Culture

Toronto Photoshops Black Man into Fun Guide to Be 'Inclusive'

by Jarrett Martineau | June 11, 2009 at 12:54 pm

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In an impossibly offensive and failed attempt "to depict the diversity of Toronto and its residents", the city of Toronto is in hot water over the cover of its latest 2009 Spring & Summer Fun Guide — which depicts an altered photo of a family "of indeterminate ethnic background" that has had a photoshopped image of black male crudely superimposed over the original image.

The city stands by its decision to promote a faked version of Toronto's multiculturalism, instead of bothering to find a real, culturally diverse family to photograph.

According to the Fun Guide: "When you're publishing something with the deadlines and you don't have the right photo, the objective is to communicate the service".

That may be the case, but this time they've failed miserably.

Gawker's got the original and faked versions of the photos side-by-side: Black Guy Photoshopped In and The National Post has posted the real and photoshopped versions as a clever roll-over.

So much for inclusiveness and reliability.

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.

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Jordan Yerman

at 13:52 on June 11th, 2009

I thought this was a joke at first... as a former Toronto resident, I gotta ask why they had so much trouble finding a real-life multi-ethnic/cultural family, rather than showing off their (pardon me) execrable Photoshop skills. I find it more funny than anything else.