The world is pretty happy and satisfied with automation these days; automatic opening and closing of doors, and use of every toilet accessory without even touching anything, not even a tap. Everything was working well until this one soap dispenser refused to give soap to a dark skinned man.
A man posted a video on social media that went super viral. In this video, a soap dispenser quicky discharged soap when a white hand was placed underneath, but refused to dispense it to the dark skinned hand. One may think that the machine has stopped functioning properly or there is no soap in the dispenser. Then, the same man placed a white tissue to test if that was the problem. To his astonishment, a squirt of soap came out and fell on the tissue.
Many would ignore it and take it as a joke or some momentary technical fault. The video Tweeted by Chukwuemeka Afigbo came with the caption:
“If you have ever had a problem grasping the importance of diversity in tech and its impact on society, watch this video.”
The Tweet soon became popular, and it was retweeted more than 129,000 times, and the number is increasing drastically.
If you have ever had a problem grasping the importance of diversity in tech and its impact on society, watch this video pic.twitter.com/ZJ1Je1C4NW
— Chukwuemeka Afigbo (@nke_ise) August 16, 2017
Many people thought that it is wrong to associate this problem to diversity because it was just a technical fault. But other disagreed and said that none of this would have happened if any of the employees were black.
Maybe if the company that designed this employed a single dark skinned person they'd have found this problem earlier.
— kaitlmoo (@kaitlinsm) August 16, 2017
More technical justifications were thrown out, but nothing was acceptable to the people fighting for diversity.
https://twitter.com/AfroDiasproduct/status/897865506253922306
This is not the first example of technology singling out black people. Another user posted this:
Reminds me of this failed beta test pic.twitter.com/Wm6UbX0U92
— Ålafiske & Båtfylla ??? (@Bashflak) August 16, 2017
Do you think that it was a serious diversity problem that needs to be tackled immediately or just a simple technical glitch? Comment below.
I am a Mexican with hands that look white – in fact many people don’t know I’m Mexican until i tell them and a lot of soap dispensers and towel dispensers ignore me. i think it’s a glitch in the machine. let’s not get sensitive about everything. I have a disease where I grow a beard and have to shave and some people avoid me cause it bothers them……but you know what……let it be like water off a duck or you’ll go through life finding something to complain about. Life isn’t fair and the sooner we all realize that and try to just be kind to each other…..life will be a little nicer.