Who would have thunk it
An App which stuck stereotypical features on face which apparently made a person look Asian has been pulled by Google after shedloads of people pointed out that it might be racist.
While we would have thought that "Make Me Asian" should have been seen as racist right from the start, it took a huge petition to get Google to pull it. The app that allowed users to slant their eyes and don a rice paddy hat, received much backlash over its stereotypical depictions.
Google pulled the app from its Play Store after thousands signed an online petition calling for its removal. App developer Kimbery Deiss created the face-changing application which yellowed users' skin and decorated faces with a Fu Manchu moustache, because Chinese people all look like that.
Another app by the same developer, called "Make Me Indian", broadened a person's nose, gave them long black hair, war paint and a feathered headband. Online activist group 18 Million Rising joined the effort with their own petition and spread of the hashtag, #makemeracist. More than 10,000 people signed the petitions, and activists tweeted the campaign to Asian-American celebrities, including Aziz Ansari and Kal Penn.
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Nick Farrell
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