RACIST SOAP

RACIAL BIAS

A web video posted by Chukwuemeka Afigbo who works for Facebook shows this soap dispenser delivering soap to white hands but it doesn’t recognise his black skin. It appears that the higher the person is on the Fitzpatrick scale (a measure of skin tone), the more difficult it is for light to bounce back.

Another YouTube video featured the HP Media Smart laptop. An African American man and his white female co-worker tested the face detection and tracking functions of the built-in webcam. The HP laptop detected the white colleague’s face and followed her as she moved within the frame, whereas it failed to recognise the black face

This problem has also been found in fitness monitors, digital watches, laptop computers and more recently in Oximeters which measure blood oxygen levels in hospital patients. In each case the design team did not pick up this disparity and recalibrate the sensors to allow for a variety of skin colours. These faults could indicate a wide spread ‘unconscious bias’ in the new product community especially when we discover that a majority of the world’s population are not white.

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According to Wikipedia the first mention of soap comes from Babylon in 2800BC with a Sumerian clay tablet dating from 2500BC recording a recipe for soap for washing woolen fabric. Early Egyptians used soap as a medicine then in 550 BC their records show them making a mix of wood ash and oils for washing clothes. The Romans preferred to oil their skin and scape the dirt away with a blade called a ‘strigil’. China also doesn’t adopt soap until modern times. During the middle ages the middle east became the centre for soap production with Syria exporting its products across the islamic world and also to Europe. Soap reached Spain in the 8th Century but didn’t get to the UK until about 1200.

Industrial production began around 1800 with James Keir’s Tipton soap works. At this time production was heavily regulated with equipment kept under lock and key when not in use and the works was only allowed to produce one industrial ton per boiling.

The Lever brothers Hesketh and James bought a small soap works in Warrington in 1886. They joined forces with a chemist William Watson who had invented a process using vegetable oils rather than tallow. This produced a free lathering material they named ‘Sunlight Soap’. As early adopters of product advertising their market grew and by 1888 they were producing 450 tons per week.

Their business expanded quickly and they entered the American market in 1895. They bought other companies in 1925 and 29 to form Unilever. This major company is now a significant part of the £25.5 billion world market for soap which is anticipated to grow to £41.5 billion by 2027.