Dave informs me that there are in fact no black people in Toronto, but I’m pretty sure that can’t be true. There were even black people in Salt Lake City (and no, we’re not just counting Karl “the Mailman” Malone), so I’m having some trouble believing him.
Still, when we received our copy of Toronto’s Summer Fun Guide in the mail, something seemed…well, off. Here, take a quick look at the cover:
Again, that’s the actual cover! We didn’t photoshop that ourselves; rather, someone was paid to do that! That went to people’s houses! In fact, it’s still on the website we linked to, because, presumably, they think it looks good.
Now listen, we’re all for diversity. We’re for the kind of diversity where different people can live together, and learn from each other. We’re for the kind of diversity where, on one street, you can have really great Italian food, solid Mexican food and passable Chinese.
What we’re not in favor of are fake diversity and the notion that, hey, just because there’s not a black guy on the cover of a magazine, the magazine is somehow racist or exclusive. Photoshopping of black people into pictures they were not in (brotoshopping?) is ten times more offensive than an image without a black person.
Before we go any further, here’s a side-by-side of the original picture and the one that actually ran:
See what they did there? Couple things: first, could they have found a creepier, more lecherous guy to photoshop in there? Really, would those people be all giggly and happy with that guy in there staring at them? We think not.
Secondly, there must be a perfectly good explanation for this, right?
The smiling, ethnically diverse family featured on the cover of Toronto’s latest edition of its summer Fun Guide was digitally altered to make the photo more “inclusive,” which city officials say is in keeping with a policy to reflect diversity.
A spokesman for the department that publishes the guide listing recreation activities confirmed the publication was doctored to insert the face of a different father.
“He superimposed the African-Canadian person onto the family cluster in the original photo. It was two photographs and one head was superimposed over the original family photo,” said John Gosgnach, communications director for the social development division.
Haha! African-Canadians! Canadians are adorable!
Perhaps the funnest thing about this whole story is that it’s spawned a bit of a public contest in which regular Joes and Janes Q. Public are putting their own brotoshopping skills to the test, trying to see if they have what it takes to work for the city of Toronto. We’ve looked at some of the submissions, and so far, we’ve only found one guy who we think is up to the job:
Wow. That’s the worst photoshopping I’ve seen on a mainstream publication (not the last one you posted, but the actual image on the magazine cover). I know I read this yesterday, but I wanted to state in the comment page that I’m stunned. Stunned at the awfulness of that production job. And that the magazine couldn’t find any real black people in Toronto. Canadians are racist.