Racism is discrimination against one or a group of people according to their race- the color of their skin or place of their birth. This gives rise to biases in certain sectors and aspects of life. According to research, a person’s race matters more than it should even in the crowdfunding sectors. Nonetheless, crowdfunding sites are business platforms themselves, and the sad reality is that, even in the 21st century, skin tones of a person matters. Whites and blacks are still seen as different in many situations and white people are still treated as superiors to the black people.
“The crowd is not colour-blind, as one might hope,” says, Venkat Kuppuswamy, Assistant professor of entrepreneurship and innovation at Northeastern University, Venkat Kuppuswamy found in his recent research that payment the customers are willing to make differs with the race of an entrepreneur. People are willing to pay for products made by a white entrepreneur than to a black one. “We found that bias does exist and that that bias is subconscious; people have a subconscious bias that black entrepreneurs have a lower cost of production.”
Through thorough research, Kuppuswamy and his collaborator, Peter Younkin from the University of Oregon wanted to find the difference in the market status for a white person and a person of colour. The results of racism were positive. They made three different profiles, one with the profile picture of a white man, another with the profile picture of a black man and then let the people decide the price of the products. What they found out was a huge difference between the prices of the two. Even though the products were the same, the prices differed on the basis of the person’s colour.
“The big hope for crowdfunding is that it would create a democratic platform for anyone to present ideas that would be funded on their merits.” Kuppuswamy says.
Disha Mazumder