So, we noticed that Uber's home page features a picture of a black woman getting out of a cab. Which means, presumably, we can catch a ride with Uber, too, right?
Not so quietly, the on-demand, taxi-service smartphone app that has upgraded so many folks' crosstown commutes is being hailed as a game changer for black folks who are tired of hailing cab after cab and being ignored. Instead of flagging down a cab, the Uber app handles the pickup location and the financial transaction. Anecdotally, it's been observed that neighborhoods the traditional cabs won't always cover (read: New York City's Brownsville or Washington, D.C.'s Anacostia) are now being served.
But is Uber really all it's cracked up to be? Critics worry about the driver "ratings" system, which, to some, winds up being a coded early-warning system, possibly used by Uber drivers to alert one another that there's an African-American customer in the queue. Either way, that hasn't stopped many of us from embracing Uber, along with the other apps offered in cities around the country with names like Hailacab, Mytaxi and Hailo.
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