{"id":14849,"date":"2013-01-25T23:01:48","date_gmt":"2013-01-25T23:01:48","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2013-01-25T23:01:48","modified_gmt":"2013-01-25T23:01:48","slug":"Google-pulls--Make-Me-Asian--app-after-uproar","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/asiancemagazine.com\/?p=14849","title":{"rendered":"Google pulls “Make Me Asian” app after uproar"},"content":{"rendered":"

Google has removed a “Make Me Asian” app — that let players change their appearance — following an uproar by Asian American activists who said the game promoted derogatory stereotypes.<\/strong><\/p>\n

As of Thursday, “Make Me Asian”<\/strong> and similar apps such as “Make Me Fat” and “Make Me (American) Indian” were no longer available on the search engine giant’s online store Google Play.<\/p>\n

“Make Me Asian” had billed itself as allowing a person to “make himself a Chinese, Japanese, Korean or any other Asian.” <\/strong>The user was able to add features to a person’s picture, such as a conical hat or a Fu Manchu moustache.<\/p>\n

Nearly 8,500 people signed a petition on the social action site change.org urging Google to remove the app after the blog Angry Asian Man in November drew attention to it, calling it “ridiculously racist”.<\/p>\n

Peter Chin, the Washington pastor who launched the petition, said he was concerned that stereotypes offensive to Asian Americans would become more mainstream if distributed through Google Play.<\/strong><\/p>\n

“I understand if people still use those characterizations, but I don’t feel comfortable with them becoming commonplace. That would really, I think, be going backwards for the Asian American community,” he said.<\/p>\n

“If these were several generations down the line and these kinds of stereotypes were so old and played out that no one even cared, then I could understand. But I don’t think we’re quite there yet. They are still fairly offensive and used very often,” he said.<\/p>\n

Asian American activists often complain that the community is depicted as being perpetually foreign, even though people of Asian heritage have lived in the United States for generations.<\/strong><\/p>\n

Google did not immediately return a request for comment. Chin said that Google only offered formulaic responses over the concerns and did not inform him that it was taking down the app.<\/p>\n

Source AP<\/em>
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