July 2nd 2023.
Rickey Smiley took to Twitter on Friday to share a video of himself and another Black person discussing what they felt was discrimination from an Uber driver. They talked about how some drivers have refused to pick them up or acknowledged them when they were trying to get home. This sparked a huge reaction, with many people sharing their own stories of racial discrimination from Uber drivers.
The Uber account responded to Smiley's video and tweet, apologizing and promising to investigate the incident. Uber also said they have a zero-tolerance policy for discrimination. However, this is not the first time that Uber has been accused of racism or discrimination.
In 2020, the Equal Employment Opportunity Commission recommended that a survey of Uber drivers be used as evidence in a case against the company alleging that non-white drivers are kicked off the platform for low ratings more often than white drivers are. This was backed up by a joint report from Asian Americans Advancing Justice-Asian Law Caucus and Rideshare Drivers United which surveyed 810 drivers and found that 69% of non-white drivers faced either temporary or permanent suspension as opposed to 57% of white Uber drivers.
Uber claims to have anti-racist training available to both drivers and riders. They even have a section dedicated to this on their website. But, incidents like these show that Uber has a long way to go in becoming an anti-racist company. In 2021, Uber was sued by the Department of Justice for discriminating against disabled riders, for which they had to pay millions of dollars in damages.
It's clear that Uber has a history of racial discrimination, and it's important that they continue to work on addressing these issues and making sure that their drivers and riders are all treated equally.
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