The Dallas NAACP president told CBS during an interview that she willl be up in arms if Microsoft's so-called avoid-ghetto app is made available. She says it could hurt businesses in black communities, which have already been hit hard by the economic downturn.
"It's almost like gerrymandering," Dallas NAACP President Juanita Wallace told CBS Dallas-Fort Worth. "It's stereotyping for sure and without a doubt. I can't emphasize enough: It's discriminatory."
Microsoft says the app will use crime statistics from cities across the nation to determine which parts should be avoided. But it remains unclear how it will accumulate the data and how that will be interpreted. Microsoft has filed a patent for the app, but the actual product is unnamed and not available yet.
Even though "avoid ghetto" is not the official name of the app, the damage has been done because no one likes pejorative labels. Perhaps the company should have had a better PR strategy.
Read more at CBS DFW.