Posted on 01/18/2012 12:09:59 PM PST by MNDude
An in-development Microsoft smart phone app designed to help drivers and pedestrians avoid unsafe neighborhoods is proving controversial among some minority rights groups that find the software potentially discriminatory.
The as-of-yet unnamed product is being referred to as the “Avoid The Ghetto” app by those who are concerned with where it will guide users.
“I’m going to be up in arms about it if it happens,” said Dallas NAACP President Juanita Wallace.
Wallace spent her afternoon at a rally on Martin Luther King Jr. Blvd. and said she felt safe there, but fears the app may project otherwise.
“Can you imagine me not being able to go to MLK Blvd. because my GPS says that’s a dangerous crime area? I can’t even imagine that,” she said.
Microsoft says the app will use crime statistics to determine what parts of town are to be avoided. But it’s unclear where the data will come from and how it will be interpreted.
Microsoft has filed a patent for the app, but the actual product is unnamed and not available yet.
Opponents like Wallace fear it could hurt minority communities.
“It’s almost like gerrymandering,” she said. “It’s stereotyping for sure and without a doubt; I can’t emphasize enough, it’s discriminatory.”
So, we are all supposed to drive into dangerous places a night, just to keep the NACCP people happy?
That NAACP yoyo can say whatever she wants. I wouldn’t mind driving down MLK Blvd during the daylight. After dark you wouldn’t catch my vanilla ass down there on a dare.
Logic? Really?
LOL
Just funin’ ya. I agree.
When I was in the Navy and was stationed temporarily in San Angelo, TX, a Navy Chief told me to avoid a certain part of town. He said even though he himself was Hispanic, I shouldn’t to into the Barrio, as he wouldn’t go there himself.
Think how useful this device would be for drug dealers and gangsters. They could use it in reverse. It would tell them where the best places are to sell drugs and shoot people.
“...the actual product is unnamed...”
May I suggest:
Ghetto Gone
FuhGettobout It
Ghettout of There
Microsoft GPS (Ghetto Predictive System)
iGET (Ghetto Environment Tracker)
They would rather get somebody killed than keep them safe? Perhaps an application like this draws attention to the failures of Democrat/AA leadership, and they do not want that.
They could equally base it on voter registration concentration. If an area is less than 10% Republican, run for your life.
I live in Oregon. A friend came to Portland for a convention and he and his wife got tired of the hotel’s food and went for a drive. They turned toward N Portland from Lloyd Center.
When they realized their mistake, they pulled into a side street to head back and a group of locals (with several extra dollops of melanin) walked toward their car and tried to block them from turning around. Youthful antics, I’m sure.
“When they realized their mistake, they pulled into a side street to head back and a group of locals (with several extra dollops of melanin) walked toward their car and tried to block them from turning around. Youthful antics, I’m sure.”
A former co-worker who had never been outside the local area inadvertently drove into a “project” housing area in Richmond, VA late in the day. An elderly gent approached her and told her in no uncertain terms to get the hell out of there. I’ve heard of similar incidents with the Cops in NY where someone got off the cross Bronx expressway in no-man’s land.
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