Why Search Engine Algorithms Need to Change

This week, I read the first chapter of a book called Algorithms of Oppression: How Search Engines Reinforce Racism, which was written by Safiya Umoja Noble. The chapter says that search engines perpetuate racist and sexist stereotypes about women, particularly African American women. When Noble googled the phrase “Why are black women so,” Google automatically filled in results such as “mean,” “angry,” “loud,” and “attractive.” Similarly, when she entered the phrase “Why are white women so,” Google suggested words like “pretty,” “beautiful,” “mean,” and “easy.” Google’s algorithms are prolonging stereotypes that women have been trying to resist, and no one seems to doing anything about it. When I googled the word “beautiful,” pictures of women were the main result, though I didn’t google the word “women.” The employees currently working at Google must be white men who do not have an issue with seeing women sexualized on their computer screens. The solution, then, is to hire more women at Google. Women can clearly explain to the men in power why the search results are not appropriate, and they can work to change the algorithms. In the meantime, we need to make sure the public is aware of the faulty, biased system. Even though it has been repeated time and time again, many people still don’t know the general rule of thumb when it comes to the internet: that you should not trust everything you see. Additionally, just because an article or a picture is the first search result does not mean it is the best or most credible; advertisers have paid to put it at the top. I am disappointed that Google hasn’t done more to fix this problem, but I am glad there are women like Noble who are exposing the issues and calling for change.