I pay for Grindr Unlimitd.
By removing my ability to filter out all but the men of color I am personally attracted to, you are actually preventing me from practicing anti-racist behavior.

Its ridiculous that you removed ethnicity. If we pay for a subscription, we should be able to filter based on our preferences.

There was never anything wrong with it to begin with. Besides double standards and the easy low blow that white men can’t prefer other white men without being racist.

But BBC Only is a commonly used acronym.

Whats more is this app is designed for men to meet other men. The growing number of “trans only” account types which is fine, but it’s not inclusive of pre or post op ever. Might as well bring in lesbians to use the site now too. But don’t allow them to filter out the men obviously.

It’s on the staff to explain preference is not racism. That should be common sense. I’ve been flamed by and I’m sorry for pointing fingers but black men. I always tell them it’s not personal and I’m sorry. Some get it and are cool.

There’s one account that I just saw is still up in my area that called me a lot more than racist for not being interested. And it happened at least twice. Logic falls through here. I brought up the bbc example and explained any other ethnicity, even a white guy, can be attracted to a black man and they are not considered racist.

So the Point I want addressed along with how this feature is essential and needs to come back is that minorities don’t have an exclusive right to being made victim of racist comments and hate in a gay community. Or any community but it’s a much more serious concept here.

So the account that called me little Hitler, and an idiot and every other thing he could should have been warned the first time he was reported and banned the second.

If people have a problem with preference to race in any way then they need to find a way to get past that or keep it to themselves. And we don’t need to open a moral discussion on the topic every-time someone is insulted over this.

It’s not a moral or ethical concept to be diagnosed. Not like profiles asking for certain types and request for you to message them one way just to ignore you and have no explanation. That’s misrepresentation in most cases. But that won’t change, it’a never been something the team would solve and it’s getting to be more common then not.

Oh last note: I don’t see substantially more white men over any other race. I do see that almost every time just the ethnicity field is blank it’s a black man. So you guys are there, you just don’t advertise yourselves most of the time. Sorry it’s not fun for anyone to set themselves up to be rejected. But by being sneaky about it you’re only making it harder to find eachother. So do what you need to but be careful assuming this is another white man dominated community. Because it’s not.

I also think its hard enough not being straight especially in Rochester. We don’t need to be bringing in more paranoia and anger here so don’t allow the protests and rioting in a place it serves no purpose other then further alienating the gay/bi/curious male community.

That’s just being fare to everyone, truly fair and not the skewed fair we often get as gay men.

As in malaysia, we have 4 major ethnic
Malay/ Chinese/Indian/others(aboriginal/sabahans/sarawakians/ etc perhaps let us fill up the ethnics. Southeast asians are asians too...let be more country specific.better i guess

Some of us just like to date within our own ethnicity/culture. By removing the filter, you’re limiting us and actually inciting racism. No one is being racist for simply wanting to find a mate that’s the same ethnicity.

I agree I only date Middle East guys

I feel if we are paying the least we can have is the with ethnicity filter back. I’m not racist I love all people but I’m not into white Americans I strictly prefer men of my ethnicity background and culture. I support BLM ✊🏿✊🏾 But you guys did not need to remove the favorite filter all us customers enjoyed

Without the ethnicity filter my options for what is desirable to “me” is hindered as I’m forced to “sift” through tons of guys not my type to the point where there only a few in all the thumb nails in the entire allowed tiles. And I pay for this? Choosing ur ethnicity of what ur looking for is no different then saying u only want a Twink or a chub or bear is that diminishing the rest of the people. NO it’s just what turns u on. If I could control what turned me on I’d like pussy. But sadly I can’t. Thank you

I think it’s sad that Grindr is afraid of a little flack for letting there members have choices that they want. If I do not fix the filter I will be canceling my membership

Reading the latest comments, it's almost as if my email sent mid-2020 to the Grindr team was a prediction.
The below is my response to the explanation given by Grindr for having removed the ethnicity filter - 4 months later and NO reaponse has been received.

***
Hi Dan.

Thanks for the feedback.

While I can appreciate the good intentions behind the decision that Grindr and the management team made to remove "Ethnicity" from the Profile Filter, I cannot say that I agree with nor fully support it.

I have spent several days reading the numerous comments posted in response to your tweet as well as the great many ideas posted on the uservoice idea board on your website.

I get the impression from what I have read, that the removal of Ethnicity as a search function has had the complete opposite outcome to what you had in mind with regards to preventing/minimizing racism.

There is a vast number of blatant derogatory and defamatory comments posted on both TWITTER and GRINDR'S website, from people of different races/nationalities, that perpetuate racism by the manner and tone in which they are voicing their opinion on "Anti-Racism".
Some comments are outright and deliberate attacks on European/Caucasian people as a race, ultimately insinuating that our skin colour predetermines racist behaviour, with little to no regard of the fact that the policemen involved in the inhuman incident that gave rise to the BLM movement are but a extremely minute percentage of the total number "white" people living on Earth.

These comments need to be removed by yourselves on both platforms as by leaving them up, it shows your tacit acceptance/support in what has been said by the person that posted it. I'm not going to be petty and go flag each and every comment as inappropriate.

That being said, having the option to select the traits that match one's preferences in a partner cannot be classed or labeled as racism - it is purely what you like. Nearly every country's legislation makes provisions for - through Acts of Law / The Bill of Rights / The Country's Constitution - the freedom of choice, opinion and of association. We should therefore have the ability to choose which profiles we see when logging in to Grindr.
Unless I am mistaken, when using filters to choose the profiles that are visible, your selections are not posted on your profile or broadcasted to other online users, so how can the use of the filter be construed as Racist.

I hope that my email is received with the same sincere consideration in which I have written it - we are all united in our wish to see racism, on a global level, come to an end - after all, each and every single human life matters.

I also implore you to read and seriously consider the many comments posted by your subscribers requesting that you reinstate the Ethnicity filter.

***

I agree with the majority of the comments and objections raised.

We pay a premium for Xtra and substantially more for the latest "Unlimited" account yet do not have the benefit of choosing which profiles we see when we log-in & go on the prowl.

I fully agree that, from the lack of a response, this board is purely for the subscribers of Grindr to vent to eachother.

With almost 3,000 comments/votes in this chain alone, surely someone from Grindr could have read our comments and responded in some way or form to us.

Surely if the majority of subscribers are in total agreement that a feature change has been counterproductive and has had the complete opposite effect to what was intended by it - PUT IT BACK TO THE WAY IT WAS BEFORE.

You can't prevent racism towards one ethnic group when your actions, even though your intentions are good, disregard or deny the rights of every other ethnic group.
This in actuality perpetuates and intensifies racist tendencies.

As a Black man in a majority white city this was the worst and most performative action you could have taken.

While some use the ethnicity filter to exclude and others are disgusting fetishizers, did it ever occur to you that minorities use the filter to find eachother?

No of course it didn't...because a bunch of white men likely made this decision, mostly for PR purposes.

Unfortunately Grindr is not a safe place for many Black people. We are fetishised daily and often receive the most predatory messages. You are not protecting us by having this feature removed. This is tokenism to the real issues of racial justice, nor is it what we asked for. It is very insulting and offensive for us as black people to not have a space we can choose to be safe among people that are similar. Just as Grindr is supposed to be a safe place for gay people to find similar people, this should be extended to POC within your service. Forget the tokenism and protect us; bring back the ethnicity feature - just look at how many people are asking for it.

POC, specifically black people, this is by design. Grinder never wanted us on the platform to begin with and intentionally implemented this policy to separate and frustrate us so that we'd leave and go somewhere else. This isn't the first time a hostile policy towards minorities was implemented under the guise of inclusiveness. This is a very colonial trick thats been played going back to the middle passage.

The removal of the filter was a racist act. Restore it now.

Dang.. I just came back to Grindr after getting my second shot.. and honestly, I just wanted to have sex with someone similar to me.. please bring the ethnicity filter back.. if anything, get rid of the age thing. Keep the occasional old weirdos away from me.. i think I’ll resort to scruff despite its shortcomings.

All this “politically-correct in this case it has no sense, we’re not bullying or something worse

We should be able to filter by race. Anyone who wants to argue that this is some form of “racism” is entitled to your option but don’t force your narrow mindedness in me and make me look at profiles that I don’t have any interest in seeing.

This is not about racism. It's a very specific sexual preference -- not prejudice. By removing this filter you have simply cluttered the feed with unnecessary traffic. I have learned over many years and for many reasons that I do not want to meet or explore connections with white guys like me, or black or Asian. In my "normal" Life I have many good friends of all ethnicities -- and many women -- but I don't want to have sex with them. This is a place for erotic connections, not social justice. After many years' trial and error, I know my "type," I am ONLY interested in connecting with young Latino or Native guys. If that filter was restored, my experience would be much more enjoyable, appropriate, and efficient. Grindr is not about social justice -- It's founded on freedom from judgment and the pretense of morality, and is driven by raw sexual chemistry. Please restore the ethnicity filter.

Ridiculous to have taken the ethnicity filter away. I like to live my fantasies in hook ups. And I’m sexually attracted to latinos. Is that racism? It was great to find the type of man I’d like to hook up with easier, instead of going through the whole grid. It truly is ridiculous. Im gay, not racist. What’s next? Age? Body type? Bring the filter back. Seriously people.

I’m having a lot of trouble understanding why this simple fix has not yet been addressed and restored after so much time ha elapsed since I first came to this discussion board. Being erotically attracted to some, or one, ethnicity DOES NOT MEAN OR IMPLY HATRED FOR ALL OTHER ETHNICITIES! I mean, if you have pro you get unlimited blocks. Is it better to block other people that you’re not sexually attracted to, but more than happy to be friends with just to free up your grid, so you can continue to find the people that you downloaded the app for on the first place? Making that the only option for basic and PRO members is EXPONENTIALLY MORE RACIST OF the decision makers at Grindr. We want contact with everyone, but don’t necessarily need to waste grid space on everyone, but Grindr says that you have to either fuck them or you can’t interact with them ever again. Fucking ignorant. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM, less-than-cerebral decision makers at grindr. Not the filter itself

I’m having a lot of trouble understanding why this simple fix has not yet been addressed and restored after so much time ha elapsed since I first came to this discussion board. Being erotically attracted to some, or one, ethnicity DOES NOT MEAN OR IMPLY HATRED FOR ALL OTHER ETHNICITIES! I mean, if you have pro you get unlimited blocks. Is it better to block other people that you’re not sexually attracted to, but more than happy to be friends with just to free up your grid, so you can continue to find the people that you downloaded the app for on the first place? Making that the only option for basic and PRO members is EXPONENTIALLY MORE RACIST OF the decision makers at Grindr. We want contact with everyone, but don’t necessarily need to waste grid space on everyone, but Grindr says that you have to either fuck them or you can’t interact with them ever again. Fucking ignorant. YOU ARE THE PROBLEM, less-than-cerebral decision makers at grindr. Not the filter itself