A tech company has been subject to widespread backlash after a black woman was allegedly asked to select her skin tone while applying for a job.
Charné Graham took to Twitter on Monday, May 10, to reveal the unusual question she'd been asked by a potential employer as she completed a job application.
She posted a screenshot of the drop-down complexion menu with the caption: "Has anyone ever seen this on a job application?"
In a follow-up tweet, Graham wrote: "This is the company guys, a recruiter reached out to me on LinkedIn to apply for a role. I did not continue with the app after seeing the paper bag test."
Unsurprisingly, the initial tweet went viral, and at the time of writing, it has been liked more than 73.8K times and received thousands of retweets.
People were furious that she had been asked such a question.
One Twitter user wrote: "This is why I lie & say I’m white on every single form that I fill out because I don’t have time to play with ppl like this. Marriage license? White. Driver’s License? White. Job Applications? White. People wanna act funny, well guess who specializes in being hilarious..."
A second created a not impressed meme and wrote: "Can't be legal."
A third suggested that Graham report the company to the department of labor for asking such a question.
But perhaps the most relatable response to the drop-down menu was a picture of a sad-looking Bugs Bunny with the caption: "What is the obsession with skin color? This country has a disease."
After the viral tweet, Graham was contacted by the Daily Dot, who explained that because it was a data company, they wanted to know people's skin tones to avoid "racial profiling cases".
The news outlet reported: "She was recently contacted by a recruiter via LinkedIn and asked to apply for a part-time 'social media evaluators' position at Appen, a machine intelligence company in Australia.
"Graham said she understands that as an AI firm, there's a requirement for having data on different skin tones, given the AI's history of mixing up Black people that has resulted in many racial profiling cases."
In another interview with the Sydney Morning Herald, Graham said the question was "a lazy way to try to diversify the artificial intelligence industry".
