It looks as if on top of the racial tensions PoC already have to face on a day-to-day basis, black iPhone users can’t even depend on their technology to take a neutral stance. Earlier today, Campaign Zero activist DeRay McKesson took to Twitter to reveal something that was a little unsettling about one of Apple’s staple features, Siri.
So, I saw this and didn’t think it was real. Then I asked Siri myself. @Apple, do better. Black slang? Nah. pic.twitter.com/b6ekat4UdU
— deray mckesson (@deray) December 3, 2015
Apparently, when McKesson asked Siri to “define the word bitch,” one of the definitions was, “(black slang) a woman.”
Um?
When I saw it, I couldn’t believe my eyes. So, of course, I decided to try it for myself, hoping that maybe it was just a fluke, but, unfortunately I got basically got the same results.
But Apple isn’t the only one to blame here. The popular tech company uses the New Oxford American Dictionary for definition references, but according to Huffington Post, “black slang” isn’t even referenced in Oxford’s current definition.
Someone’s got some explaining to do…