Jissaura Taveras Hernandez

Advancements in technology have played an important role in spreading information and transforming media. Lately the integration of augmented and virtual reality has been gaining traction in social media and the technology world. Racial Lenses uses the social media platform Snapchat to create an interactive piece about the reality of racism. Racial Lenses was created using Snapchat's augmented reality-building program, which allows users to upload their own designs to the platform. I created an augmented reality lens that shows racial statistics such as the percentage by which black Americans are more likely to get stopped by police than white Americans, and the thoughts that may appear in the mind of someone whom racism affects. For example, the user would see augmented reality text of thoughts like I'm in a predominantly white neighborhood; will someone call the cops and have me arrested or killed for being black? The thoughts are based on New York City statistics and recent reports of racially targeted incidents. I chose a social media platform with location-based augmented reality and filter because it's an app that can easily be recorded, shared, and viewed by many users. People who don't have to deal with racism can see the world from the perspective of someone who does.