Cab Drivers, Uber, and the Costs of Racism | Hacker News Reader

Cab Drivers, Uber, and the Costs of Racism

racialicious.com

20 pointsjellywish16 comments

Uber drivers aren't afraid to pick you up because you have a lot of money and a smartphone. It's a signal that you're a young black hipster and not a gang banger.

It's still racist. It just shifts the outcome in your favor.

Hey, progress is progress. At least we're seeing some improvement.

The first sentence is still true if you remove the race references from it. Is it still racist then? Or is it just showing differences based on income level?

It is using differences based on income level as a piece of information that is more important in a driver's decision making process than race.

Cab drivers who do not have that information fall back to race. Presumably, if a crystal ball existed that told a driver "This fare will not harm you", the problem of racism would disappear.

There aren't many drivers who are refusing money out of pure racial hatred. Black cab drivers are racist against blacks too.

How is it 'still racist'?

Gang bangers or hipsters. My ethnographic lesson for America is done now.

uh... gang bangers have money and smart phones too. They used to rob people for $200 Air Jordans. Now it is for iPhones. Maybe you were confusing "gang banger" with "poor".

To use Uber I think you have to give a credit card. I think this is be biggest deterrent to breaking any laws: they already know who you are and if you commit a crime they can find you. I suppose a gang banger could use a fake credit card to set up an account just to then get a cab and rob them, but that creates a big hurdle that I think will eliminate lots of crime.

That is different then. The parent comment was about money and a smart phone being enough to remove the possibility of picking up a gang banger. Having a credit card on file is a whole different thing.

Disclaimer: I work for Uber.

Thought it might be worth mentioning that you can actually use Uber to hail a regular taxi in a bunch of cities, including SF, Boston, Chicago, and Toronto. You do have to pay a guaranteed tip (which incentivizes the taxi drivers to take Uber dispatches), but in return you get the same race-blind properties of Uber at regular cab rates. Plus no dealing with "broken" credit card terminals...

And yes, obviously there is still inherent socioeconomic filtering that happens when you ask someone to use an expensive smartphone to hail a cab, but the phones will get cheaper, the apps will get better, and hopefully the level of accountability in the transportation ecosystem will continue to increase over time.

There's still racial inequality if you have to pay extra (to use Uber) to get a similar service that other races can get cheaper (normal cab).

The article didn't say that Uber is making normal cabs unracist, just that Uber itself can't be racist, and that this gives Uber yet another market edge over normal cabs.

I can buy that to some extent, but it seems fairly common among luxury businesses: wealthy black businessmen are in many situations treated as just a "wealthy person" regardless of their race, so are insulated from many of the problems faced by the majority of non-wealthy blacks. I.e. their wealth is the most salient demographic lens people view them through. Hence why Herman Cain can claim (and might honestly believe) that racism is no longer holding anyone back.

I don't know anything about cabs, but the article makes it sound to me like we're talking about a $5 difference here. If you can afford $20 on a cab ride you can probably afford $25. We're not talking about the difference between millionaires and people living below the poverty line.

Class discrimination isn't great, but it's certainly better than race discrimination, insofar as it is possible to change your class (however difficult that may be) and not your race. It's a step.

And on that note, is it even class discrimination to sell a product/service that not everyone can afford? It sounds to me that Uber offers some extra value/convenience (for every customer) that traditional cabs don't and that will cost you a little extra.

LOVED this. Markets FTW.

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