Groups Petition For Removal Of 'Make Me Asian' Google App

(CNN) – The maker of a Google app thinks it’s fun to make yourself look Asian by changing the shape of your eyes and wearing a Fu Manchu mustache and rice paddy hat. Another app – “Make Me Indian” – makes you a Native American with brown skin, war paint and a feather headband.

Not amusing or cute, say Asian-American organizations that launched a petition to get Google to remove both apps. The apps use dated and racist stereotypes of Asians and Native Americans, said the online campaign 18 Million Rising, named after the number of Asian-Americans in the United States. “These racist and offensive portrayals of Asians and Native Americans perpetuate damaging racial stereotypes and should not be distributed on the Google play store,” said the campaign, which has an online petition to remove the apps. Google, however, said the apps are not in violation of the company’s policies that protect against hate speech.