We love to take pictures of ourselves. We love youth. So, its only a matter of time that we get an app that looks at our selfies and answers the age old question: do I look old? How-Old.net is a simple site that allows you to choose a picture and, using facial recognition software, it will guess your age. While trying to find a picture that would tell me I looked young, I found something interesting. The site told me I was not-so-old (great!) but at least it could see me–my Ghanian husband: not so much.
The site had a hard time seeing dark-skinned black faces, whether in the bright sun with plenty of light
Or sipping cappuccinos with pinkies up, the app couldn’t recognize my fabulous husband or his friend.
It’s bad enough that black lives have to demand that they matter to be visible. Now they are erasing us from our selfies?
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Author: Susan X Jane
Susan X Jane, Principal of Navigators Consulting, has over 30 years of experience exploring race and representation in both the public and private sectors. Susan is a transracial adoptee—a Black woman raised in a White family and community—an experience that created an early focus on the way race shapes our concept of ourselves and each other.
Susan has worked to address race and racism as a community organizer, nonprofit program developer, professor of communications, and consultant to corporations and impact-focused institutions. As Principal of Navigators Consulting, she draws on decades of experience to work with organizations in the public and private sectors.
To any who seeks to build a better world, she offers her skills as a teacher, coach, and strategic partner to help create diverse and inclusive environments where the humanity of all is respected and protected.
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That’s very odd. And a little unsettling. Hmmmmm…….very strange.
This post reminded me of this: http://jezebel.com/the-truth-about-photography-and-brown-skin-155765679
Photography, like a lot of things, was not designed with us in mind.
Wow is all I can say.