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There is a difference in the results for "portraits of European" and "portraits of Europeans". "portraits of Europeans" contains a large number of non-European

There is a difference in the results for "portraits of European" and "portraits of Europeans". "portraits of Europeans" contains a large number of non-European faces.

csydas 10y ago
> "portraits of Europeans" contains a large number of non-European faces. Which are the same that are showing up via the articles about art of european history from the original result. Again, this is just keywording working against your expectations. The relevant results for these keywords lead to articles discussing the presence of non-whites in European artwork. What you envision for the results of the search terms are apparently different than how other people envision them. In this case, the search is considering portrait paintings, not portrait photos or anything, and from there, it looks like the most popular results are these articles. Search for "[pictures, photos] of european people" or just "european people" and you get more pictures of white europeans. Unsuprisingly, once you search "paintings of european people" you start to get the aforementioned paintings once more. This isn't a conspiracy or social manipulation, it's just that there is apparently enough discussion and interest in older european paintings including black people that searches related to paintings of europeans returns a few results with black people or indian people.
- affiliator 10y ago
  so you are think websites containing the keywords 'portraits', 'Europeans', and 'people' happen to predominantly be talking about portraits of non-European people by Europeans?
  - csydas 10y ago
    Yes, and the search results show that there are. I'm not sure why you're even questioning this and not just looking at the search results beyond the color of the people in the paintings: http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/62747229987/marten-van-mytens-iii-portrait-of-a-young-black http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/62747229987/marten-van-my... http://afroeurope.blogspot.ru/2010/08/history-of-black-people-in-europe.html http://afroeurope.blogspot.ru/2010/08/history-of-black-peopl... http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Art/Additional_art.htm http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Art/Addi... Yes, blogs and tumblr sites but these are valid results.
    - affiliator 10y ago
      Well if they are blackwashing the image results, they would be blackwashing the regular results too. I am not 100% convinced but I think you're best argument is that a search for "european people" gives the results you would expect. If they were blackwashing results, you would expect to see the same phenomenon there. What do you make of the results for the search term "American inventors" which returns largely black inventors. http://i.imgur.com/uTF3FTN.jpg http://i.imgur.com/uTF3FTN.jpg
      - csydas 10y ago
        I think it reflects the reality of what people apparently consider great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_inventors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_inventors Though, admittedly after Edison, Carver, Whitney, Franklin, Moorse, I ran out of people I consider "famous" inventors, so the list doesn't really impact me. I do question their inclusions for some inventors though...as quite a few were not born in the US, and only came to the US later on, but that's my own hang up) I also suggest that this is a prepared result and not a search result so I don't hold it to the same scrutiny. I treat it the same as an advertisement.

There is a difference in the results for "portraits of European" and "portraits of Europeans". "portraits of Europeans" contains a large number of non-European faces.

csydas 10y ago

> "portraits of Europeans" contains a large number of non-European faces. Which are the same that are showing up via the articles about art of european history from the original result. Again, this is just keywording working against your expectations. The relevant results for these keywords lead to articles discussing the presence of non-whites in European artwork. What you envision for the results of the search terms are apparently different than how other people envision them. In this case, the search is considering portrait paintings, not portrait photos or anything, and from there, it looks like the most popular results are these articles. Search for "[pictures, photos] of european people" or just "european people" and you get more pictures of white europeans. Unsuprisingly, once you search "paintings of european people" you start to get the aforementioned paintings once more. This isn't a conspiracy or social manipulation, it's just that there is apparently enough discussion and interest in older european paintings including black people that searches related to paintings of europeans returns a few results with black people or indian people.

affiliator 10y ago
so you are think websites containing the keywords 'portraits', 'Europeans', and 'people' happen to predominantly be talking about portraits of non-European people by Europeans?
- csydas 10y ago
  Yes, and the search results show that there are. I'm not sure why you're even questioning this and not just looking at the search results beyond the color of the people in the paintings: http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/62747229987/marten-van-mytens-iii-portrait-of-a-young-black http://medievalpoc.tumblr.com/post/62747229987/marten-van-my... http://afroeurope.blogspot.ru/2010/08/history-of-black-people-in-europe.html http://afroeurope.blogspot.ru/2010/08/history-of-black-peopl... http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Art/Additional_art.htm http://realhistoryww.com/world_history/ancient/Misc/Art/Addi... Yes, blogs and tumblr sites but these are valid results.
  - affiliator 10y ago
    Well if they are blackwashing the image results, they would be blackwashing the regular results too. I am not 100% convinced but I think you're best argument is that a search for "european people" gives the results you would expect. If they were blackwashing results, you would expect to see the same phenomenon there. What do you make of the results for the search term "American inventors" which returns largely black inventors. http://i.imgur.com/uTF3FTN.jpg http://i.imgur.com/uTF3FTN.jpg
    - csydas 10y ago
      I think it reflects the reality of what people apparently consider great: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_inventors https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Category:American_inventors Though, admittedly after Edison, Carver, Whitney, Franklin, Moorse, I ran out of people I consider "famous" inventors, so the list doesn't really impact me. I do question their inclusions for some inventors though...as quite a few were not born in the US, and only came to the US later on, but that's my own hang up) I also suggest that this is a prepared result and not a search result so I don't hold it to the same scrutiny. I treat it the same as an advertisement.