Tinder’s algorithm of swiping left and right is more than just a popular way to meet future soulmates and one-night stands – the dating app has revealed some pretty nasty racial biases about users around the world.

In 2014, OkCupid released a study that showed that Asian men and African-American women got fewer matches than members of other races. Tinder’s data matched OkCupid’s data exactly.

This advertisement, though controversial, demonstrates a very real and very problematic trend in online dating. Reverends Irene Monroe and Emmett G. Price III joined Jim Braude and ine where these data fall in a long history of troubled racial dynamics in the dating world. Below is a loosely edited transcript of their conversation.

EMMETT G. PRICE III: Well, it’s an app where profiles come up, and you can quickly swipe left if you want to get rid of that person and move on to the next one, or you can swipe right to learn more about the profile. Based on statistics, African-American, black women and Asian men are getting swiped left a whole lot.

Tinder faced further criticism after releasing an advertisement in August that shows a white woman, the user, swiping right on three other men and immediately swiping left (rejecting) an Asian man

MONROE: One of the things I thought about Venezuelansk brud . I was sad to read this. Two things I thought was sort of . change the image of black women, because we have a very negative iconography, from Aunt Jemima to «hoochie mama,» you know, to present day.Seguir leyendo