Rep. Rashida Tlaib on Monday urged Detroit’s police chief to hire only black employees as facial recognition analysts, because other ethnicities believe blacks “all look the same,” according to Breitbart News.
“Analysts need to be African-Americans, not people that are not,” Tlaib reportedly told Detriot police chief James Craig during a tour of the Real Time Crime Center, the city’s 24-hour threat-gathering hub where facial recognition is used to identify suspects. “I think non-African-Americans think African-Americans all look the same!” she added, arguing that Reps. Elijah Cummings and John Lewis are often mistaken for one another because they are both black and bald.
A reporter later asked Tlaib if she believes white people are “not qualified” to operate the software. “No, I think there’s actually been studies out that it’s hard for, you know, like African-Americans would identify African-Americans, similar, Latino same thing,” Tlaib replied.
Imagine the apoplectic outrage if a Republican congressperson had made such a racist declaration.