten a little run down since then,

It will only get better when we can provide a decent income for all the working and middle classes.

[Enrique]

7. the Washingtonian article is fair

it actually has a basis for the charge of racism, it cites the results from beta testing in D.C.

On the other hand, the Gawker article, with that terrible line that was put in this thread's title, is so bad they might end up apologizing for it.

[postulater]

11. I grew up in a diverse town.

There were Norwegians, Swedes, Germans, Poles and Danes. Lots and lots of Danes, pages of em in the phone book.

[Eleanors38]

12. Yelp comes to the 'hood. Pfftzzzz-rrrip!

[2pooped2pop]

14. I think an app like this is a good thing

I was planning a trip to Chicago. Now, I know there are areas where my white hick ass should not be going. And I wouldn't mind somebody pointing them out to me. I don't care if they are black, white, or other area's. I imagine the poorer and high crime area's (which tend to go together a lot) are the area's I might need to avoid, because I am not part of that hood. I don't know where those area's are. I need an app for that.

Now, let me point out that I grew up in a sketchy neighborhood. It was white. We were the hood, back before you ever heard of the hood. It was totally safe for me, but not so much for anyone not from the hood to travel to. It was my hood, and I was safe because I was a part of it. That was decades ago and doesn't even compare to the shit that goes on in hoods that I am not part of, now. We were just mischievous. Now, people can get killed for going into the wrong hood.