Thursday, August 27, 2009



Microsoft Edits Black Man Out of Photo, Apologizes



We read:
"Software giant Microsoft Corp. is apologizing for altering a photo on its Web site to change the race of one of the people shown in the picture.

A photo on the Seattle-based company's U.S. Web site shows two men, one Asian and one black, and a white woman seated at a conference room table. But on the Web site of Microsoft's Polish business unit, the black man's head has been replaced with that of a white man. The color of his hand remains unchanged.

The photo editing sparked criticism online. Some bloggers said Poland's ethnic homogeneity may have played a role in changing the photo.

"We are looking into the details of this situation," Microsoft spokesperson Lou Gellos said in a statement Tuesday. "We apologize and are in the process of pulling down the image."

Source

I wonder where the law is that says you must not delete pictures of blacks? Poland is probably the "whitest" country there is so a judgment that a picture of a black man might not appeal to Poles is understandable. Jesus Christ is almost always pictured as a thin pale-skinned blond blue-eyed Northern European when he was almost certainly a short swarthy Middle Eastern man with curly black hair and dark eyes. People identify best with scenes and images that are familiar to them and getting people to identify with the scene in an advertisement is part of selling.

But it has of course been taken as an insult to blacks to assume that images of them might not appeal to Poles. Images of old people don't seem to appeal to anyone very much either, but old people are generally mature enough to handle that. The Leftists behind this protest are assuming that blacks are not mature enough to handle the possibility that Poles might prefer to look at people like themselves. That does not show much respect for the maturity of blacks.

12 comments:

David W. Hunter said...

Would it not have been easier to just take a picture of a polish office room? Also, I think the argument Microsoft wanted the people to look more like Polish people is flawed, because they left the Asian person.

I'm not saying there should be boycotts, but If I were black I would be mildly offended.

Anonymous said...

If I am Microsoft, I am more than mildly offended that I paid someone to do such a horrible job using Paint (or Photoshop.)

Anonymous said...

I wonder if some day, blacks will be smart enough to realize that the only thing bleeding-heart liberals have ever done for them is to get them addicted to all the free government hand-outs they get. Welfare, food stamps, race-based quota's, protected-class status, unlimited, racially motivated preferences, etc. What the Demoncrats and the Left got in return for giving away the peoples hard-earned money was, of course, total political support from blacks.

What did blacks lose in the deal? How about dignity, self-respect, personal achievement, a sense of self-worth, true independence, and a lot more. Or, is it simply that blacks, after many, many generations of left-wing inspired addiction, have come to feel, hey, who cares, so long as we're protected and get more free stuff. Hmmm...

Robert said...

The Leftists have given the blacks a new form of slavery. This one just doesn't have physical chains, whips, and beatings. Those have been replaced with mental equivalents.

Anonymous said...

Well said Robert.

Anonymous said...

The liberal rule is to include whites last in any advertising. I find it very funny when a white mother has four or five kids, each of a different race.

Anonymous said...

During the late 1990s, I made five business trips to Poland -- Warsaw (2), Gdansk, Gdynia, and Krakow. The only black person that I saw was my associate with whom I was traveling. Wherever we went, people stared at her and children would point. I am sure that she was the first black person the children had ever seen. Poland is indeed "whiter than white." Oops, sorry, the PC Police have decreed that we am not suppose to use that term any more.

Anonymous said...

Has anyone noticed how American TV commercials have changed since Obongo was elected? They seem to give the impression that there are no White people in this country.

Anonymous said...

As a general rule I'd say don't change someone's color. Change the picture itself. Photoshop has just made people lazy and unimaginative.

http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/search/label/ebony-and-ivory

Anonymous said...

To me, the really interesting thing is that in the "original" photo (with the black man) THAT MAN'S HEAD LOOKS PHOTOSHOPPED TO BEGIN WITH!!! Doesn't it look a little too big? At an awkward angle?

Stan B said...

When Poland's black citizen (NOTE: I think there MAY be one, but I'm not sure) complains, then I'll care.

Anonymous said...

Wikipedia article "Ethnic minorities in Poland" considers Slovaks (1710 persons out of 38 million in 2002) to be numerous enough to be listed separately. Africans on the other hand are listed under "Other" which reads: "There are also national groups of Americans, Turks, Hungarians, French, Italians, Serbs, Croats, Bulgarians, Romanians, Georgians, Africans, Palestinians, other Arabs, Kurds and Vietnamese, who constitute small ethnic communities within major cities such as Warsaw, Kraków, and Gdańsk."

97,8% of people living in Poland use polish as their home language. There simply are no black people there!