So - under "Recent Questions" - is there a way to view the anonymous responses to the anonymous questions? I have no questions to ask, but am interested in browsing the answers to existing questions.
I really hope that this will be collected in a data set that can be used for research. I think the analysis and observations will likely be eye-opening for many non-black people.
@waynesutton you've got a potential product. Many businesses don't know how to convert social media to sales. This however is simple
Repackage, repurpose your product for businesses.
Try testing small businesses e.g. Hotels, restaurants, schools to see if they'll pay to have customers chat, ask questions or make reservations over the internet.
However, you'd need a way to bring the cost of adding a new number down for scaling purposes. You could add a routing code to each SMS to transparently share one phone number amongst multiple businesses.
I lived in Japan for 8 years, some of it in provincial areas. I have blond hair. You would be shocked at the number of questions I got about having blond hair. The most common one was "Can I touch your hair?"
More thoughtful ones were about hair treatment (I was told that my hair is quite fine by Japanese standards). While I didn't do anything special, and not all blond or Japanese hair is the same, there seem to be some treatments that differ based on the type of hair you have.
I am sure that my barber in Japan wished he had a Japanese version of "ask a blonde person" when I first walked in the door, because my appointment apparently caused him to stress out massively. I found this out later as my Japanese got better and I became more integrated into the community.
Are you truly in denial about the fact that black people (specifically in America, but even on a global scale) have a unique set of experiences due to systematic and institutional racism? Additionally, there is a unique brand of racism pervasive throughout American culture (and again, certainly elsewhere, but I can only speak from an American perspective) wherein ignorant comments and questions are routinely made to unsuspecting black people. So given that, I think there are a good number of reasons as to why it's different than "ask a blonde person".
The examples just seem preposterous. Like a sibling post says, "I have a black friend who wants to listen to music. What music do I play to please him?" -- seriously? Would you say that about your friends? What about asking the person in particular, as I'm sure this doesn't generalize to skin color? Or, "Who are your top 5 rappers?" That's making quite an assumption. Or, "I'm having black friends over for dinner, what should I cook?" Like, whatever you normally cook, unless they are e.g. vegetarians or have allergies?
Yeah, in summary, I think the thing that bothers me most is what seems to be gross generalization all over...
@pcpolice I certainly understand your point but these are actually questions that people are asking. I mean we don't know who they are, what color, age, etc. But that's what people are asking. I mean look at the twitter feed - https://twitter.com/aablackperson All questions from people
Fair enough, I guess the main point is that whoever is being asked (you, I presume) is not offended :) At least, I hope you're not (maybe I can get a non-anonymous question in this way :p)?
@pcpolice I've been in the internet/tech space for a long time. Developed a think skin and unfortunately expected some of the not so good sms. I'm good. It's a team of 9 answering questions and yes we're all black :)
It raised lots of complicated ethical issues that were hashed out in the press (and I could hear people talking about in cafés).
Here's an article about it in English: http://www.newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/ask-a-jewish-p...