A website called Ghetto Tracker that rates city neighborhoods so users know which areas to avoid has launched and its name alone has already caused a PR nightmare.
The startup wasn’t trying to be funny when it introduced its beta site on Tuesday, but just a day after Hacker News caught wind of it they unceremoniously changed the site’s name.
Though its creators have rechristened Ghetto Tracker as Good Part of Town with a new website, even that's now been taken down amidst accusations of classism, racism, and insensitivity.
Racist? Ghetto Tracker allowed users to rate an area's safety. Using those ratings, the site would dub the poorly rated neighborhoods 'GHETTO' in bold red
‘If your goal was to inspire 100 "what's wrong with tech" articles, you named this perfectly,’ wrote prescient Hacker News contributor bendoernberg. ‘I would highly recommend changing the name and addressing the problematic aspects of red-lining neighborhoods before you get absolutely hammered by a million bloggers.’
When a user looks up a neighborhood, a red warning of ‘Ghetto’ pops up in areas that have been unfavorably rated by ‘locals and people familiar with the area,’ according to the site’s now-removed ‘About’ page.
This has led many to accuse the site of being not just classist and uncouth, but also racist.
‘They should simply geotag by ethnicity and save people the need to subjectively "rate" certain areas,’ wrote Hacker News boards2x.
Writer David Holmes at PandoDaily agreed.
‘It’s pretty detrimental to society when we reinforce the idea that poor or crime-heavy areas are places to be categorically avoided or shamed,’ wrote Holmes in a piece titled GhettoTracker Is The Worst Site on the Internet.
Holmes asked Ghetto Tracker is the whole thing was a joke.
‘This was originally seriously developed as a travel tool and the name "Ghetto Tracker" was meant to be something that people would remember,’ replied an unnamed person at the website. ‘Well, it worked, but unfortunately, it appears to have brought a lot of negative baggage along with it.’
The source at the website formerly known as Ghetto Tracker, who refuses to be named, said the site was supposed to be ‘both a satire and functional at the same.’
Florida's Tallahassee Web Design and its owner Casey Smith have been identified in a Gawker post as the programmers behind the site, but Smith maintains he was merely hired to build the site.
However, the backlash proves most people took it seriously.
By Wednesday, just one day after word of the app first spread, Ghetto Tracker was redubbed Good Part of Town.
A stock photo of a white family was replaced by a black family. That site was also quickly shuttered.
The site read ‘Coming soon,’ and beside the title was a YoutTube video of a clip from National Lampoon’s Vacation wherein a white family is terrified as they drive through a crime-riddled neighborhood.
Now, the site is all but empty. ‘Need advice on an area,’ it asks atop a list of unused discussion threads. ‘Ask a local!’
SCRIPTURES:
Psa 83:3
They have taken crafty counsel against thy people, and consulted against thy hidden ones.
Job 8:22
They that hate thee shall be clothed with shame;
Pro 13:18
Poverty and shame shall be to him that refuseth instruction: but he that regardeth reproof shall be honoured.
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