title:  New Analysis Shows Black Neighborhoods Excluded From Amazon Same Day Delivery
text: A Bloomberg analysis of Amazon s same-day delivery service locations shows that Black neighborhoods are routinely excluded from access to the service.Although all customers pay the same $99 fee for the Amazon Prime membership, which includes same-day delivery service in covered areas, Black customers are significantly less likely to have access to that service.According to the Bloomberg study, Black customers who live in Atlanta, Chicago, Dallas and Washington DC are 50 percent less likely to have access to same-day delivery.Bloomberg further reports:In New York City, same-day delivery is available throughout Manhattan, Staten Island, and Brooklyn, but not in the Bronx and some majority-black neighborhoods in Queens. In some cities, Amazon same-day delivery extends many miles into the surrounding suburbs but isn t available in some ZIP codes within the city limits.Out of all the places where Amazon same-day delivery services are available to Amazon Prime members, the analysis shows the greatest disparity in the city of Boston.According to the Bloomberg analysis: Three ZIP codes encompassing the primarily black neighborhood of Roxbury are excluded from same-day service, while the neighborhoods that surround it on all sides are eligible. In many cases this means that Black customers have no access to same-day delivery, while white customers, living just a few blocks away, do have access.Here s what the delivery zones look like in some of the most populated urban areas.Image credit: Screen capture Bloomberg.comAccording to Amazon vice president for global communications, Craig Berman, the company did not intentionally create a service area which excludes Black neighborhood.Berman says that service areas were determined by data and algorithms.As Tech Insider reports here, Amazon PR Director Scott Stanzel described the criteria the company used to generate the algorithm.According to Stanzel, that included  distance to the nearest fulfillment center, local demand in an area, numbers of Prime members in an area, as well as the ability of our various carrier partners to deliver up to 9:00 pm every single day, even Sunday. So how does a computer program which doesn t include race as a factor, generate a service area that excludes Black neighborhoods?Tech Insider sums it up best, by explaining:Racism, as researchers have documented in countless studies and reports, is the systemic marginalization of minority communities. It s the aggregate of small and large effects that make it harder for people to find housing, accumulate wealth, avoid the criminal justice system, and succeed in school if they aren t white. Data and algorithms selected in deliberate ignorance of racism can pick up and reinforce that systemic problem.So basically the algorithm reflects the racism that is already present in a service area. As described by Tech Insider, it  reflects ongoing economic disparities and segregation between white and black communities created by decades of redlining. That appears to be exactly what happened in the case of Amazon s same-day delivery service area coverage.Amazon says the company has plans to  fill in the gaps  in service coverage  over time. That doesn t seem like a good enough answer when the data shows that many Black customers are being denied equal service under the company s current model.Mistakes can happen, yes, but now that the problems have clearly been exposed, Amazon should take immediate steps to correct them.It s one thing to unknowingly generate an algorithm that excludes Black neighborhoods. It s another thing altogether to look the other way once you re aware of the issue. Image credit: Michael Nagle/Bloomberg via Getty Images