'Three black teenagers' Google search sparks outrage

Google image searches for "three black teenagers" and "three white teenagers" get very different results, raising troubling questions about how racial bias in society and the media is reflected online.

Kabir Alli, an 18-year-old graduating senior from Clover Hill High School in Midlothian (VA) posted a video clip on Twitter of a Google image search for "three black teenagers" which turned up an array of police mugshots. He and friends then searched for "three white teenagers," and found groups of smiling young people. "I had actually heard about this search from one of my friends and just wanted to see everything for myself. I didn't think it would actually be true," Alli said. "When I saw the results I was nothing short of shocked." The Twitter post has been retweeted nearly 65,000 times since June 7, and Twitter users are using the hashtag #threeblackteenagers to discuss the implications of the video. The conversation about online racism comes as people express anger that the photo of Brock Turner, convicted in the Stanford University sexual assault case, was from high school yearbook, not his police mugshot. "I understand it's all just an algorithm based on most visited pages but Google should be able to have more control over something like that," Alli said.