Racism and Profile Picture Requirement

[seritatheresa]

I'm new to Upwork and I'm a plus member. I am trying to remain optimistic, but I fear that requiring a photo of myself may result in fewer hires/interviews. Are there many black people using upwork? Have they faced similar difficulty getting jobs?

[triston]

First of all,

No one is patronising you, so get off your high horse of privilege.

Second, to be clear?

As someone that has lived in more than 25 countries and worked as an activist in nearly every single one, what I know as a person of color is that America does more for ALL its ethnicities and races better than most of them despite its many flaws.

And yes, I will repeat those arguments and this conversation did not begin with you, nor will it end with you.

Goodbye and good day.

[yitwail]

For what it's worth, I found an academic paper from 2017 that observed apparent racial bias in Fiverr freelancer reviews:
https://www.ccs.neu.edu/home/amislove/publications/Freelance-CSCW.pdf 
Here's how the authors put it: workers who are perceived to be Black receive worse ratings than similarly qualified work- ers who are perceived to be White

Keep in mind that data used was from 2015 with a sample size of 

9,788 workers, and that approximately 40% of FIverr profiles have no image or an image other than of a person, such as a logo. The authors also acknowledged that Although both sites have Terms of Service that prohibit crawling, we believe that algorithm audits are necessary to ensure civil rights in the digital age. The other online site examined was TaskRabbit, which doesn't pertain to Upwork because it's limited to physical work such a moving or housework.

Personally, I wouldn't mind if profile photos were optional and logos could be used instead of photos, but that wouldn't prevent a determined bigot from. insisting on a video chat.

[d6493104]

Stumbled on this thread and I understand it's old but still wanted to drop my two cents for anyone who is concerned about this...

I am a Black freelancer and started freelancing here in June 2022. As at the time of writing, I have been freelancing on the platform for a year and made about $30k, even though I took a personal break from Feb - Apr 2023. Which means I made over $30k in about 9 months and I wasn't even doing it full-time! It gets better...

I started with 0 earnings and 0 ratings (obviously), and I had just one portfolio project when I started which was a mobile app I designed for my own self aha. I had zero experience and learnt this skill off of watching one or two Youtube videos. Summary; my probability of success was zero, and I still made it whilst black, with a very wonderful picture of my black self on my profile.

Why am I saying this, if you know what it takes to succeed and you have the motivation to keep pushing, you can and will make it; regardless of what you look like - Ibuanuoluwa 2023

Yes, I have had an established Upwork client reply my proposal with "Eww your work is so awful, you should quit" without actually ever clicking the link to my portfolio (I have a way to check), and probably so many others who have skipped over my proposal simply because of my skin colour, but that didn't stop me from succeeding.

You might have to push harder than the average Harry or the 'perfect' Becky, so feel free to use me as an "If he made it, I definitely can" motivation. 

Ps, i'm not even close to the top earning Black freelancers on the platform. I know a Black freelancer from Nigeria who has earnings of over $500k, and there are so many more from all over the world. Goodluck my lovely melanin fam!

[4485b5ca]

Nobody cares about your race. As long as you are qualified. Stop your limiting beliefs.