As @surpassinggoogle and I have discussed many times, yes, the internet is racist.

For anyone who doesn't believe this, let's take a look at what images pop up in my favorite free stock image sites: unsplash and pixabay.

UNSPLASH

When you type in black man in the search box, you get this:

A lot of the men pictured in this search result are white. You have to really search hard to find any interesting photos of black men.

When you type in black woman in the search box, you get this:

You get some white women in this search.

Ok, let's move on to Pixabay.

When you search for black man here is what comes up:

You get a bunch of white men, a white woman and a some half-naked tribal black people.

Here are the results of black woman in Pixabay:

Well, you don't even get any black women in this first page. Something is not right, obviously.

I did some searching today online for stock photos for black people and it looks like there are few or no free stock photo resources. Instead of us feeling paralyzed or victimized by this situation, we can look at it as a huge opportunity. I don't know what percentage of the world is non-white, but I know it's bigger than we think it is. The internet is a reflection of those who build it. And the non-white world is not really represented in stock photos.

Here's my idea that I hope someone from Africa will step up to make into a reality....

Let's Build The Most Amazing Creative Commons Stock Image Library For The World To Use And Get It Right

The focus of our stock image library would in the beginning be creating unique and interesting photos of black people because that is the area of greatest scarcity. Entrepreneurs like myself look for areas that have not been super saturated. We look for huge gaps and as we onboard tons of Africans as well as Asians to the Steem ecoystem, our Planet Steem population will expand to look like a true representation of the world. We all will need a free stock image library to use on this platform that is more diverse than what is currently available. Why not create some beautiful gem on the internet that is free for all world citizens, and actually looks like the citizens that use it?

Collectively, we could fix this problem.

There are two things I really dislike: bad writing and bad photos. Most people don't even realize that every photo needs to be adjusted and messed with in order for it to make an impression and be worthy of publishing anywhere.

I hope @honourmaus doesn't feel singled out in my example below, but I want to show you what a few tweaks using the Enlight photo app can do for a normal picture.

@honourmaus recently commented with a photo of himself, and I made a few adjustments to it to bring out the detail. I have been noticing with a lot of Africans that the pictures are too dark. I read something a while ago that film and cameras are generally not designed for black people. Anyway, here's the example and resulting photo after i made some adjustments:

after:

there's pixelation on this so it's not a perfect example of enhancement, but you get the idea

Here's what needs to happen to make this dream into reality:

Question: Could we build this photo stock library using IPFS? (Programmer please respond)
Someone who is passionate about photography (and a good editor) would need to step up to make this happen.
As with a lot of projects, I could be a support for this especially in the beginning phases (I'm a starter, a vision person, not a finisher)
A group of people who are very passionate about "fixing the internet" need to step up and make this happen!
If you think about it, this would not be very hard to do since we are all online. All that would need to happen is a group of people emerge who want to submit their own photos for copyright free, creative commons. We have cameras on our phones, and we have Steem. So it is only a matter of willpower and determination.

This is a project I would support and give my upvotes to.......
It's a project that is just waiting for someone to create because there is a great need.

The other huge reason I could see this is because if we collectively make this happen, then we will spread the good word about Planet Steem to the rest of the internet. It would be our gift to the world, to make it right and people will be attracted to our story, and the reasons why we created it.

Anyone looking to make a difference, and to make income is welcome to go for it.

Moving forward, I will be presenting tons of ideas for income opportunities, for people who are not bloggers. I think Steem is at a stage where we can begin to form projects, businesses and groups that target specific areas of improvement. Not everyone can just blog on here. We can expand Planet Steem in more directions, and be rewarded for our efforts.

LET'S THINK BIG!

special thanks to @surpassinggoogle who confirmed my suspicions about the internet being racist.