I wonder what the response would be to a browser called: Whitebird? Wait a minute I think I already know!

Posted by marty callott | 12:20 pm on December 12, 2008.

Maybe she could have chosen a different name, but I don’t understand why anyone would have a problem with the concept.

Posted by Eugene Morris | 12:31 pm on December 12, 2008.

Marty,
You’re being silly.
The web allows diversity and niches, and this is just a part of it.
If it works, great; if it doesn’t, somebody else will come along and fill the niche.

Posted by Edward Barrera | 12:31 pm on December 12, 2008.

It’s not racist. It’s niche marketing. Is afro-sheen racist? With flawed logic it is since it is a hair product marketed to black people. Like the writer noted, if it doesn’t get used it will fade away.

Posted by Paul | 12:34 pm on December 12, 2008.

Whoa. Seriously?

Posted by Tim Tracey | 12:34 pm on December 12, 2008.

As Marty correctly points out, I think all of your opinions would be very different if it were a browser intended for white people.

Double standards in politically correct behavior drive me nuts. If this were “Whitebird” Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton would be camped out on her door step calling for a boycott.

I have no problem with this product, but I wish the same political tolerance would be given to all races, creeds, skin colors and not just to those who hold minority status.

Posted by John Hebertson | 12:50 pm on December 12, 2008.

This is a lame argument. IAC started Rushmore – a search engine geared towards African-Americans. It has yet to take off or make any noise louder than a whimper. When did Adotas last cover Rushmore if at all?

African-Americans are highly diverse people. While they celebrate successful African-Americans and love positive African-American role models, they still vary in interests and socio-economic lines. I have African-American friends who are very Afro-centric. I have others who would be deemed “snowflake” by other African-Americans.

Just because you’re black doesn’t mean you want to date black singles. Just because you’re black doesn’t mean you like hip-hop or rap or BET. Just because you’re black doesn’t mean you like the so-called “urban” market.

And in this country, being black means a lot of things. There are black people who are Jamaicans, Haitians, Trinidadians and true Africans. Their mentalities are very different from Black Americans. Those people have more immigrant mentality and defy a lot of the stereotypes attributed to black Americans. These people’s interests expand into Caribbean news – Jamaican news, Haitian news, etc.

It’s extremely difficult to pair something like a web browser or search engine and relegate it to one race because individual tastes are very different.

As an Asian, I could care less about Korea, Japan, Burma, Thailand, or the Philippines. But I do care about Taiwan. If someone were to create an Asian-only search engine or browser, I’d likely visit it now and then – but it wouldn’t be my main tool.

Because of so many websites and companies trying to make money online, diversification and “nichification” is necessary. This is why you see dating sites breaking into specialties such as Asian Dating, Interracial Dating, and so on.

So while Blackbird is an interesting experiment, it’s not racist, and it’s success is far from guaranteed. After all, successful Afro-centric sites like Blackplanet.com are doing well, but they are not accused of being racist, right?

Posted by AK Works | 1:06 pm on December 12, 2008.

There is a browser for white people called IE, Firefox, and Goole Chrome that we all are forced to use. Shouldn’t African Americans have their own also?

Posted by Carlton Weathers | 1:15 pm on December 12, 2008.

I tried it, it didn’t work LOL

Posted by me | 4:55 pm on December 12, 2008.

INSECURE , RACIST GET SO NERVOUS WHEN EVER BLACKS ORGANIZE ON ANY LEVEL. FIRST OF ALL MOST CORPORATE ENTITIES ARE WHITE OWNED OR BASE. TRUE FREEDOM IS when all people have access and equivalent economical empowerment. So when people make comments like what’s posted at the very top, ignore it or respond intelligently.

Blackbird, Black bird, Black bird.com

Posted by LIVEONCE | 8:05 pm on December 14, 2008.

LIVEONCE, in my opinion, trying to marginalize people with a different opinion than your own by calling them “racist” is not an intelligent response. This type of race baiting just perpetuates divisions and moves us further away from the equality you are seeking. We will never rid ourselves of true racism or racial biases until we ALL start seeing and treating people based on the content of their character and not based on their skin color or ethnic background.

Products like IE, Firefox and Chrome were not created for or marketed to any particular skin pigment or ethnicity. For that matter it is racially biased to assume that these programs were developed only by “white” people and therefore inherently racist in some way. In fact, Blackbird is based on the Mozilla platform so in reality most of the differences between these two browsers are cosmetic.

As I said in my original post, I don’t have a problem with a product that targets a particular race or ethnicity, that is just good marketing because the reality right now is there are true differences between races. What I do have a problem with is that we can’t even discuss overtly marketing to white people in a similar way without minorities calling the very idea racist. This is a flat out double standard.

Posted by John Hebertson | 10:51 am on December 15, 2008.

Stormfront.org is a website/portal geared towards white people.

Last I heard, Jesse Jackson nor Al Sharpton care about stormfront.org.

Posted by Donald | 11:06 am on January 5, 2009.