

Microsoft's Photoshop Blunder: Racist or Shortsighted? - steiger
http://www.readwriteweb.com/archives/microsofts_photoshop_blunder_racist_or_shortsighte.php

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jwr
This is a good example of what is wrong with the US these days.

In Poland people read the story, laughed, and moved on. Fact is, it is
extremely improbable to meet a man in Poland that looks like the middle guy in
the photo. There are black people, but they are African and look different.

But in the States people went ballistic over the story. Racism! No cultural
diversity! Ethnic cleansing!

I think Americans need to decide whether they want to pay attention to race or
not. You can't have it both ways. If race isn't important, laugh at this story
and move on. Stop discussing it and making accusations. Also, stop asking for
race in polls, stop doing selective university admissions, stop running
special programs for ethnic minorities. Just forget about the whole race
thing.

If race is important, by all means discuss, but then why pretend everyone is
equal?

~~~
Goladus
Oh please. Yes, some people in the US are hypersensitive to kinds of racism in
a manner that tends to be less common in Europe. But Europe has its own issues
and claiming it's some example of "what's wrong with the US these days" is
just silly.

How sensitive are Poles to anti-semitism? There are almost no Jews in Poland
because those that survived the Holocaust were driven out (sometimes
violently) in the decades following WW2. This was the same time when Blacks in
the US fought for and won their civil rights, incidentally. So the US has some
thorny problems that aren't fully resolved that Poland doesn't have.

~~~
jwr
I didn't say Europe doesn't have its own issues -- my point was that the US
seems to be trying to ignore race while being obsessed about it. That doesn't
work.

~~~
Goladus
When you are observing about 300 million people as a single abstract entity
you are almost certain to find contradictory behavior.

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kasunh
People are just overreacting to a simple case of localization effort.

A multinational corporation would never be racist because when the main
motivation is profit and you are serving across all demographics the last
thing you can afford to be is been racist.

~~~
ugh
It rings true to me that big corporations tend to be not racist. That doesn’t
mean, however, that no one or no group of people working for Microsoft (or any
other corporation for that matter) will ever be racist. And if they are doing
PR or the ads it is very much possible that their racism becomes visible as
something that “Microsoft” is or does.

I don’t, however, think that this is the case here. But it was stupid to
doctor with the picture. It’s a generic enough photo, so why not just buy a
new one for the Polish ad?

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JMostert
Interestingly, neither the original image nor the manipulated one can be
called racist. The trouble only comes from realizing we're looking at a before
and after.

Microsoft generally goes to great lengths to ensure people are not offended.
It has to, because of the sheer size and diversity of its markets. Raymond
Chen has blogged about one apparently innocuous issue
[[http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/22/54679.a...](http://blogs.msdn.com/oldnewthing/archive/2003/08/22/54679.aspx)],
and there must have been many, many more across Microsoft products.

Marketing works better if you reflect your audience's tastes. Doubtlessly
someone calculated that the other image better suited Polish tastes, for which
a racially diverse cast only serves as a vivid reminder that the image was
marketed for an American audience. This doesn't make either the Poles or the
marketing racist. The only thing "racist" was the mistake to clumsily
manipulate an existing image instead of using a brand new one. Penny wise,
pound foolish.

~~~
cstross
_Marketing works better if you reflect your audience's tastes. Doubtlessly
someone calculated that the other image better suited Polish tastes, for which
a racially diverse cast only serves as a vivid reminder that the image was
marketed for an American audience._

Supplementary point of information: Poland's ethnic make-up diverges massively
from that of the USA -- according to wikipedia the last census suggested there
were a grand total of 4500-odd black people living in Poland (pop. 38
million). They have some Vietnamese, but they're still pretty rare; Poland's
ethnic minorities are almost all eastern European. So the original ad would
push "exotic foreign company" buttons, which is not what you want to do if
you're trying to present yourself as a regular local business.

(On the other hand? "Mindlessly stupid" just about begins to sum up what they
did with photoshop ...)

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brk
And much outrage would there be if they had started with the Polish version,
and changed it for the US to make it more culturally diverse, instead of the
other way around?

~~~
CWuestefeld
Really. Does anyone think that the original was an actual picture from a
corporate meeting room? I mean, it may be sad, but how many meetings are
composed of a caucasian woman, a black man, and an asian (?) man? Clearly the
original was a setup designed to pander to diversity.

I think the real evidence of racism here is that we're so _sensitive_ to color
that we feel compelled to engineer any communications imagery to portray
something aside from the real outlook. Pick any marketing slick, and you'll
see something very much resembling this.

If you want to point a finger somewhere, point it at the dogma of false
diversity.

~~~
carbon8
_"how many meetings are composed of a caucasian woman, a black man, and an
asian (?) man"_

I've never worked anywhere that this would be unusual at all. It's true that
manufactured diversity is used in communications a lot, but workplaces tend to
be pretty ethnically heterogeneous as long as they aren't in monocultural
regions.

~~~
CWuestefeld
Yes, my workplace has representatives of many races and cultures as well.
Heck, it's owned and run by an asian woman (who is darned good, by the way).

Really, it comes down to statistical sampling. For the canonical marketing
slick, you must have a woman, a caucasian (might be that woman), a black
person, and an asian and/or hispanic (probably) man. If you take any random
set of people from your organization, what are the chances that you're going
to get that mix of representation?

The sample size is so small that it's extremely unlikely that any random
sample is going to bring in such a broad mix, no matter how broad the total
population is. Thus, it's obviously contrived -- and more to the point,
engineered to pander to "politically correct" sensitivities.

~~~
bmj
_Yes, my workplace has representatives of many races and cultures as well.
Heck, it's owned and run by an asian woman (who is darned good, by the way)._

Was it really necessary to add the parenthetical comment? Is there anyone at
HN that would judge a person's abilities by their gender and ethnic
background?

~~~
CWuestefeld
Why would you think that the motivation for my parenthetical was the fact that
she's asian and/or female? I'm actually defending against preconceptions of
corporate executives, not of women or asians.

I'm in the habit of making such comments because of what I see as a fairly
pervasive anti-corporate prejudiced across our society. It appears to me that
many, even most, people assume that corporate executives are money-grubbing
scum who care not a whit for their customers, employees, or society at large.
I'm trying to say this this is not the case with my employer: she's socially
conscious, sensitive to the needs of employees, and tries to do the right
thing in business.

The comment may not have been necessary -- that was why it was in parentheses
-- but I saw a hint of an implication that my workplace was overly
homogeneous, a "good ole boys' club". If such a slight was unintended, I
apologize.

~~~
bmj
In a sense, your motivation is beside the point--we only have your written
word, and the comment can be read as some sort of qualifier (since your boss
is a female and an Asian).

I'm not insulted, or even upset--I just thought it was odd comment.

And, FWIW, I agree with your parent comment.

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byoung2
As a black man, I don't find it racist that the picture was cropped. But I do
think it was naive of Microsoft to think that people wouldn't notice and cry
foul. They should have just used a different picture altogether.

~~~
nailer
Out of curioisity, how do you feel when white people are photoshopped over for
the appearance of diversity?

~~~
byoung2
I feel the same as when the black person was edited out...it wouldn't bother
me either way. But I think that companies should realize that not everyone
feels the way I do.

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prospectofdeath
It's racist because it's so f'ing lazy. If they wanted to make the 'Polish'
version of the ad they should have taken a new picture.

~~~
prospectofdeath
Not to mention they didn't even bother editing the hand! Lazy Microsoft
strikes again.

