Whiteness as a norm
I recently read a Buzzfeed article about how some people believe that Google's results are racist. It shows how searching a body part such as hand will only come up of white hands or even search – man, women or child would most likely show up as people from a European background. I did this on the word hand – the results being that the first page only had two hands that were distinctively non-white. This is something I didn't realise when previously using google.
I decided to search something up that I believe wasn’t a socially constructed idea and a biological influence, I searched the word, mother. The first 11 pictures were of European mothers and from the whole page of pictures only 15 were of people of colour.
Algorithms! Google bases its results on algorithms that are generated by the images that have been clicked. This is dependent on us as a user. This shows that we as a society have influenced the narrow ideals and lack of diversity when it comes to media. This also shows that maybe people are able to identify with Europeans more than African Americans or Asians.
Media has a big influence on the society but society also influences media - it is a circular model. This makes me believe that we are able to change the way in which we construct and perceive norms.
Comparison of searches involving white or black people
I remember as a child, when I picked out pictures for a powerpoint slide show i would usually pick pictures with Europeans not because i wanted to but it was the only race that had a larger variety of pictures on google.
Eurocentrism is an issue that we are abe to change, it is not something we are stuck with.
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