Picket Report offers an apology for racial stereotyping of American neighborhoods by ethnicity, age, & economic status.
Picket Report, thought to be one of Detroit’s best tech start-ups in 2011 is not off to a good start this year. The fledgling company has been raising eyebrows from its conception, not for its technology but how they have been using it. The company’s online search tool was designed to offer a deeper view into the lifestyle and the demographics of surrounding neighborhoods by aggregating millions of data pieces into a search tool with prepackaged categories. While the data the company collects is not in dispute or inaccurate, it’s how the data is categorized and presented in the search tool. Screenshots captured by Curb illustrates how the company grouped society into color coded stereotyped titles and as if that wasn’t enough, each title was complete with a full description of its makeup. Below are some of the categories published on the debut of their site.
- “STRUGGLING SOCIETIES: Economically challenged mix of singles, divorced and widowed individuals in smaller cities and urban areas looking to make ends meet.”
- “SOUL SURVIVORS: Older, down-scale African-Americans singles and single parents established in modest urban homes.”
- “HARD TIMES: Older, down-scale and ethnically-diverse singles typically concentrated in inner-city apartments.”
- “CUIDAD STRIVERS: Mid-scale Hispanic Families and single parents in gateway communities.”
- “ASIAN ACHIEVERS: Enjoying dynamic lifestyles in metro areas.”
- “AMERICAN ROYALTY: Wealthy, influential and successful couples and families living in prestigious suburbs.”
The image above is a screenshot featured in an Inman News article which illustrates the color coded segregation maps.
In the Real Estate, Leasing & Mortgage industry the Fair Housing Law prohibits agents or realtors from steering their clients away from one property to another based on ethnicity, color, sex, religion or national origin. With that said, the tool can be interpreted as marketed to real estate & mortgage professions by offering the industry a way to provide this information indirectly without violating the law.
Interestingly enough Picket Report is backed by Quicken Loans which happens to be the largest online mortgage provider in the nation. Dan Gilbert, founder of Quicken Loans is also thought to have had a hand in the creation of Picket Report.
In the wake of all the controversy stirred up by many online media posts, Picket Report has since removed the lifestyle categories and issued the statement below.
This makes me wonder if Quicken Loans uses Picket Reports in any of their internal loan quoting processes. Things that make you go, Hmmm…
Contributor, designer & admin for JohnHart Gazette.
