After years of requiring users to list the color of their skin on their profile to allow for race-based filtering, Scruff is finally making its “ethnicity” field optional.
So why the sudden change?
Well, according to Scruff co-founder and CEO Eric Silverberg, the app, which has over 12 million users in 180 countries, wants to do its part to end global racism.
“We recognize that the queer community of color faces discrimination and racism as part of their regular lives,” Silverberg says. “It is why Scruff is the only platform that vigorously enforces its community guidelines to ensure that harassment, racism and abuse doesn’t happen, and if it does it is dealt with swiftly.”
How about we take this to the next level?
Our newsletter is like a refreshing cocktail (or mocktail) of LGBTQ+ entertainment and pop culture, served up with a side of eye-candy.
OK, we have to refute Silverberg’s claims that Scruff is the “only” app to “vigorously” combat racism and abuse. Apps like Jack’d, Noir, and Chappy have been doing this for quite a while now. In fact, Scruff is actually kinda late to the party.
Related: This dating app is for ‘lovers of diversity’ who are sick of seeing racist trash on Grindr
Silverberg adds that “what people are comfortable sharing changes, both as you use the app more and as social and cultural expectations evolve.”
This is quite a turnaround from what he told Buzzfeed in 2016, when he defended the app’s ethnicity filters, saying:
“Ultimately we wanted to build an app and a service that enables guys to find the kind of guys they’re into and for some people that includes… That can mean many things for different people. Sometimes they have ethnic preferences, sometimes they have height/weight preferences, sometimes people have body hair preferences.”
But, hey, people can change, right?
Related: Scruff Founders Defend App’s Ethnicity Filters — “Personal Preference” Or Casual Racism?
The decision comes on the heels of Grindr’s announcement that it will soon be launching “Kindr”, an initiative to combat racism, transphobia, and body-shaming.
“Our upcoming ‘Kindr’ initiative, which is built around education, awareness and specific policy changes in the Grindr app, will serve as the first step of many Grindr will be taking to help foster a more inclusive and respectful community on our platform,” the hookup app said in a statement last month.
Asked about Kindr, Silverberg told the Advocate: “Scruff has always had zero tolerance for abuse on its app, and diligently removes these kinds of accounts to create a safe platform for its users.”
Ultimately, it’s good to see the more popular hookup apps finally acknowledging that racism exists within the LGBTQ community and recognizing how they might be culpable for some of it.
The question now is: After years of promoting sexual racism, is merely getting rid of race-based filtering enough?
Related: Jack’d to Grindr: Admit it! You promote racism and it needs to stop!
Vince
Well that’s great. Back to white guys only on the profiles.
rray63
How long before we see a case in court demanding that some person of one race must date a person of another race. It can’t possibly be that we are attracted to certainly people, even if that is on a race basis. If a poc wants to date only white or Asian men are they racists, or just saying what they are attracted to? I’ve had sex with quite a number of different races, but I’m predominantly attracted to two or three specific types. So am I now racist if I don’t include everyone in the mix? If someone likes me because I’m white should I call them racists if they are a poc? No, that will never happen because the only people that are called racists are white. Any other group can do it and they get a pass, correct? We are taking the PC and diversity cultures to the extreme.
jorgecruz
Waaaa I am a poor discriminated middle-aged white guy because I can’t filter out people of color on scruff. Try getting pulled over 50 or 60 times a year because you are a black guy driving a mercedes in a wealthy neighborhood. See how you feel when the police pull a gun on you because some paranoid white woman calls the police and tells them you are breaking in to the store that you own. You really don’t get it. Give me one example of the police pulling over a middle aged white man and accidentally shooting him to death because they thought he was reaching for a gun when all he was doing was getting his registration and insurance out of the glove compartment.
Apolodorus
God you are disingenuous.
dtlajim
I’m a 1/2 Black 1/2 Mexican guy who primarily dates white guys. I’m now married, to a white guy, but if I were on scruff I would probably filter for white guys. There are black people who only date black people and Latinos who only date Latinos. I can’t recall myself or any other ethnic group called out as racists in these types of mono-ethnic hookup situations. You are correct that only whites are called out for this very same behavior.
Robothedestroyer
It may be because I just woke up and have not had my morning coffee, nor shower, but I have pretty much had enough of the argument above. The fact you have “preferences” is amazing, and your cookie is being mailed as we speak, but the outright dismissal of an interaction with an individual due to ethnicity (for the record, one of MY preferences is to not use the word “race” when describing people… Elves, Orks, and Dwarves are races not different shades of human) is outright racism.
Of course now, naturally, the responce to that is “I said date not talk to stop putting words in my mouth” etc. Well, you’re right however let’s look at the real world: when people list those preferences, which also usually include body type or age, that earns you an instant block. If you don’t instantly block the ethnicity of your distaste then congradulations you’re that close to not being a jerk, but frankly that is how the real world goes down.
Why not instead list your likes instead? I personally love men who are darker than me (both naturally and via tanning bed), when I’m feelin it I might even list that on whatever profile… I also like hairy bellies, tacos, the ocean, and cuddling, but if you’re the opposite of all those preferences: I will still talk to you… even date you! The funny thing about attraction is it all kind of works itself out.
So, instead of posting a laundry list of shit you don’t like maybe post what you do and let your preferences find you. Just maybe someone, given the chance, will change your mind about those preferences and you might fall in love. When you dwell on these things, beyond being a jerk, you’re really just limiting the experiences life is handing to you.
AndThenTheresMax
Um…
There’s a difference between “preferences” and racism. You are allowed to have your preferences as long as it not veiled in racism there is a fine line.
Invader7
Another reason I don’t use “dating / hook-up ” apps anymore. Boring, time wasting, generic same ole people on the apps.
Chrisk
At the end of the day it’s what you make it. If you’re looking for some kind of community then you might be disappointed. However, if you just get on and off ie not spend your whole evening on it then it can be effective. That and take it with a grain of salt since most on it are game players and a few psycho’s.
Chrisk
Scruff is only doing this to not stand out as racist since the other kiss ass sites are bending over backwards to not seem racist.
Someone needs to tell me what the hell is “kindr”. Good girl. You’ll feel totally respected but totally still alone. Lol
sydboy007
Why stop at race? Surely filtering based on age, body type, self determined tribes are all just as exclusionary?
How long before the left says it’s rude to say no, though of course you must consent, it’s just, you know, socially stigmatising to say no.
mr guy
Seriously, how long untill it’s verboten to specify a be-penised bio gay male. Maybe it already is
Apolodorus
The left gives you the jitters I see.
dwes09
Ah! The regressives as always living in their imaginary world where “the left” is so eager to steal their right to discriminate.
Child (by which I mean, CHILD! Grow the f##k up), you can always say no. That does not mean you have the right to humiliate or marginalize others for kicks. Clearly, you can easily discern someone race from their picture. and if you are in the habit of replying to profiles with no picture, you obviously do not care about age, body type or whatever so long as they are white.
Get over yourself.
sydboy007
@dwes so what part of my statement was racist? Where did I condone being rude or nasty or bigoted when you have a sexual racial preference?
seaguy
Not everyone on the left is that way. I am liberal/left but think I should be able to filter by race if I want too. I like all colors but sometimes I am looking for a user and filtering by race helps narrow the results if I know they are a particular race. Just because someone has a particular race they are looking for at the time does not make them racist.
Xzamilloh
Now, see I don’t have a problem with people stating their racial preferences, and yeah I’m black. The way I see it, being upfront from the start saves people from wasting their time on someone that doesn’t want them. Also, I’m not that big on white guys, so this doesn’t really affect me lol
rray63
Surely you see the predicament that puts white guys in, if we say that, we are called racists. You know it, I know it, and everyone else knows it. So are you a racist for saying the same thing? (By the way, I think you know I’m not), I just don’t get the double standard. Though you are a prime example of an intelligent man that wouldn’t call someone racists for having a preference in a lot of things, not just race.
Apolodorus
I just don’t see the problem that people have with admiring sexual racism. People are more comfortable being racists than being called racists. That always blows my mind.
If you have racist preference, than come out of the closet and state. But stop trying to gaslight me into believing that it’s not a fit of racism. Why should sexual racist care what other people think?
Xzamilloh
Yeah, don’t get me wrong. Someone who dismisses an entire race of people will always get the side eye from me, because as someone who does not have that hangup on race, it’s confusing to me exactly what it is about certain races that is unappealing. Because if you have a big booty and nice legs, I don’t care what color it is. Of course, that’s purely physical attraction, but emotional attraction is even less race focused in my book.
But a there are fair share of white guys, gay and straight, who couch their racism as “sexual preferences” but then get deeper and there are a whole host of negative opinions of other races. So if I ask what is it about other races you aren’t attracted to, how would you answer that? Your being white means nothing to me, so let’s not use that as a crutch.
djmcgamester
It’s kind of weird. May as well make everything optional. If you have certain racial preferences, why be forced to see what you don’t like? Waste of time. Grindr isn’t racist. OKCupid asks for your race. Honestly, I skip past what I don’t like. Not sure why I have to see something in particular that doesn’t interest me.
Paco
No one under 8 inches. Real 8 inches, not imagined.
rray63
Paco, I thought all gay guys had 8″ no matter what? lol
frankcar1965
A skinny 8 in for me please, my sh*t ain’t busted open. What is it about you queers wanting a big tree trunk? You all must must need diapers.
Paco
It’s ok, @frankcar1965. Many don’t qualify. It’s just a preference.
Coruna2018
Rray63.
Reading your comment had me wondering if you were talking about “some of my best friends are Negroes”, circa 1963 or if you were talking about how you’ve dated many of different ethnicities but are attracted to only two or three and does a man’s attraction to only one racist condemn him as racist? Perhaps. Your comment disavowed the fact that there is racism in the LGBT community. Since when have you seen dating sites that are only geared to racism? That’s bull feces and it’s your way of “bending over backwards” to justify sexual attraction primarily by race. The great Carl Jung invented the term “imago” after finding out from his clients that their preferences for what they liked, especially sexual attraction, was formed by age 5 from all of the messages, overt and covert, that the client absorbed from family and community about people and the world they lived in. Of course, many of those messages lead us to form in our minds who is good, bad, worthy, unworthy, attractive, and unattractive, among many other things. It is that all of us absorb this into our consciousness that can lead to racism in sexual attraction and dating, CAN, not WILL. That viewpoint of what we find attractive is called, by Jung, the “imago”. There is Imago Therapy in order to loosen the grip the imago has on us in realizing our life goals. This also includes loosening the grip of any racist messages that led to the creation of our imagos so that they can be reconfigured in healthier ways. Imago does not pertain to sexual orientation so Imago Theory and Imago Therapy don’t apply here but in making one less sexually racist, yes.
Rray, are you yourself sexually racist? Only you can answer that. It is not an easy question to answer but all of us must do that if there is to be a pluralistic society filled with respect for one another, not aversion due to skin color or ethnicity.
rray63
And what you did is called reading things into something that don’t exist. You sir, are one of the problems. Live with it.
rray63
By the way, wtf is sexually racist? Think about it before you answer. I know you won’t find the answer in your Karl Marx hand book so don’t go looking there.
Apolodorus
I shall explain ray. It’s a person thaqialifies attraction by generalising race. A person with an unfounded bias that leads to attribute to a whole group of people, general qualitative characteristics (beauty in the case of sex, intelligence in the case of intelectual, etc.)
I wasn’t actually calling you a sexual racist (don’t know you) I was using the general you to encompass who were. But if the shoe fits… 😀
I’m joking. I just don’t understand why people have such problems with the label but not the act. It reeks of hipocrisy.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
These are HOOK UP APPS! If you are not someone’s type too fcuking bad. It’s beyond insane that people are upset and crying like little bitches because if someone is not attracted to then they are “racist”……If there is no mutual attraction what the fcuk is the point of even w engaging in an interaction??
People need to grow the fcuk up!
rray63
Hey, I got called sexually racist for daring to ask questions.
PLAYS WELL WITH OTHERS
Ray: you pig! :-p
Apolodorus
Then what’s your problem with admitting you are a sexual racist? Why do you care so much about a the label and not about the act?
Chrisk
Technically this is all nonsense. The true Racist believes one race is superior. Not what makes your dick hard. I can’t believe this is even being debated. Jeez. Lol
Kangol
No, true racists don’t just “believe one race is superior,” they act in ways that denigrate, oppress or exclude people based on their race or perceived race, they consciously and unconsciously uphold and further systems of racist oppression, and, in many cases, they rarely if ever acknowledge the privilege, social capital and power their racial status provides them over others who are of a different race. It’s not that hard to grasp.
Chrisk
@Kangol. I’m sure you see white oppression under every rock you look under. There is no such thing as white privilege oppression. Just a bunch of whiny under achievers looking for an excuse to blame others.
rray63
Folks, you really need to read “Coruna2018” reply to me. If you can with a straight face go along with what he wrote, so be it. But remember, the next person he call’s racist because they ask questions, may be you. We are all Democrats in here, or at least a large % of us. What he is saying is something I’ve been decrying for a while now. We don’t go along with group think therefor we are called names, minimized, ostracized, etc. Is this really how we want to live. As for his assertion that I sounded like a 60’s, I have black friends person, if only he knew. Maybe he needs to let me know what number of our black cousins one has to sleep with to be considered “not sexually racist”? Because I have an affinity for Asian men, followed by Latino men, and finally white men, well obviously I’m racist, right? Coruna, you need to reeducate yourself.
rray63
Hey Apolodorus, maybe you should rethink what a racist is? It seems that you are using racist instead of preference. I’ll never call myself a racist, of any type. If you choose to call yourself one then I would guess you have had entire barrel of kool-aid. Literally, if I have a preference for Latino’s does that mean I’m racists towards every other color of the rainbow? Have you really thought about this? Though I forget you can’t be racist if you have an issue with anything white, because I’ve been told on this very site that only whites can be racist, do you subscribe to that theory as well?
dtlajim
You’re wasting your time arguing with these people. It is now open season to attack and be bigoted against white people. All these terms of sexual racism and whatnot are just more ingenious ways to attack white people. Whites are now experiencing the sanctioned open hostility and vitriol that was visited on blacks and other minorities in the past. Once the perpetrators were Conservative whites, now it is liberal whites and unfortunately many in the poc community. 50+ years ago when my family integrated a white community we had all sorts of problems and the white kids weren’t allowed to play with me. I read recently a NYT opinion article about a black parent who doesn’t want her child to have white friends. Sad state of affairs.
Kangol
dtlajim, are you for real? White people control almost everything. The White House, the Congress, Wall Street, most corporations and businesses, most unions, most universities, most public and private institutions, you name it. White people dominate in every area. Please spare us the white racial fragility and resentment; white people have more social, political and economic power, capital and privilege than any other racial group in this country, and have had it since the colonial era, by design. And white men have a hell of a lot more privilege and power than white women. Again, by design.
Prax07
So what is the block feature next to go? Scruff only allows so many before you need to subscribe. So what, no way to weed out the guys you have zero interest in without paying comes as the next step?
rray63
Prax, from what I have read from at least two people on here, if you were to block someone and they were a different race than you you would be guilty of “sexual racism”. Which may be the most comical liberal idea I’ve ever seen. We come up with some goofy pc stuff but this takes the cake. It’s no longer your preference for different types of men, it’s racism. What if you only like men with red hair, what will be your crime for that? I think some of these folks need to go back to school.
Cacti
Sexual racism now…. my god, the bullshit will never stop apparently.
Can’t wait to see the first lawsuit for sexual racism after you declined to have sex with someone of another race.
rray63
Kangol, you are very naive. To say that whites control everything is to ignore reality. While there may be more whites in D.C. than other races, that doesn’t mean they control everything. Almost half of those whites are the far left liberals that have been noted on here. They are so afraid of being cast as anything other than diverse that they make new laws constantly to protect everyone, except white people. There are so many laws and titles on the books protecting blacks, women, etc. it’s getting to where you have legal specialties in these subjects. If you don’t know that, it’s because you don’t want to know that, right? And those far left liberals are now cannibalizing their own when it suits them, see Aretha’s funeral and the preacher that was castigated for daring to point out the truth. So please, give us all a break.
AndThenTheresMax
I’m 1/2 Jamaican (proud) and 1/2 Scottish (proud) dark-skinned mulatto gay man. I have no problem admitting I don’t date black guys and never will. Whenever I have there’s been nothing but issues, drama (including some broke-down baby momma’s before he went gay), and “gotta stick it to whitey”. (Which pisses me off to no end because 1/2 my family is WHITE!) No thank you.
I also admit I have used the filter on Scruff to filter out black guys. I would only date another dark-skinned guy if he was mixed race like myself (which I have and it was amazing). Otherwise I will date any other race than black. You can call me “white-washed”, “racist”, “refusing to get my own kind”, or whatever gets you through the night. But at the end of the day, I will filter away.
…and I’m not ashamed to say it.
sacha99
Nonsense. This is absolute bull shit. Your preference ls are your preferences and nobody gives a damn about that but dont try to demonise all black gay man based on your subjective experiences of dating 2/3 people. Have you dates ALL black men for you to have such views. You clearly have internalised issues that you need to deal with. And no, black men probably couldnt care less about what your dating prejudices are. You claim you’re half Jamaican and proud? Get some help man
Me2
The intent here is not to force anyone into sleeping with someone that they don’t want to sleep with or to stop racism, only an idiot would think that changing a filter on an app could achieve that. These are just anecdotal changes to make the apps appear to be more inclusive. People will still be ignored, blocked, and deleted based on trivial “preferences”, ignorant biases, and so on. So relax girls!!
QueerTruth
This is purely political. Dating apps are by nature discriminatory because everyone has preferences to his/her mates and will scroll/filter/however you wish to phrase it for people who fit their interests. Whether that’s age, race, position, looks, etc.
Also, if people wish to write on their profiles: No fats, No Blacks, No (whatever) well then let them. It’s called free speech. Of course, it’s gross and cold behavior, but who are we to judge.
The only thing that should not be permitted is racist/bigoted/violent language or behavior. If people want to advertise themselves as narrow-minded then let them.