American Renaissance
Previous Story       Next Story       View Comments       Send This Page       Date Archives       Category Archives

City Digitally Adds Black Guy to Fun Guide Cover to Make It More ‘Inclusive’

More news stories on Multiculturalism and Diversity

Rob Roberts, National Post (Toronto), June 10, 2009

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.

“The goal was to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents.”

The cover shot caught the eye of a National Post graphics editor, who ran it through a program called TinEye that detects visual enhancements to standard art.

The program showed the original image was of a laughing family of indeterminate ethnic background.

Both the family in the initial photo and the new father inserted were clip art—stock images that publications sometimes purchase to use as illustrations. None are known to be Toronto residents, Mr. Gosgnach said.

“You won’t find a more inclusive organization than us,” said Kevin Sack, Toronto’s director of strategic communications. “We want everyone to feel involved and welcome to participate in everything. That’s the only goal. Nothing wrong with that.”

The move was in accordance with a policy dated April 11, 2008, signed by former city manager Shirley Hoy directing staff to ensure the true kaleidoscope of Toronto residents is represented in all its communications materials.

“The policy doesn’t say PhotoShop, the policy says ‘show diversity’ and that’s of course what we try and do because we want all of our publications to reflect the community that we serve,” explained Mr. Sack, who oversees city communications. “That’s only fair. People should see themselves reflected in city services because it’s everyone who uses them.”

There are no criteria for what constitutes diversity, he acknowledged when asked how the policy is implemented in practice and why the family in the initial image didn’t seem to fit the bill.

“That’s an interesting conversation,” Mr. Sack said. “This does not look like a nondescript white family, it looks maybe Latino.”

While stock photography was used for the current Fun Guide cover, city publications such as Our Toronto also use original images sometimes. In fact, the city is currently running a photo contest it hopes will supply images of and by Toronto residents for use in the future.

“When you’re publishing something with the deadlines and you don’t have the right photo, the objective is to communicate the service,” Mr. Sack said.

“We’re in one of the most diverse cities in the world. I hope that doesn’t pose a problem for anybody. Capturing that diversity is not difficult. That’s been our general experience.”

false
Left: original photo. Right: fake photo.
[June 12, 2009: Many thanks to the readers who pointed out that we had reversed the identification of the photos when this page was originally posted.]

Original article

(Posted on June 10, 2009)

     Previous story       Next Story       Post a Comment     Send This Page      Search

Comments

1 — Mike NY wrote at 6:25 PM on June 10:

Reminds me of Ted Baxter on that old 70’s show, “Mary Tyler Moore”.

He’d paste a cut-out of his head on the bodies of other newsmen in photos to give the impression that it was he who interviewed the famous and newsworthy.

Our civilization has become a stale sitcom & our cultural leaders have made themselves into self-important bloviaters.

2 — Question Diversity wrote at 6:31 PM on June 10:

The Univ. of Wisconsin was caught doing the same thing several years back, they Photoshopped in a young black man in the stands of a football game, when he really was not there.

3 — sbuffalonative wrote at 6:57 PM on June 10:


Here’s the link to the satirical Onion.

Satire becomes reality:

http://tinyurl.com/2rdeh6

And that black guy looks photo-shopped and uncomfortably out of place.

4 — jewamongyou wrote at 7:24 PM on June 10:

It looks to me like y’all have it backwards. The one on the left looks original and the one of the right has been altered.

5 — SKIP wrote at 7:37 PM on June 10:

I saw Ton Hanks shake hands with president Nixon on TV and it looks real, looks like some real amateurs did this shop. Mustn’t outrage the muslims or blacks and can’t have to many White people.

6 — Anonymous wrote at 7:40 PM on June 10:

“That’s an interesting conversation,” Mr. Sack said. “This does not look like a nondescript white family, it looks maybe Latino.”

Toronto is still a part of Canada, a country which is still composed of an 84% White majority, so what is wrong with displaying a “nondescript white family”??

Political-correct Leftists such as Kevin Sack are so fearful of the dreaded “R” word, that they overcompensate in favour of visibile-minorities at every opportunity.

This Toronto Police recruitment photo is devoid of any young White males. The token add-on of the older White guy who’s ready for retirement, must have been an afterthought of the people who designed this photo. At the far end of the photo, there are two White women but one of them is now completely blotted out.

7 — Lauren wrote at 7:52 PM on June 10:

I’m sick of seeing ad photos of people “of indeterminate ethnic background.” And, apparently, most other comsumers are, too. Not far from my house is a fabulously well designed mixed-use development. Really beautiful. But the billboards showed ‘hip’, young, “ethnically indeterminate” smiley face people ‘living lifestyle’. The center is a total bust….going under… The brown models’ faces scare off whites, and apparently do not reassure browns, either. Browns want to live and shop where the white people are.

Then there’s Tiger Woods, who GM hoped would sell Buick Enclaves
to senile white golfers as well as to browns and blacks. Despite the fact that the Enclave is very safe and very quiet, I could not bring myself to replace my car with a vehicle I associated with that “ethnically indeterminate” face. So I bought a Lexus. Apparently, so did most of America.

But the idea that a photo of a supposedly representative
Toronto group would not include a single white is obscene. The world has gone mad.

8 — Tim in Indiana wrote at 8:46 PM on June 10:

What a laughably, utterly ubsurd fiasco!

When I saw the headline for this story, I thought maybe the photo in question was showing an embarrassingly all-white crowd of people attending some festival or other event. I had no idea it would be depicting a small family, which, one would expect, would be all of the same race!

Is there something about the birds an the bees that I don’t understand? I thought parents were generally of the same race as their natural children! Was I wrong about this? Perhaps nature itself is racist, since it stubbornly insists on making children the same race as their parents! Shame on you, Mother Nature, you racist thing!

Or perhaps this magazine is promoting misegination? I don’t know. The family does already look non-white to begin with, so the desperate Photoshop job was just another hysterical overreaction by guilt-ridden whites.

“We’re in one of the most diverse cities in the world. I hope that doesn’t pose a problem for anybody.

Considering that “diverse” cities, no matter what their population size, always have a much higher crime rate, I suspect it might.

9 — Anonymous wrote at 8:59 PM on June 10:

Doesn’t it look like he’s openly LEERING at the woman to the left?
Worst.
Photoshopping.
Ever.

10 — Anonymous wrote at 9:22 PM on June 10:

Cmon, how difficult is it to get a black person to pose in a photograph that they had to photoshop it? The doctored picture looks hilarious with those banjo eyes and koolaid smile.

11 — Anonymous wrote at 9:24 PM on June 10:

Just goes to show how hollow any rationale is in regard to the desireability of diversity, if they have to fake it to get their point across. Too bad so many people buy into this nonsense.

I saw an ad once for a clothing department store chain. Had a black guy in surfer trunks carrying a surfboard, next to his wife (girlfriend?), and it was another one of those silly diversity department ideas. Rather comical, actually. Everybody knows it’s a rare sight to find a surfer like that in SoCal with a white chick. You’re much more likely to find the white women hanging out with gangsta rapper wannabes. Everybody knows that.

12 — CB wrote at 9:38 PM on June 10:

In addition to the obvious (and might I add, quite amateurish) Photoshop insertion of the black guy, did anyone else notice how the other members of the “family” have suddenly become a shade or two darker?

It is subtle, but it is there (it is a bit more obvious in the original article with the mouse-rollover effect).

13 — Anonymous wrote at 10:00 PM on June 10:

I live in Toronto and I’ve been looking at the advertising in the shopping malls. The vast majority of pictures in store fronts are white models. You’d think Toronto was still a white city from the ads. I think it would do a lot of good for the remaining whites in Toronto if they were forced to look at ads that reflected the actual diversity of the city. That might wake whites up.

I also notice the models are young and good looking. The customers in the mall don’t look at all like the models. When is the human rights crowd going to insist that the models be as ordinary looking as the customers.

14 — Civilized Neighbor wrote at 10:03 PM on June 10:

The crowd who attend activities referred to as ‘family fun’ will be 98% white. City promotional brochures always find one or two black faces to promote or they fake it like this brochure does. Word spreads quickly when black start to ruin things for white families so diverse brochures achieve nothing.

And this photoshop job is horrible. Any junior high kid could do better. The original family looks sort of Hispanic. They insertion of the black guy, however, makes the woman look like a white brunette with mulatto kids. That is not an accident.

‘Ethnically indeterminate’ means non-white to me so I avoid racial hucksters who use them to model their products.

I would also like to see the stock photo libraries to see what the racial options are.

15 — jewamongyou wrote at 10:04 PM on June 10:

Might I add that whoever did the “photoshop” seems to have been an affirmative action hire; I could have done a much better job myself. That a horrendous photoshop attempt.

16 — Anonymous wrote at 10:06 PM on June 10:

Well, we all know that you just can’t have fun, without Blacks being in the picture. What were they thinking?

Now, let’s all go to Harlem, and have a blast.

17 — It does not matter wrote at 12:23 AM on June 11:

The photo on the left was disturbing enough, no need for the garbage on the right.

18 — Schoolteacher wrote at 2:17 AM on June 11:

This is purely Soviet. Whenever a member of the Party was liquidated, the censors went through old photos and airbrushed out the non-person. And they also put Joe Stalin into photos showing him as part of the heroic vanguard of the revolution, instead of the administrative drudge that he was. These people can’t help but give away their philosophical heritage.

19 — Anonymous wrote at 2:53 AM on June 11:

The Poster #6, on June 10, 2009 gave a link to the Tononto Police Recruiting Poster which I did observe, and noticed that there were no new White Recruits in the add, but a older K-9 Officer, in the background.

Just what are the Police trying to tell Whites? “You no longer count as members of Society, and its Law Enforcement Division, even though your people built this Society”.

I have to admit that if I saw a Black or Indian in a Canadian Mountie Uniform, I would laugh my butt off at the sight of it.

A Black “Dudley Do Right”. Now that’s funny.

20 — Herman wrote at 5:11 AM on June 11:

This reminds me of the treatment which was applied to fotos of Leon Trotzkij in Soviet newspapers. Trotzkij, who had been a rival of Stalin, was excluded from the Communist party in 1927 and emigrated to Mexico where he was murdered by Communist agents in 1940. After 1927, whenever a Communist newspaper published a pre-1927 group foto of Communist leaders, the head of Trotzkij had to be removed by the photomechanical methods of that time.
That treatment of Trotzkij’s fotos gave George Orwell the idea for his novel “1984”. The hero, Winston Smith, is employed at the “truth ministry” where his job is to remove any mention of former party leaders from old newspapers after they have been declared party enemies by the “Big Brother”.

21 — David K wrote at 6:29 AM on June 11:

“You won’t find a more inclusive organization than us,” said Kevin Sack, Toronto’s director of strategic communications. “We want everyone to feel involved and welcome to participate in everything. That’s the only goal. Nothing wrong with that.”

Ummm… if you have to LIE, there is something wrong with that!

“The policy doesn’t say PhotoShop, the policy says ‘show diversity’”

Finally! Confirmation of the meaning of “diversity” - the (literal) elimination of white people!

22 — tryclosan wrote at 6:46 AM on June 11:

To Anonymous:

I have heard from friends who were interested in joining that the Toronto Police Service has virtually stopped hiring white males. Not surprising, given their Head of HR: http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/command.php .

While the stock press photo of the ETF (SWAT team) contains the requisite minorities (http://tinyurl.com/lznkrl)it’s notable that photos taken of the ETF in action (google image search “Toronto ETF”) are devoid of non-whites. This intolerable racism will no doubt be remedied soon, and will likely kill morale and team cohesiveness.

23 — me_leelee wrote at 8:13 AM on June 11:

This is asininity become reality.

24 — SKIP wrote at 8:39 AM on June 11:

Toronto group would not include a single white is obscene. The world has gone mad.

No, it’s going black and muslim and in typical fashion the picture has a black male/White female…gettin really tired of seeing that.

25 — Anonymous wrote at 10:26 AM on June 11:

Toronto’s latest population statistics (not including satellite cities) clearly illustrates how that once great city has been transformed from a near 97% white homogeneous city in 1970 into a stronghold of squabbling non-white foreigners colonizing our schools, our workplaces, our health-care facilities, etc…. and as this story amply demonstrates, they even push White Canadians completely out of our own picture.

Blacks in Toronto once amounted to a miniscule .003% of our population. But thanks to mass immigration from the Caribbean Islands and other African countries their numbers have exploded to over 8% and now have the notorious reputation of committing about 80% of our violent crime. Note the Toronto Police Most Wanted. Coincidentally, the colour range is almost identical to their recruitment poster in the post above.

Americans used to love visiting Toronto mainly because of our lack of “diversity”, but I suspect their numbers are greatly reduced today. But who can blame them — as myself — have no inclination of visiting my former city since my own white flight took off.

26 — Anonymous wrote at 11:05 AM on June 11:

#13 Poster says “I think it would do a lot of good for the remaining whites in Toronto if they were forced to look at ads that reflected the actual diversity of the city.

The “remaining whites”??

Are you referring to some hidden agenda or is this just wishful “racist” thinking on your part of removing the “remaining” descendants of my original settler/ancestors who, through blood, sweat and tears built my city from the ground up?

27 — Anonymous wrote at 12:59 PM on June 11:

Poster #22 says: “I have heard from friends who were interested in joining that the Toronto Police Service has virtually stopped hiring white males. Not surprising, given their Head of HR:http://www.torontopolice.on.ca/command.php .

This Barbados-born black immigrant was bumped to the front of the line over more qualified police personnel for no other reason than to appease the political-correct forces of the day.

Soon after his promotion to Superintendent in 2001, he was cited in the Toronto Star (Jan. 10), saying that Toronto’s police should closely resemble the population it serves. Well, if that same criteria was in effect in the early ’70s when he was first hired as a Toronto cop in an overwhelming White city, this Black immigrant wouldn’t be holding his lofty position today.

I would hope that qualified White Canadian males would inundate that department with application forms, and if they’re refused for no other legitimate reason other than being White, then a class-action lawsuit is in order. Enough of this blatant racism against White males!

28 — Bill Corr wrote at 2:56 PM on June 11:

Jared Taylor has discussed diversity in Canada and the evolution of ethnic gangs in Canadian cities.

Filipino gangs, Native American gangs, African gangs, East Indian gangs - you name it, Canada either has such a gang or soon will have. The Jamaicans seem to be doing a great deal of the shooting in Toronto, but my guess is that the Vancouver Chinese gangs do better in actual cash turnover.

Canadians, please comment.

29 — SKIP wrote at 4:49 PM on June 11:

The Jamaicans seem to be doing a great deal of the shooting in Toronto, but my guess is that the Vancouver Chinese gangs do better in actual cash turnover.

This is because the Chinese can work from a plan requiring time to fruition whereas blacks and “others” cannot, since they are more on the instant gratification train. STILL!! unwatched and uncontrolled, the muslims will trump all of them.

30 — Anonymous wrote at 9:12 PM on June 11:

Poster #26, I’m poster #13. I guess my post had a little too much spice of sarcasm in it. By “remaining whites” I was referring both to the white flight that Toronto has experienced and also the remnant of whites that are now becoming a minority in our city. My point is that most of these whites don’t realize how small a share of the population we are becoming and one of the reasons is that the ads in the malls make Toronto still look like a white city.

31 — Anonymous wrote at 10:21 PM on June 13:

I used to go to T.O. quite frequently. I had not been there in about 20 years when I returned for a visit and experienced a culture shock that literally brought me to tears.
Toronto’s diverse white ethnicities had been replaced by browns, blacks and asians.
It had also coincidentally become quite unsafe.
There is nothing familiar there.
I will never go back.

32 — Anonymous wrote at 5:50 PM on June 14:

You’re getting way off track here folks!

The magazine absolutely has the right to photoshop any head onto the shot they’d like. I don’t understand how this can even be debated. If they think it’ll sell magazines, then that’s capitalism at work.

You’d think a bunch of party line folks like you would know better. You want to tell the publication it can’t do that? WHat is this, reverse PC dynamics?

Agreed that the photoshop job is terrible, but the rest is complete idiocy.

33 — Korean guy in Toronto wrote at 6:10 PM on June 14:

“Jared Taylor has discussed diversity in Canada and the evolution of ethnic gangs in Canadian cities.

Filipino gangs, Native American gangs, African gangs, East Indian gangs - you name it, Canada either has such a gang or soon will have. The Jamaicans seem to be doing a great deal of the shooting in Toronto, but my guess is that the Vancouver Chinese gangs do better in actual cash turnover.

Canadians, please comment.”

well I am not sure if you would like to hear from me because I might be living in Canada and have Canadian citizenship but was born in Korea.

Toronto is still safe (compared to D-town in Michigan) as long as you always use your common sense. My school is located right in the middle of downtown Toronto, and I noticed the students at my school are more disturbed with homeless people and homeless people begging the students for money and using the money to buy drugs and cigarettes, instead of basic living supplies. Evening classes end at 9:30PM, and most students still do not have any problem staying around the campus.

I can never get enough of the chicken wrap, onion rings and alcohol-free pina colada being sold at the built-in restaurant at the student centre my school… (centre = Canadian spelling influenced by its French heritage) and there are a few more world-class restaurants near my school.

34 — Schoolteacher wrote at 2:17 PM on June 15:

32 Anonymous: You’re not from around here, are you? If any poster said it was illegal to photoshop, it escaped me. The point is that the magazine is deliberately presenting a false picture of multi-culturalism, and that they had to really reach a ways to get that picture. Apparently, the publisher thought that authentic photos of cheerful diversity are not easy to come by. That they made a bad job of it technically is merely amusing.

BTW, a government sponsored propaganda magazine is not an example of “capitalism”.


Home      Top      Previous story       Next Story      Send This Page      Search