Another app – “Make Me Indian” – makes you a Native American with brown skin, war paint and a feather headband. "This is just a fun app (that) lets you indulge you and your friends,” says the description of the “Make Me Asian” app created by user KimberyDeiss and available on Google Play.
“You can for a few seconds to make (yourself) a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or any other Asians,” the description says.
Not amusing or cute, say Asian-American organizations that launched a petition to get Google to remove both apps.
The apps use dated and racist stereotypes of Asians and Native Americans, said the online campaign 18 Million Rising, named after the number of Asian-Americans in the United States.
"These racist and offensive portrayals of Asians and Native Americans perpetuate damaging racial stereotypes and should not be distributed on the Google play store,” said the campaign, which has an online petition to remove the apps.
Google, however, said the apps are not in violation of the company’s policies that protect against hate speech.
Washington pastor Peter Chin decided to mount an even larger protest on the website Change.org. Chin said he understood Google’s motto is “Don’t be evil.” That makes it hard to fathom why the company would support these apps, he said.
“It’s not cool,” he said.
What’s next, a “Make Me Black” app? Do you find this app offensive or just funny?
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