It's probably the second -- I heard Denzel Washington gave up on Grindr for the same reason. I'm sorry about that.

There’s very reliable reports of racism, particularly against black men, on Grindr and similar platforms. For straight couples, one of the sites published data a while back. Black women and Asian men struggled most. For LGTB+ couples, black men struggled most. Unfortunately racism is still common, especially when they can justify or anonimize it online.

Would be interesting if Grindr implemented affirmative action. That way if users didn't match with a particular demographic enough eventually that demographic would be their only option. It's only fair.

People are going to be attracted to who they are attracted to. You cannot legislate or guilt people into being attracted to someone that’s just not who attracts them. Social media tends to be geared towards visual images. Accept this if you are going to use social media. Post a recent picture of yourself with your profile. Get a friend or a professional if necessary to take a good but representative (not photoshopped) picture of you. If people are going to be turned off by something about your image, you might as well not waste time going thought the introductory formalities and then have them be dissatisfied with the real you.