I wondered about the guys turned toward the painting, but when I recognized the painting, I suspected there may be a subtext there. “The Raft of the Medusa” is often remarked-upon for its sympathetic depiction of African persons. If you look at it, you’ll see how sympathetically the reclining African man is, and that the pinnacle figure, one of the few with strength left to wave for rescue, is depicted heroically.
Also, they seriously picked the wrong guy - black guys understand how the man is harder on them than anyone else, and tend not to leave the house looking like a homeless person. This is a luxury enjoyed by the ruling class. Obviously exclusions apply, free will, chased outdoors by honey badger, etc.
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I guess adding diversity is a little better than removing it.
Maybe someone should have told Paul Ryan about this.
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I must know a lot of exceptional people.
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It’s funny how I lost all my snap antagonism toward you when I decided we were probably mostly on the same page, and that you’re probably telling the truth. Gotta break up that circular firing squad.
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If Ryan had tried it, it would have pissed of his white supporters.
Some people have blond hair, others brown… some curly, some striaght, some short hair, some long… some dresses, some shirts and skirts, all those colors of blazers!
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Based on how his mustache, beard and eyes got darker, I’m betting they used the Burn tool. Not that it matters how they did it. That they did it at all is mind boggling.
Once again, I’m glad someone sucks at their job, or else this might never have been caught.
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My first thought.
What a fabulous diversionary tactic by this ‘school’ to deflect any/all blame and no one conducting the interview bothered to follow up on.
“Cuz, you know, Murikans are stupid and totally obsessed with race, so let’s make it appear that we’re all diversity cheerleaders and get some of that stoopid murikan money!!! Oh, and while we’re at it, let’s blame someone else when we’re called out on our abhorrent behavior!! Yay!!”
Le sigh.
JFC right?
I’ve used PS for over a decade and even my 10yo son could guess at the tools to use and do a better job than this abomination.
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Of course, that could also mean «someone at the school decided to doctor a picture before sending it». It’s impressively vague.
Diversionary tactics. Which is oddly ironic, given the duality of the root word, diverse.
Diversionary tactic number 10- the old switcheroo
The Americans did it! Case closed!
Yeah, I thought about it and I left out a lot of context. Sorry about that. I’ve been in and around some punk/metal scenes that are heavily populated by POC, sometimes majority non-white, that express a lot of pride in being not just outsiders, but double outsiders, if you will. So I feel a lot of allegiance with people that look counter-cultural. Of course, I do understand that dressing weird makes life more difficult or dangerous for anyone, especially if you have more melanin.
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I found 20. Are there more?
I can easily see several variants happening, and they’re kind of different stories:
a1) French school sends off press kit to the US before opening a branch there. Someone at the school thinks “oh, we look too white, let’s just Photoshop a few people darker so it’ll go over better with the Americans” and “fixes” the photo before sending.
a2) Like a, but under orders from someone now denying it.
b1) French school sends out press kit. US PR agency staffed by overpaid white guys think “oh yeah diversity is in with the students now, I’ll just fix it for them”.
b2) The Americans did it, but were instructed by the French.
The press release hints at b1, but all four still seem plausible.
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How about that it’s an art school and somebody was just practicing their mad photo manipulation skillz?
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Just FYI, despite widespread ranting on the intarwebs, “Passive Voice” =/= “Vagueness regarding agency.”
Brutus stabbed Caesar -> Active voice
Caesar was stabbed by Brutus -> Passive voice
Agentless passives can be used to evade responsibility, but also when the agent is unknown or unimportant.
They’re fairly common in scientific writing, e.g., “the beaker was heated until fumes appeared”, where It’s not really important which researcher (or lab assistant) did the heating.
But passives need not omit the agent. Indeed, the passive construction can be used to emphasize the agent by placing it at the end, as a punch.
“He was betrayed by his own daughter” rather than “His own daughter betrayed him.”
Passive voice is often the best choice in good writing, despite what some idiot ‘grammar checker’ programs and clueless ‘grammar mavens’ will tell you.
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Yup, that’s what they insinuate.
Well, yes… but when the sentence does avoid mentioning the agent responsible, it’s generally done in the passive voice.
“The gun was discharged.”
“The suspect was shot.”
“The photograph was doctored.”
No where did I say that the passive voice was always bad.
In this case, the school is explicitly denying responsibility, but the construction makes it sound like it just “happened.” One of those blameless things. Who could fault the school when these things just happen?
We’re supposed to infer that the website operator or someone else did it, but they’re explicitly not assigning responsibility to any person. This in and of itself is odd – would you really not man the phones and get to the bottom of this ASAP if you were the school? Surely the chain between school and this appearing on the web could only consist of 2-3 people?
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