“It seems people of color can’t escape racial bias, even when talking to Siri,” Taryn Finley writes for The Huffington Post.
“Apple iPhone’s staple feature defines the word ‘bitch’ in an even more offensive way than one would think possible,” Finley writes. “When you ask Siri to define the word, the second definition it provides reads: ‘(informal, derogatory) a spiteful or unpleasant woman.’ The first sub-meaning underneath that definition reads: ‘(black slang) a woman.'”
“Siri isn’t the primary source of this definition, however,” Finley writes. “Apple references the New Oxford American Dictionary for Siri’s catalogue of definitions, though ‘black slang’ isn’t referenced in Oxford’s current definition on its site. Software entrepreneur Elliot Turner wrote on Quora that Siri functions by ‘using data mashup technologies to interface with third-party web services… to perform actions, search operations, and question answering.’ Similarly, Google’s search database uses the exact same definition.”
Full article here.
MacDailyNews Take: It’s not “black slang,” it’s just slang. No racial tag required.
Ain’t that a bitch?
[Thanks to MacDailyNews Reader “Edward W.” for the heads up.]
