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Petition Condemning ‘White Privilege’ Of Apple’s Siri Gets Over 100 Signatures

By Daryl Deino
Published on: 10:32 PST, Jun 4, 2016

There are over 100 people who have signed a petition demanding that Apple fire their digital assistant, Siri, and hire a minority one instead. However, not everybody is happy with the petition, which was posted last week at Change.org. The mission statement was clearly stated.

“By using a white assistant with a white accent, Apple is proving how white privilege rules the tech industry. Apple needs to diversify their products. Siri should be replaced by an African American or Hispanic assistant. “

Some of the people who have signed the petition so far are angry with Apple.

“Cultural diversity is important. Shame on you, Apple,” claims Randy Groaling of Anaheim, California.

“Racism is a huge problem and Apple is only encouraging it,” states Aaron Lopez of Yuma, Arizona.

“Apple has always been racist. period,” claims Brendon Dolezer of Chino Hills, California.

iPhone 6s Plus Siri
Some people think making a big deal out of the ethnicity of a digital assistant is harmful towards equality. [Photo via Daryl Deino]
However, there have also been people who signed just so they could post a retort to the petition, which they think takes away attention from true civil rights.

“Wow. As a biracial women, I cannot say enough how pathetic this petition is. It divides people,” claims Pam Danson of Chicago, Illinois.

“I am [sic] signed this so I could post and tell people signing the petition that they are the biggest idiots ever. You need to get out of your parent’s basements and get a REAL JOB!” screams Robert Steinle of Norwalk, California.

This is not the first time Apple’s Siri has come under fire. Last year, thousands signed a petition accusing the Italian version of Siri as being homophobic. The mission statement was very clear.

“How many iPhone 6 users are gay, lesbians, bisexual, or transgender? How many users have LGBT friends, children, colleagues, neighbors? Were these people to ever ask the Italian version of Siri for information about lesbians, it would answer: ‘that is not a nice thing to say.’ Were these people to ever confess Siri they are gay, they would get the same answer.”

The petition adds that in Italy, the LGBT community is not granted even the most basic and fundamental civil rights. It notes that Italy is a country in which homophobic bullying still reaches newspapers’ front pages. The people who signed the petition were very upset with Apple and Siri.

“I am signing because political change is often preceded by cultural change, and cultural change is hard to achieve as long as we are surrounded by people who keep mistaking ‘different’ with ‘wrong.’
Different is not wrong, and talking about it is not rude,” claimed Anna Chiara Brunetti of Stockholm, Sweeden.

“Gay should never be an insult,” said Emily Hill in Australia.

This issue created a huge uproar on Twitter as well.

Speaking of Siri, she will allegedly be the star of the 2016 WWDC conference. According to ValueWalk, Siri may become even smarter since Apple is looking to better integrate its various operating systems with the digital assistant. Siri could finally come to the Mac operating system and Apple could talk up the integration of VocalIQ, an acquisition it made last year to improve Siri. While some will continue to argue about the political correctness of Siri, others will enjoy her new features.

[Photo by Oli Scarff/Getty Images]

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