Make Me White, Facebook!

It’s another day in the land of “Only White is Beautiful.”

Vaseline is offering a Facebook app in India that allows users to whiten their profile pictures on the site. Apparently with just a few clicks, brown faces can turn progressively lighter. Think Michael Jackson or Sammy Sosa but faster. Much faster.

Now please don’t think Vaseline is doing this to promote white supremacy in India on purely ideological grounds. There’s profit to be made from a racial hierarchy that places white at the top. The Facebook app is part of Vaseline’s summer campaign to promote their new skin-lightening cream —-and here’s another twist—- for men.

Facebook Can Predict Your Ethnicity?

Yes.

Facebook developers have found a way to predict your ethnicity, based on your name. According to SmartBlog, FB pros are using U.S. Census data to use your first and last name to decide the likelihood of your race.

For example, if a FB user's last name is Mueller, Census data says that person's ethnicity has a 97% chance of being White. But if the user has the first name LaToya, than that person is most likely Black. Another interesting name, Washington actually showed a 89% chance of being Black.

By applying their predictions of ethnicity to users’ friend networks, the team found:

The ethnic makeup of Facebook users has steadily become more diverse and now generally reflects the U.S. population, unlike a few years ago, when Caucasians and Asian/Pacific Islanders were over-represented.