“The guiding principle of a site like that is simple to understand-it’s the profit motive.” Roberts, assistant professor of information studies at UCLA, told the New Republic. “The bottom line here I would assume is that the site is intended to make money,” Sarah T. And to scrub the site with any effectiveness would require a huge team of moderators, which in turn would require a significant investment. Racial and sexual slurs are allowed, racist and sexist entries are not.”īut even a cursory look at the site reveals that there has been virtually no effort to edit out racism and sexism. Reject nonsense, inside jokes, or anything submitted in capital letters. He said it was rare that definitions appeared that were ‘really racist or sexist.’” In a 2011 interview with the Guardian, Peckham laid out a few guidelines: “Publish celebrity names, but reject ‘real life’ names. Peckham says he rarely edits the site or removes words that might be deemed offensive, unless they are aimed at a specific person or reveal someone’s private information. In its 2014 profile, the Times wrote, “Mr. Then, definitions are ranked by how many up- or down-votes they have received. In 2013 it was reported that only five votes are needed for a submission to make the cut. To contribute to the lexicon of our generation, users merely submit an entry that “volunteer editors” (i.e., other users) can vote in or out. It is a pure product of the internet hordes, and the internet hordes are racist and sexist. Hillary Clinton is defined as a “cock juggling thunder cunt.” Feminism? “The biggest disgrace to my gender.”ĭespite its implicit promise to clue people into what urban people-read: minorities-are saying, Urban Dictionary does not draw from any source of expertise. Some have argued that Barack is actually gay and believed that he was marrying a man when he married Michelle.”Īs Kimberly Lawson pointed out previously at Broadly, Urban Dictionary is also insanely sexist. Was rejected by the WNBA for ambiguous gender reasons. Widely regarded as being more masculine and certainly more gangsta than Barack. It defines Barack Obama as “the chocolate Jimmy Carter.” The second top definition for Serena Williams is “a large, muscular, ape whose Hollywood credits include the lead role in 1998’s Mighty Joe Young.” Under Michelle Obama, one of the top entries reads: “Mannish wife of Barack Obama. Urban Dictionary is also really, really racist. According to Quantcast, it is the 25th-biggest site in the United States, and had 130 million global views over the last month. The same year, he said that Urban Dictionary’s mobile app had been downloaded more than three million times. In 2014, Peckham claimed that the site boasted more than seven million definitions. Started in 1999 by then-computer science student Aaron Peckham, the crowd-sourced online dictionary that The New York Times calls the “lexicon of instant argot” has grown over the past two decades into an internet behemoth.
(Another 5 notables are available in all our PDF Extended History products and printed products wherever possible.Almost everyone has used Urban Dictionary at some point or another to look up the meaning of a slang word or phrase. Urban, American Democratic Party politician, Candidate in primary for Delegate to Michigan State Constitutional Convention from Wayne County 7th District, 1961 George Urban Jr., American Republican politician, Delegate to Republican National Convention from New York, 1884 Presidential Elector for New York, 1896, 1900.George John Urban (1906-1978), American Republican politician, Mayor of South Euclid, Ohio, 1948-72.
Urban, American Republican politician, Delegate to Republican National Convention from New York, 1912 (alternate), 1916, 1924, 1928, 1932 military history, receiving 29 medals and awards for bravery during his 20 months of service in Europe during World War II Matt Urban (1919-1995), American who was the most decorated soldier in U.S.1967), New Zealand-born, Australian-raised country music singer
1980), American professional football player