White men have been selected the most, says advocacy group.
By Deepak Chitnis
WASHINGTON, DC: A female advocacy group called Spark Movement, one member of which is an Indian-origin girl who is just 17 years old, has released a report indicating that Google “Doodles” – the funky alternative Google logos that adorn the site’s main page on important historical dates – have a tendency to be both racist and sexist.
Spark Movement examined all of the Google Doodles put out by the company for four years, 2010 through 2013. A total of 445 such images were put out by the search giant over the year – of that sum, 357 Doodles were created either of or to celebrate the accomplishments of men, while a paltry 73 were done for women. That means that Google Doodles favored men more than 80% of the time over the last four years, and white men in particular 62% of the time.
“We need to talk about why the numbers have been skewed for so long, and what it says about how we view history – whose achievements are important, whose achievements we celebrate, and whose achievements are erased,” says the organization. “Google Doodles may seem lighthearted, especially when accompanied by quirky games and animation, but in reality they have emerged as a new manifestation of who we value as a society, a sign of who “matters.” Just like statues, stamps, and national holidays, you know that if someone is featured on Google’s homepage, they’ve done something important.”
A graphical breakdown of the Google Doodles shows that 18% of all Google Doodles celebrated “men of color,” such as Martin Luther King, Jr., which translated to 82 instances in total. White women were recognized 12% of the time, and women of color registered a shockingly low 4% of all Google Doodles over the last four years. The remaining 4% belong to what the organization refers to as “uncertain” men and women.
According to the report, the Spark Movement team conducting the survey looked at images of each Doodle subject and determined their ethnicity just on that; when they were unable to definitively say what ethnicity the subject belonged to, they were classified as “unknown,” which happened for 3% of men and 1% of women.
“We fully acknowledge that we are working within a flawed framework,” says the report. “In cases that left us conflicted, we left the individual’s race ‘uncertain.’ The vast majority of the people whose race we felt uncertain about were men from Latin America. For the sake of transparency, here are the 15 people who we left ‘uncertain.’”
For global Google Doodles, which are ones seen in all countries around the world and not just in the US, white men are showcased even more prominently – 76% of the time. White women are highlighted 15% of the time, while men of color get 7% of the Google Doodle share and the remaining 2% go to women of color.
Only human honorees who received Google Doodles were recognized by the survey, leaving out such distinguished fictional luminaries as Popeye and The Flintstones. The full report can be found here.
To contact the author, email to deepakchitnis@americanbazaaronline.com
2 Comments
Do you guys actually believe the crap you are spewing? Google is a private organization, they can celebrate whoever they want, but you act like the slightest tilt one way or another is some huge injustice. Getting upset about “Google Doodles” makes you look silly and immature to the rest of the world. No sane person considers this a real problem. Now don’t you have a diaper to change or something?
The doodle in google are genderless and are not meant to offend people but feel free to contact us.
-The google team