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I appreciate your reasonable and thoughtful counterpoint, unlike bill's malarky.

My presumption is not true for all people, but it is true for a great great many. I think you vastly underestimate the amount of prejudice that exists, from the overt "I don't like people of other colors, gender or sexual orientation" to the subtle but insidious "I am not prejudice, but I just feel more comfortable sitting next to a person of the same color on the bus." A Yale Law Journal study found that "Black taxi drivers' tips averaged 33 percent lower than those received by White drivers."[1]

In this day and age of GPS navigation (It's built into the driver's Uber app!), you don't need to be even close to a native speaker to exchange destination information. And if Uber the company cared enough, they could make it even easier by allowing riders to enter their destination into the app on their phone. Uber wouldn't have to reveal it to the driver until the driver accepts the trip.

A agree it's not just an American thing. In rare cases it works in reverse. I lived in Taiwan for about 5 years. There and in China, an American taxi driver would be such a novelty or even celebrity they would be in great demand.

All I'm saying is that for the world to get better, we need to actively work against the Matthew effect[2].

[1] Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, by Mahzarin R. Banaji, Anthony G. Greenwald. (2013)

[2] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matthew_effect. The Matthew effect is pervasive, even among scientists: http://www.garfield.library.upenn.edu/merton/matthew1.pdf

I must assume you are referring to the bibliography of Blindspot: Hidden Biases of Good People, although perhaps not, as the publishing dates of sources likely relevant to your query go back to at least the 1920s -- ex. Bogardus (1928, 1925). If you haven't accessed this bibliography I heartily recommend that you do, as cursory examination of the sources included therein reveals a multitude that would likely address both your first and second challenges.