Finally,
Technology Will Enable Black Men to Catch a Taxi! (Maybe) But at what cost to the community? By Thomas Russell
When Cornell Belcher was a
young college graduate in the ‘90s, he often worked late hours as a waiter in an upscale Washington D.C. restaurant. When his shift ended at midnight, city buses were no longer running and rail service did not exist. This would normally not be a problem because taxis were still providing service. However, it was a huge problem; taxis would not stop for him. Taxis would swerve around him and “pick up white patrons, or my white colleagues.” Cornell, now a political contributor of CNN and president of Brilliant Corners, an international democratic polling firm, would lament, “I came face-to-face with overt discrimination in a way that, even as a child of the South, I frankly never experienced in such a direct way.” In the fall of 1999, actor Danny Glover, his daughter Mandisa, then a senior at New York University, and her college roommate, stood at 116th and Seventh Avenue trying to hail a taxi. Five yellow taxis passed them by. He filed a complaint with the City Taxi and Limousine Commission, charging discrimination. Glover made a comment that revealed the type of acquiesce many Black men experience when he stated; “I don’t expect to have a taxi. I’ve been conditioned to
think that someone is not going to stop for me.” A decade later, Christopher Darden (remember him?) tried to hail a taxi while the Good Morning America cameras were on. He was successful in the daytime, but after the sun went down, his luck changed, finally getting a ride when a Black driver stopped for him after two taxis passed him by. This is a well-known and common experience for African American men. The fact that the chances of a Black man hailing a taxi is much lower than that of his white peers, is a reminder that African Americans still have plenty of reasons to be conscious of being Black, even in the most innocuous of situations. When a Black man tries to hail a taxi, he is wondering if his color will be the deciding factor on whether he’s successful or not. That is an experience totally foreign to a white person. This problem is not your common Black and white racism. Very few taxi drivers in New York are white. According to a recent study conducted by Bruce Schaller, a taxi industry consultant based in Brooklyn, 84 percent of the over 99,000 taxi drivers in New York City are immigrants. They come from places such as Pakistan, India, Bangladesh, the West Indies, the Dominican Republic and Haiti. It does not take them long to learn the New
York City landscape, and apparently, it does not take them long to learn the racisms and prejudices of America. Even the Black immigrant taxi drivers hold this same view of African American males. The problem is not limited to the traditional taxis. A study by the National Bureau of Economic Research stated that Black Uber and Lyft users waited 35 percent longer and received higher cancellations rates than their white counterparts. Also, according to this research, having an African American sounding name could also get their ride cancelled. Names such a Todd, Allison and Brad would get fast and reliable service, but if your name is Aisha, Darnell or Rasheed, you may have a very long wait, if you get a ride at all. Uber and Lyft blame this on the individual drivers and say this is not a reflection of their companies. Lyft drivers can see their passengers name and profile picture before they accept a passenger. This information is available for Uber only after they hit accept. Presently, the revamped taxi industry is still not stamping out racism, even though the element of money is totally eliminated. To look at this problem from a wider lens, Black men who have trouble catching a taxi is part of a broader anxiety directed towards them. Law abiding teenager Travon Martin was killed for simply defending himself against an armed adult stranger who
Gulf Coast Urban Spectrum — www.gulfcoasturbanspectrum.com – July/August 2018
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confronted him. His killer’s intrinsic fear of Black males found an understanding audience and that was enough to set him free, even though he was the one who actually created the incident. When a taxi driver passes a young Black man, regardless of the time or circumstances, no one should be surprised. It’s part of the American biography. Is anyone surprised about this problem? However, there’s a chance technology will help solve this problem. Autonomous cars are in our future. The transition will not be overnight, but the testing is already being done in San Francisco, Phoenix, and Pittsburg. The accepted scenario goes something like this; Uber (and other ridesharing apps) are on the rise and Yellow Cab use is on the decline. Eventually, Yellow Cabs will be replaced by Uber drivers. After Uber drivers are in place, they will be replaced with self-driving cars, effectively eliminating the need for human taxi drivers. The transportation landscape of New York City, as well as the rest of the country, will be changed forever. Of course, this change will not be that simple, but there are some facts that can’t be ignored. Uber plans on replacing their human drivers with autonomous cars. They announced in February of 2015 that they will build a fleet of automated cars. These cars are equipped with about two dozen cameras, radar and lidar technology, GPS and technology that use lasers to “see” and interpret their environment. Machine learning algorithms enable the car to traverse its surroundings. The cars know the difference between a fire hydrant, a stop sign, and a traffic light. Transportation Institute claimed that self-driving cars were involved in fewer accidents than cars driven by humans, even though a human was killed by a self-driving car a while back. On the surface, this technology is good news for Black customers. Taxis will be able to pick up and transport anyone to anyplace at any time. Physical money does not need to be exchanged, the thoughts of racist taxi drivers do not need to be considered, and most important, service would be extended to everyone equally. Computers are not racist. Right? We are not in the clear yet. The same algorithms that can distinguish between a fire hydrant and a stop sign can also be used to distinguish between a Black person and a white person. Those same algorithms can teach a computer which areas are more likely to be trouble. We have to ask ourselves what type of data will be fed and analyzed for deep learning.