Around The Web: HP Racist Claims Refuted

Over the last few days a tongue-in-cheek claim of racist HP hardware has gone viral as a video showing an HP monitor's inability to detect a Brown skinned person wound its way through the web. What started out as a humorous observation of "bias" became a blogosphere hot topic and I watched in a combination of dismay and amusement as bloggers went to task badmouthing the technology giant.

I on the other hand, have a sense of humor and recognized the initial youtube video for the comedy that it was.  I am also a logical minded person who recognized that the likelihood that a COMPANY WITH ANY INTENT OF FISCAL VIABILITY would PURPOSELY PRODUCE AND DISTRIBUTE BLATANTLY BIASED HARDWARE is almost nonexistent.  That just didn't make any sense.  Even the most racist businessman isn't that stupid. Anyway, it seems people were up in arms about nothing (I swear I read a blog that called its readers to boycott HP...), apparently it's not a melanin count issue, more than an issue of lighting (see the below clip for details).

We need to learn a lesson from this small but telling incident.  Accusations of racism are serious charges and should be used only when factually based.  When we spit charges of bias without objectivity, investigation, and substantiation we end up sounding like the race that cried wolf.