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It's Harder To Get an Uber or Lyft If You're Black, Study Says (time.com)
Black riders have to wait "significantly longer" for their Uber cabs and experience "double" the cancellation rates of white passengers, according to a new study published by the National Bureau of Economic Research. The study, which also observed a similar pattern among Lyft drivers, claims it has found "significant evidence of racial discrimination" in ride-hailing services based on a pair of experiments in Seattle and Boston. From a report on Time: Researchers pulled data from more than 1,400 field tests conducted using mostly Uber and Lyft, but also traditional taxi services. The findings in Boston and Seattle showed evidence of discrimination that manifested in either longer waits or a higher likelihood for cancellation. In Seattle, African-American UberX users on average waited 5 minutes and 15 seconds for pick-ups -- roughly 30% longer than white riders, who waited 4 minutes on average. Lyft users did not experience a significant difference during the experiment. When the research assistants switched between using white-sounding and African-American-sounding names, they did not find a significant increase in their wait times. But the overall rates at which drivers canceled the ride after it was assigned to them was more than one in 10 for riders with black-sounding names, roughly double than for riders with white-sounding names.
Irrelevant. Being a member of a minority does not mean you aren't capable of being a racist asshole.
It's not that the riders were black, but rather that the names chosen "sounded black". This is significant as it introduces culture as a possible data point which wasn't controlled for.
Were I a freelance driver, I'm not sure how much I'd want to deal with a "La-DASH-ya" either.
Mod me down with all of your hatred and your journey towards the dark side will be complete!
Irrelevant. Being a member of a minority does not mean you aren't capable of being a racist asshole.
Didn't you get the memo? A member of an oppressed minority cannot be racist.
They never did a fair test.
Watch the lack of responses to people named 'Harley', 'Bubba' and 'Billy-Joe-Jim-Bob'. But you'll never know, because that test wouldn't have gotten any press.
John McAfee 'It was like that time I hired that Bangkok prostitute; to do my taxes, while I fucked my accountant'
I delivered pizzas as a part-time job when I was in high school. One particular area had a high black population. All the drivers hated delivering there and would try to skip out on the delivery (go to bathroom, take a break, etc), not because the customers were black, but because they didn't tip well. The same thing happened in another area which was predominantly white, but low income (also bad tippers).
Technically this still counts as a prejudice (pre-judging the customer as a bad tipper based solely on where they live). But it's one which is statistically correct most of the time rather than some of the time.
You seem confused. That's literally how stereotyping works - you make assumptions based on facts that are not well correlated. It doesn't matter if the people are actually a particular ethnicity, it just matters that other people treat them that way. That's what sociologists mean when they say "race is a social construct."
> When this study was done for job interviews, the test was always low class black names vs. obvious middle/upper class white names.
Bullshit. They used names like Jamal and Lakisha. Those both are names from the african continent, neither are 'ghetto' mispronunciations of everyday products.
It is crazy what theories assholes will invent to deny that racism exists. The funny thing is that such denials end up as a sort of meta independent proof themselves.
Maybe they're reacting from experience and don't want to visit certain neighborhoods where the crime rate is higher. It may be a self-preservation thing. Not everyone that is careful about being robbed is a racist.
They don't. But that doesn't stop the perception that they do, which perpetuates the myth (and turns into a correlation).
The statistics are clear, a never-accused white is more likely to commit a crime than a never-accused Black. But Blacks are much more likely to be falsely accused, and end up in jail (or dead, like Trevon Martin) for some false accusation by someone. And once they've been through the prison system, they have recidivism similar to everyone else, and end up re-offenders.
If we stopped throwing innocent Blacks in jail, they'd offend less than whites. If we stopped the prisons from being training/breeding grounds for hardened criminals, Blacks would offend less than whites. Blacks in the US are less violent and criminal than whites (when you correct for recidivism).
It's mainly the perception and the perpetuation of the perception that exists.
But my question is, who cares if they are discriminated against for a cab? Trump discriminates openly against Blacks looking for homes, and he's praised for it. Blacks are screened out for jobs for "ethnic" names, or other demographic information that identifies them as minority. So if you can't get a job, and can't get a place to live, why would you care about a cab? Oh, wait. "Uber" gets the front page, even if irrelevant.
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Irrelevant. Being a member of a minority does not mean you aren't capable of being a racist asshole.
Indeed. Surprisingly, it's even common that some members of minority groups are racist assholes against their own group. The stereotypical example is black male police officers who racially profile and even brutalize black men.
Note to ACs: I usually delete AC replies without reading them. If you want to talk to me, log in.
Lakisha and Jamal aren't just 'black' names, they're ghetto names (with all the bad stuff that implies). Comparing them to British-sounding middle-to-upper class names is disingenuous to say the least.
Try this mindgame on yourself to note the difference. Create a person in your mind named Sir Richard Thornton. Does he seem employable? Can he drive? How is he dressed?
Now create a person named Billy-Bob-Joe Darlin. Does he seem employable? How is he dressed?
Names convey far more than just the color of their holder, and the so-called "scientists" that performed this study either knew that but wanted a specific result (they didn't care about the actual study they just wanted to publish high, which requires the "right" conclusions) or they are utterly incompetent. I don't know which reason is worst.
If they tried the study again with 'black' names that did not indicate a ghetto upbringing (like Stephen Rasami-Greenberg or Erica Harrison) the results would not be the same.
If anyone "feels" this is untrue they are ofcourse free to name their own children Laqueefa and Buttsex-boy. After all, since it's all about skin color it won't impact their future careers at all.
Interpretation of, or importance placed on a skin color might be a social construct, but it's very much a real phenomenon. To stick your head in the sand and ask assert that race is not real requires wilful naivete.
As for names it's simply a combination of perceptions weighed against what someone feels are averages. In short, it looks like for white people, somewhat unusual names are more commonly found given to the children of wealthy households. Common names are commonly given to children in wealthy, middle-income, and poor households. There are very few names that indicate that a white person grew up in a poor household, so it's hard to pre-judge a name on a screen if it's something like John or Judy or William. By contrast, it appears that among black people, uncommon or unusual names are more often found among those who were born into poor households than those born into middle-income or wealthy households. Those latter two appear to source names from basically the same set as everyone else. It's probably also accurate to say that lots of children born into poor black households also get common names.
Now, how this applies to the world we live in. America has a fairly socially-mobile society. Poor people might become rise to middle-income or wealth in the right circumstances and those who started out life in other ranges themselves could end up better or worse off. Unfortunately a lot of people that start out life poor don't get the best upbringing in terms of education or parental example and discipline. When someone has a name that is commonly found among all walks of life then that name does not tell someone else anything about the person, but if someone's name is most likely found among a segment of of the population that has all of the negative perceptions of being poor associated with it and might imply negative things about the parent that gave the name and raised the child, then it's very easy for someone to make conclusions, right or wrong, about the person. Add racial prejudice in on top of that and it's a recipe for problems.
A lot of Americans of Asian ancestry realized this and basically stopped giving their children names that are obviously of Asian origin. A friend of mine that's Muslim has suggested to his friends that they not give their children names that are very obviously Arab or Persian or Pakistani. That doesn't mean that they have to use "Christian" names, but there are plenty of other names that are more ambiguous.
The name given to one's child is very important. Any desire for whimsy must be balanced against real consideration for how that name will let the child, and later the adult, be perceived.
Do not look into laser with remaining eye.
Most drivers don't want to go 15 miles out of their way
What do you mean, "Out of their way"? They're ride sharing! Someone has to be going that way.
Or did you mean the Uber and Lyft cab company drivers don't want to go pick up a ride in exchange for money?
We will bankrupt ourselves in the vain search for absolute security. -- Dwight D. Eisenhower
When I was in college I volunteered in a community service group and became one of the managers. I noticed that one of the other managers complained a lot about his volunteers -- they had a bad attitude, they weren't reliable, etc. Which was weird because I'd worked with the same people and found them to be perfectly reliable and enthusiastic. So I began to watch this guy, and the problem became obvious: he was a condescending jerk who pissed his volunteers off, and when they wouldn't work with him anymore he'd badmouth them. Then the other managers would get a negative attitude towards that volunteer and he'd end up quitting.
Now I don't want to overstate the case here, but there is such a thing as a self-fulfilling prophecy. If drivers try to avoid low-income neighborhoods, then people in that neighborhood will experience, on average, bad service from your pizzeria. Even when a delivery is on time, expecting it to be late poisons the experience. It takes a lot of good customer service to undo even a single instance of bad service, much less a pattern of it.
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First, I resemble that comment!!
Second. I'll admit I'm am racist, and so are most people we know. A lot of us feel prejudice and judge people by their appearance, and even within a race. We are more likely to hold the door open for the prettier blonde, criticize the fat person ordering more than they require, and so on. The reason we judge people is because it was incredibly important for our survival pre-civilization. Faces are incredibly expressive, and sizing one another up tells you a great deal about the possible outcomes of a given encounter. The blonde excites you. Dwayne "the Rock" Johnson would scare the piss out of most people if his face was angry. We needed that information to survive.
The reason Uber drivers do not pick up black people as willingly as whites is because history has taught them to be racist. But it's not their fault. They are wired that way, they follow their prejudices. Their prejudice tells them "a black person is more likely to commit a crime, and I may be the victim of that crime". And statistically, that prejudice is right. Black men are more likely to get arrested, and convicted of violent crime. The problem is that the state of racism is a twisted sort of self-fulfilling prophesy. Statistically, that Uber guy you picked up later than his white counterpart would be slightly later to a job interview, get the job less often, earn less as a result, and render him more desperate to commit a crime in the first place. Thats the problem.
The disadvantage non-whites experience is due to our prejudices, is what it is due to their circumstances. Now, I'm not excusing any crime anyone commits ever, I'm just point out the cycle of self-perpetuating racism that exists. If you want to solve the problem, first understand the data. Our prejudices make their lives harder, and when they react badly to that hard life, we stand back and think "See? I was right all along. Next time I encounter one, ill be weary". It's so sad.