Is Pokémon Go racist? How the app may be redlining communities of color

While playing the popular augmented reality game Pokémon Go in Long Beach (CA), a city which is nearly 50% white, Aura Bogado made an unsettling discovery -- there were far more Pokéstops and gyms, locations where people pick up virtual goods or battle one another, than in her predominantly minority neighborhood in Los Angeles. It turns out Niantic, which makes Pokémon Go, relied on a map from a previous augmented reality game called Ingress, which was crowd-sourced from its mostly male, tech-savvy players. The result is a high concentration of Pokéstops in commercial and downtown areas of some cities, while there are typically fewer Pokéstops in non-white or residential areas, if there are any at all. The Urban Institute says the racial divides in the game amount to redlining — a term used when a community is cut off from essential services based on its racial or ethnic make-up. “Inequity is not just in one police shooting, it’s not just in one prison, it’s not just in 100 potholes in one certain area on the black side of town – it’s everywhere,” Bogado said. “It’s built into the fabric of society, and increasingly built into our technology."