Asian-American groups in the US are demanding that Google remove an app called ‘Make Me Asian’ from its Google Play store. The phone application lets users alter their photos to resemble Asian stereotypes.
A similar app called ‘Make Me Indian’, which alters photos to resemble Native
Americans — with brown skin, war paint and a feather headband — has also received criticism.
“These apps perpetuate hateful and offensive stereotypes that are used to marginalise and humiliate Asians and Native Americans,” wrote Washington pastor Peter Chin on the website change.org, where he has started a petition for the “racist” apps to be taken down.
A person can use the app to “make himself a Chinese, Japanese, Korean,” creator and designer Kimbery Deiss wrote on Google Play about the app that allows people to be transformed into an Asian with a Fu Manchu mustache and a rice paddy hat.