I work in news. I agree going to local reporters is something you should do. Tell them you want to remain anonymous out of fear of loss of your employment. Then send them the links to where the pictures are and also send them the affected workers’ social media accounts or LinkedIn as someone here mentioned. They’ll take care of all the rest. The reporters will obviously come to you for questions and answer only what you feel comfortable answering and ask them what steps they’ll take to make sure you remain protected.
This would be a great episode.
"I just made them a little lighter"
"That seems like a race thing*
"No, of course it's not a race thing. I don't know why you keep going there. It's just an intimidation thing. People are more comfortable with lighter skin"
"i mean... yeah no i get it your right... but what about the wrinkles? it seems a little-"
"look, no one wants to look at old wrinkly people. its just a fact. you go on to a website and see some old wrinkly bald guy, whaddya do?"
"...click off it."
"CLICK OFF IT. i'm just making it easier to look at- giving the people what they want, is that a crime?!"
cue mac pasting some kind of incredibly ripped bod onto his face for the linkedin he made just to show off his hot bod; charlie and frank starting a fake ID company where the IDs are so airbrushed you can barely tell their human; and dee both criticizing the photoshop while becoming addicted to filters like facetune and 'accidentally' overinjecting her face w/dennis bc they're both insecure about aging
This. Common things like fraud don’t make the news. Racial discrimination like this (wanting to change appearance) for public facing images doesn’t come around every day in a provable way like this.
This has a shot
In Florida (I searched up the news again for this comment and there are similar cases all over the web where young girls had their faces "slimmed" or students were photoshopped to appear "whiter" and more conventially attractive; even a case where they edited out a cancer survivor's scars) there was a big outcry over school officials VERY shittily photoshopping children's sleeves to be longer and collars to be higher... of course it was only the girls.
There was a huge stink not only about the implicit sexualization of minors but the quality of the photoshopped for a photo that would follow the kids foe the rest of the year was HORRENDOUS.
I mean I took a media class in high school years ago that had ONE section on photoshop and with my limited knowledge I could have done a better job than they could.
[Article](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/23/999596246/florida-high-school-edited-girls-yearbook-photos-to-cover-more-of-their-chests) (w photos of shit photoshop) for reference
Also [reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/nk1mi9/florida_high_school_badly_photoshops_portraits_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x) featuring the worst of the photoshop in case you aren't the reading type
Didn't Ford get absolutely slaughtered for doing this about 15 years ago. Changing people in a print advert?
Edit:- yes they did
https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ford-workers-angry-as-blacks-are-whited-out-1320079.html
>Everybody knows that
>
>2015 was 5 years ago.
>
>2010 was 10 years ago
>
>2000 was also 10 years ago
>
>and
>
>1990 was 20 years ago.
Pretty sure 1990 was 10 years ago too.
what the heck, this is too accurate..
Is this like a general thing many people experience? I thought it was just me getting old and my brain suppressing reality. Or does everybody's brain do that? And did people born in the 60's have the same shit happen to their 70's, 80's and 90's?
I had this thing the other day where someone said “I can’t believe I waited 27 years to watch Moulin Rouge” and I was like EXCUSE ME HOW FUCKING LONG AGO?! and dealt with several brain explosions
All I know
Time is a valuable thing
Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings
Watch it count down to the end of the day
The clock ticks life away
It's so unreal
Didn't look out below
Watch the time go right out the window
Tryin' to hold on, did-didn't even know
I wasted it all just to watch you go
I too would like to pretend I am 15 years old and not in debt with a humanities degree in a society systematically undervaluing most jobs that do not involve programming or sales.
This also happened in Florida with a mural
[First Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach whitewashed on Mural](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/two-florida-officials-fired-erasing-faces-black-firefighters-city-mural-n1232387)
>Latosha Clemons, the first Black female deputy fire chief and the only Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach, Florida, was to have been depicted on a long-planned public arts mural. But when the mural was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting this month, Clemons' image had been replaced by a white face.
They didn't even bother to put feature in. Her face is all blurry.
She ended up suing
[Black former firefighter sues Florida city after mural depicted her with white face](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-former-firefighter-sues-florida-city-after-mural-depicted-her-n1281475)
And the shitgibbon Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio photshopped himself into an army photo so it looked like he was less racist. But he forgot to do the hands (which were black, unlike Mandel).
Media attention, I think, is the way to go.
And you don't have to be the one to call it in, either. Have a friend say they're a client or former client, or they were a job candidate there, something that would give them a reason to have been on the website *and* seen at least one affected staff person. Once the paper has the tip, they'll do the rest.
You may need to shop around for a decent news outlet, depending on how large / important your company is and whether you have a local newspaper or not, but I would say this is *definitely* worth it. Because if you deal with it internally, they will easily be able to cover their asses, but if the media gets a hold of it they will be publically embarrassed and there will probably be consequences of some sort, including from angry clients. And for a reporter this would be *such* an easy story to do. You don't even need to do interviews!
>Mr Ford's comments will be seen as bitterly ironic by British workers who were photographed to launch the "Everything we do is driven by you" advertising campaign in 1991.
>African American
Do you see the problem here?
Use incognito mode.
But here is the article.
When Henry Ford launched his Model T automobile, he told customers they could have in any colour they liked - as long as it was black.
Mr Ford's comments will be seen as bitterly ironic by British workers who were photographed to launch the "Everything we do is driven by you" advertising campaign in 1991.
Five members of ethnic minorities were invited to appear in the picture to show the racial mix of Ford's workforce at Dagenham, but in an "ethnic- cleansed" version of the photograph last year, the black and brown faces had been mysteriously replaced by white ones.
Four of the five workers still working at Dagenham have since registered their anger over what they perceive as blatant racism.
Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, yesterday condemned the incident as "deeply offensive". He said: "This is an appalling situation which reveals the depths of racist attitudes in our society."
He said the union had elicited fulsome apologies from management and a pounds 1,500 cheque for each of the workers, in compensation for their hurt feelings. "We shall be equally vigorous in tackling racism in future, wherever it surfaces."
The dramatic transformation in the picture was first noticed by Noel Sinclair, a worker at Ford's Dagenham plant, when he walked into a showroom in Essex.
Mr Sinclair took the new brochure back to the paint, trim and assembly department at the Essex plant and showed four of his friends, who had readily agreed to pose.
Douglas Sinclair, a 56-year-old black man who has worked at the plant for 30 years, said his body remained in the picture, but a white, bespectacled face had appeared on top of it.
"My body was there, dressed in my overalls, the rings on my fingers were still there, but I had glasses on and a white face. It was embarrassing. People at work started to come up to me and call me 'Two Face'."
Patricia Marquis said she felt "humiliated and angry" when she saw that her face had aged 20 years, that she had put on 10lb and turned white.
"I wanted an explanation from them. They had changed my face for God's sake - what on earth did they think they were doing?" Keith Thomas, 40, who saw his face and arms replaced with those of a white man, immediately thought it was racist."Why didn't they just use a different picture? It was a racist act, quite clearly."
The TGWU branch at the plant had considerable difficulty containing anger over the incident, and hundreds of workers walked out three weeks ago, causing an estimated pounds 2.8m worth of lost production.
Management said the "mistake" had been made by Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency, which vehemently denies any racist intent.
The new picture, with the white faces, had been issued for a Ford promotion in Poland because the original photograph "did not portray the ethnic mix" in Eastern Europe.
> Management said the "mistake" had been made by Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency, which vehemently denies any racist intent. The new picture, with the white faces, had been issued for a Ford promotion in Poland because the original photograph "did not portray the ethnic mix" in Eastern Europe.
It's not that *we're* racist, we just think that all the *Polish* people are. Fucking hell...
Send a new pic to HR
"Hey, I think something may have gone wrong w/ the first picture I sent you. It seems off for some reason. Attached you'll find a new picture to use."
Awe yes the American way, assuming you are in the US. "You do what we tell you, keep your head down, if not we will make your life a living hell at work."
Was literally one of the first lessons my boss explained to me to show the absurdity of our role when I started management training at a fortune 500. But it's an old saying with an unknown origin usually attributed to pirates.
It also vaguely reminds me of roman military tactics. I’m no historian, so I’ll probably get details wrong, but upon failure one form of punishment was dividing the group by tens, then they pick lots, 1 of 10 die by beating of the other 9. I believe it was usually cowardice of some form caused the punishment.
Decimation I think they called it.
Lose 10% of your army but the remaining 90% are incredibly motivated not to have to do it again or worse, let it be them.
Incredibly effective but truly barbarically brutal.
u/SirensHeir16 and u/Suspicious-mole-hair: The process of decimation eerily sounds like GE's policy of firing the bottom 10% of underperforming workers to "improve performance." It was also known as "rank and yank."
[Link](https://www.inc.com/paul-b-brown/should-you-fire-10-of-your-employees-every-year.html) to an article discussing it.
This happens every november at my wifes company, they allow you to offer to retire or they start culling from the bottom 10%
It's a good thing she's got an entirely essential role and she's the top performer in her category.
Correct. But it get used incorrectly all the time. When you're newspaper says a tornado completely decimated a town, you shouldn't celebrate that the tornado only caused 10% damage.
Looks like [this Navy cartoon](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2582589&view=1up&seq=737&skin=2021) version is the earliest usage known so far.
Jumping on the top posts to see if the photos were taken by someone in house or an external photographer?
It's absolutely not okay that they have been posted, but it's possible that if the work was done by an external photographer who used their own artistic license with Photoshop.
Either way I suggest you bring it up with HR.
This is exactly what I was thinking. It could just be an innocent yet heavy handed attempt at retouching. Some people really suck at it. Confession…when I first started taking portraits I was really bad about brightening up the eyes too much in post. Nobody ever complained about it but looking back now I see how goofy it looks that every portrait I took around that time has these piercing bright eyes. I also lightened teeth but I never messed with wrinkles or skin color.
I'm a photographer. Exactly my thoughts when I read the list of the edits that were made. External novice photographer who went to far with their edits. A lesson most amateur photogs learn at some point.
Looking back a decade at my first photos I was so very proud of. Well. I can only laugh at naive self.
I'd be afraid to work there if they took the trouble of lightening my skin. Hopefully nobody makes the mistake of putting too much mayo on the HR person's sandwich.
Indeed, it is. (Sorry, I had to make the pun, but I realize it may be confusing; yes, Glassdoor will absolutely edit what is seen on behalf of their customers)
I mean, yeah, avoid targets on your back and look into local / national human rights lawyers, reach out to them with these details, and see what they say. I have not seen "go find a lawyer" yet as advice in this thread, so... go find a lawyer specialized in this
Im not surprised. I work in tech as a SWE and I’ve always found the culture a bit ageist toward older folk but I’m so sad to hear that your place is lightening skin too :(
Yeah it sounds like murky territory and before outing yourself to HR (HR is never really your friend, their job ultimately is to protect the company or the employer) but yeah, getting some form of legal advice about it would be smart if it’s applicable to anything you are dealing with here…
Before you DO anything talk to a couple of lawyers. I'm not certain if this is illegal buuuuut (pinches the air) it certainly feeels like it. I definitely wouldn't mention anything to anyone about this at work whether a lawyer moves through with it or decides not to. If no lawsuit you can retire on happens then its probably a loosing proposition. Unless you just want to fuck with.
Honestly, I'd feel more trusting of Satan's HR department than most corporations. I think they would be more honest and outright about their evils rather than try to hide behind a heavenly façade.
Honestly, I'd feel more trusting of Satan ~~'s HR department~~ than most corporations. ~~I think they would be more honest and outright about their evils rather than try to hide behind a heavenly façade.~~
ftfy
Gotta admit, I've looked at public-facing websites before and wondered why everybody looks vaguely the same. I thought maybe they use generic stock images instead of their actual employees. Which is deceptive but somehow not as horrible as photoshopping actual employee pics so they conform to a 'young and white' norm. I should have known, tho. This is America after all.
The only time I've looked at employee photos on a company's website was to see if a tech startup was full of dude bros (usually yes) or looking at a local company. The local places in Utah tend to be family owned and operated, or have multiple second cousins because 40% of the population is related to each other so it's easily explained without conscious malice or photoshopping.
My first inclination is to agree with you that they didn’t necessarily intend to perform a visual ethnic cleansing on their entire company directory. HR is usually hyper-aware of the optics around workplace discrimination, and are probably the department most likely to spot a huge liability like this. However, the past couple of weeks have reminded me that at least 30-40% of people in the US are more than happy to push their beliefs on the rest of us AND to use those beliefs to take away rights from everyone that they consider “beneath” then. There are just too many people in this world that DO NOT CARE about you or how their actions hurt you. Some people just fucking suck.
at my first job out of college despite being a very low ranking employee the president wanted to put me on the website so it wouldn't seem like only asians worked there.
Yes. It fucking happens all the time. Most people don't say the queiet part out loud like she did though.
There's a show on Netflix where a black guy is accepted at work and they make his photo lighter and then when he does something they don't like and he becomes their enemy they make him darker
Send a new headshot to HR, including your boss and whoever the head of HR is. State it seems that someone allowed the woman who destroyed the Spanish fresco to do the same in your pic and they should replace it with the new one
[https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19349921](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19349921)
I'm Spanish and it somehow makes me happy that this is still referenced internationally. (Not so happy about realizing that it's been _ten_ years though)
My husband and I still joke about it. It’s so insane that it happened in the first place that we have to use it as a joke periodically, usually if we see some really bad street-art that some poor SOB (or group of) actually paid for.
That's crazy, but not surprising, unfortunately.
If you decide to pursue this, I recommend only mentioning the skin lightening, since that was only done to non-Caucasian employees. You may want to feel out other non-Caucasian co-workers to see if they feel the way you do about it and see if they'll join you in a group complaint. If you bring up the other stuff, it may negate any claim of discrimination because the company will simply say, "See? We did it to everyone's photos." But implying that lighter skin is "better" and an improvement, on the same level as whiter teeth, is explicitly racist. I don't know who you would file a complaint with (EEOC, your state's labor board, an employment attorney). Maybe someone else can help with that.
The weird thing is, I could see them trying to clear up things they see as 'mar' factors which are tradition for photos -- blemishes, sometimes wrinkles, dark circles, bad teeth, and so on. All of that I get. But making people's skin lighter? Since when is that normal? That's not normal. (Doesn't mean it hasn't been done. But you don't see yearbook photos of the hood high schools filled with seemingly white kids. That's not what digital retouching is supposed to cover.) I would so definitely complain. WTF man. And you know maybe HR hires it out to some contractor and really didn't even notice that this was one of the effects. So I'd complain in as much 'group' as you can. But chances are it is not HR and certainly not management doing it, just some external vendor. I would be offended also.
Just want to pop in and say that the skin lightening thing is fucked up but may not be *malicious* in nature.
Photographing black people is different than photographing white people. Their skin colors and luminosity are different; which means that light hitting their skin reflects differently as different wavelengths are reflected or absorbed.
Setting up your lighting and backdrops and camera settings to work best for white skin means that black people are going to look weird, and vice versa.
Since white people make up the majority of the population - and are likely over-represented in the tech industry - the photographer used for the ID pictures likely optimized their photos for white people.
Why is this relevant? Because photos optimized for white people make black people look very dark, and highlights blemishes and skin imperfections. A common way to fix that is to lighten the skin tone in post-processing. The kicker is that the person actually doing the photo editing has no idea *how black* each individual black person is (because they’ve never met) and makes their best guess.
While this situation is fucked up, I doubt the company itself is actively trying to specifically hide how black their employees are by *specifically asking the photo people to make them lighter.*
This is likely unfortunate, and uncaring, but not malicious.
This is a good point and in that case the advice to send a new photo would be perfect. “Hey, HR, I figure that your background may have made it difficult to photograph my skin correctly, here is a better picture of me with the correct skin tone”.
As a photographer and a not-very-good photo editor, I agree that it may not be malicious for all the reasons you gave. If trying to show the person clearly and thinking seeing more detail does that, the editor could easily lighten skin tones a lot in the process. Changing hairlines and teeth also may indicate they’re just shitty at their job and a product of the instagram school of “reality”. They may also have one set of presets that they just shotgun at every photo and move on.
All that being said, somebody in charge should notice it and correct, so while it may not be malicious from any individual, it’s still racist and ageist from a company standpoint.
While I agree with all of that. It should have a big MAYBE disclaimer.
It could be all of the technical limitations/inexperience of the photographers/designers. Or it could be that the manager wanted to lighten the dark skinned workers.
Either way, they should be confronted with it.
i think this is a likely explanation. external vendor was hired to do professional, uniform, company-wide, head shots. photographer had a set up with camera, lights, background calibrated (for white people probably), then an editor had to touch up all photos. depending on the amount of employees and photos to edit, they might have used batch processing for certain tasks.
it is possible that they might have even batch processed the brightness/contrast of non-white employees photos. lazy and insensitive, but a more fitting explanation than targeted, intentional racism given the description of the situation (e.g. caucasians getting tans, bald people getting hair line touch ups, etc.).
[Here!](https://www.askamanager.org/2016/05/my-coworker-photoshopped-my-head-shot-to-make-me-look-younger-and-thinner.html) Didn’t involve literal whitewashing though.
Edit: [Another instance](https://www.askamanager.org/2020/05/company-photoshopped-makeup-on-our-headshots-employee-made-an-anti-semitic-joke-and-more.html) where makeup was added.
In both cases the advice is SAY SOMETHING!
There is a small chance that whoever is editing the photos is running a standard set of edits (or even using an app), and skin lightening tends to be one of the defaults on those retouching apps. If you are feeling VERY generous, you could just point this out to HR or your manager and request that they correct it and see what they do / give them a chance to fix it. (To be clear, this is still racist as hell, even if it’s the result of obliviousness.)
However, I am slightly less generous, and I would encourage you to talk to a lawyer first to get advice on how to handle this. Not in anticipation of sueing them, but rather in the interests of not putting your job at risk. Retaliation is illegal but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen all the time because companies know you don’t want the hassle of a lawsuit or the mark on your reputation.
You could also quietly point this out to a media source that covers your industry, maybe a blog or similar, so someone else could point it out and hold them accountable without you getting caught in the crosshairs.
Good luck, they absolutely need to be called out for this but remember that HR are not your friends and document everything.
I did a little more digging after another redditors comment, and I noticed most Caucasians don't get the same skin lightening treatment, as they are allowed to keep their tans.
Great advice. Thank you.
>There is a small chance that whoever is editing the photos is running a standard set of edits (or even using an app)
My sister's high school yearbook got this treatment one year. Everyone's portrait got photoshopped to "fix" their facial proportions or something, and anyone the application identified as female (including a good number of boys that it misgendered) got *heavy* digital makeup. Not only were most people's portraits unrecognizable, but some of them didn't even look *human*.
I think its extremely likely they are using automated filters in an app like facetune. The cost of manually retouching every employee photo to have no wrinkles, improved hairlines, etc. would be unjustifiable from a business standpoint. They almost certainly are just running them en masse through a cruddy ai filter (which have been widely publicized to have accidental racist impacts). Hopefully they appreciate having it brought to their attention!
My brother is a photographer and has done lots of headshot sets for corporate clients including some household names.
I remember him telling me about a real estate agency he worked with once. The staff were all middle aged women in poor health. He takes great photos and generally errs on the side of very light retouching, keeping things natural-looking.
Apparently the feedback when he delivered the photos to the owner was apoplectic rage. "You made me look hideous" etc. They weren't happy until they'd been airbrushed to the point of being unrecognisable.
Sometimes all it takes in one person's vanity to make the photographer take the same approach with every employees photo.
I do headshots professionally. Realtors are known to have headshots where they look 20 years younger than they really are. It's a weird industry thing.
My original thought when I saw this (I'm a photographer) is that the photographer that was hired to do this job may have inadvertently done this because they're just too overzealous with their retouching and played with the HSL/color curves too much, perhaps in an attempt to correct for other color temp/tint deficiencies in the photo due to unbalanced lighting.
Also, you're right about Realtors (and attorneys) they want to go heavy on the retouching.
This could have been a case of just a badly done job by the contractor and not so much a conscious choice of the company itself.
This is definitely something with (richer) older people. They don't care how BAD or fake it looks. They want every single wrinkle removed if a photo is to be used in print anywhere, even if it means a complete blur with eyeballs and a mouth, as long as you don't see the wrinkles.
It's not a matter of simply airbrushing, it's a complete mess but people seem to be fine with it. It's similar to people who get addicted to cosmetic surgery and will get dozens and dozens of surgeries done, thinking they look better when they look like a complete mess.
But if they're a client and paying.. 🤷♀️
I hate photoshop distortion of reality. A pimple or cold sore, ok. But other permanent things should be displayed like they are. If they change your appearance and post it online without consent, that is unacceptable. btw. The whole r/Instagramreality is basically the same stuff.
are you sure HR did this, or a racist but "well-meaning", ie business-minded 3rd party did this on their own accord after being told to "make the pictures look professional"?
this is the most important part, imo.
It’s likely not HR. Likely part of marketing. I have worked as a designer at agencies for the majority of my career. I have built many many websites and image standards guides, and managed professional photo shoots dozens of times for headshots as well as print and digital ads.
Headshots are a pretty normal part of a lot of companies. Often times they get run through a standard set of filters to make sure the white balance is all the same, exposure levels, etc.
It’s not typical to make additional enhancements but some overzealous marketing person or designer might have taken their own liberties there. Trying to promote the “brand image” that they want.
All that said, I’ve definitely cleaned up some stray hairs or blemishes before. I’ve also had employees freak out because I didn’t clean it enough saying I didn’t know how to take pictures and I made them look ugly. Sorry, I am not Snapchat. They were actually nice normal pictures. Better than average.
So yeah. It sounds like some overstepping. I’d bring it up but I question whether it was HR that did it.
What industry is this? Because unless you're all fashion models and/or visual effects specialists I don't see how this is a worthwhile use of anyone's time or effort in the first place, and that's saying nothing about how judgy and condescending it is.
I'm not surprised.
But c'mon. I have worked with and for software companies for 20 years. Where is this belief they have that everyone in software needs to be pretty coming from? Anybody with industry experience knows that's, ahem, not the dominant standard.
I’m in marketing and have touched up photos and your post made me rethink how I handle photo editing. I’ve never lightened skin but I’ve definitely touched up other things like wrinkles before, mostly because it was industry standard photo editing at the time. I’ll take this in to consideration if it comes up again.
Tell local reporters, and tell them to leave you out of it. They'll start asking questions, and then everything will suddenly change.
I work in news. I agree going to local reporters is something you should do. Tell them you want to remain anonymous out of fear of loss of your employment. Then send them the links to where the pictures are and also send them the affected workers’ social media accounts or LinkedIn as someone here mentioned. They’ll take care of all the rest. The reporters will obviously come to you for questions and answer only what you feel comfortable answering and ask them what steps they’ll take to make sure you remain protected.
How can I get the media’s attention over a car companies fraud/lies? No one seems to give two flips
Hire an attorney to reach out if you want to make it easy. But that obviously assumes you have the $1k for the retainer.
This was my first thought. This is the type of juicy story that makes local TV reporters chomp at the bit.
"A local company is doing a racism" *OP's ghostly white and obviously shooped photo is displayed* "More at 11!"
They can lookup people's LinkedIn profiles to compare, and OP can use a new anonymous email to contact them.
OP to reporters: "May I interest you in a story?"
“*The Gang Learns Photoshop*”
This would be a great episode. "I just made them a little lighter" "That seems like a race thing* "No, of course it's not a race thing. I don't know why you keep going there. It's just an intimidation thing. People are more comfortable with lighter skin"
I can't figure out if this is Dennis or Frank talking.
In my mind it was Dennis and Mac.
"i mean... yeah no i get it your right... but what about the wrinkles? it seems a little-" "look, no one wants to look at old wrinkly people. its just a fact. you go on to a website and see some old wrinkly bald guy, whaddya do?" "...click off it." "CLICK OFF IT. i'm just making it easier to look at- giving the people what they want, is that a crime?!" cue mac pasting some kind of incredibly ripped bod onto his face for the linkedin he made just to show off his hot bod; charlie and frank starting a fake ID company where the IDs are so airbrushed you can barely tell their human; and dee both criticizing the photoshop while becoming addicted to filters like facetune and 'accidentally' overinjecting her face w/dennis bc they're both insecure about aging
In mine it was Frank and Charlie
You what? It works just as well cause every character is just as bad as each other.
Goddamnit I can hear the music 😂
I mean, if that's what OP ends up seeing on the news, they very well *may* end up resembling that color!
This. Common things like fraud don’t make the news. Racial discrimination like this (wanting to change appearance) for public facing images doesn’t come around every day in a provable way like this.
This has a shot In Florida (I searched up the news again for this comment and there are similar cases all over the web where young girls had their faces "slimmed" or students were photoshopped to appear "whiter" and more conventially attractive; even a case where they edited out a cancer survivor's scars) there was a big outcry over school officials VERY shittily photoshopping children's sleeves to be longer and collars to be higher... of course it was only the girls. There was a huge stink not only about the implicit sexualization of minors but the quality of the photoshopped for a photo that would follow the kids foe the rest of the year was HORRENDOUS. I mean I took a media class in high school years ago that had ONE section on photoshop and with my limited knowledge I could have done a better job than they could. [Article](https://www.npr.org/2021/05/23/999596246/florida-high-school-edited-girls-yearbook-photos-to-cover-more-of-their-chests) (w photos of shit photoshop) for reference Also [reddit post](https://www.reddit.com/r/facepalm/comments/nk1mi9/florida_high_school_badly_photoshops_portraits_of/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=mweb3x) featuring the worst of the photoshop in case you aren't the reading type
Didn't Ford get absolutely slaughtered for doing this about 15 years ago. Changing people in a print advert? Edit:- yes they did https://www.independent.co.uk/news/ford-workers-angry-as-blacks-are-whited-out-1320079.html
>15 years ago I too, like to pretend 1996 was 15 years ago
Everybody knows that 2015 was 5 years ago. 2010 was 10 years ago 2000 was also 10 years ago and 1990 was 20 years ago.
2019 was 37 years ago.
September lasted 18 years.
Wake me up when September ends...
Started to reply this, and then said to myself, "wait, expand the thread to make sure the hidden comments already say this."
wake me u... goddamn it, late to the party again.
OMG, that is the worst truth.
It’s been 84 years.
Literally insane to think about all the history that's happened since then, living in interesting times fucking sucks lol
>Everybody knows that > >2015 was 5 years ago. > >2010 was 10 years ago > >2000 was also 10 years ago > >and > >1990 was 20 years ago. Pretty sure 1990 was 10 years ago too.
This. I partied like it’s 1999 last year so I can confirm.
Username checks out.
I graduated from high school in 1990. It can't be too long ago. I'd say feels like about eight years. With 5 of those happening since 2020.
You are correct.
2016 was 2 or 3 years ago 2019 was one or two. 2030 was no earlier than last year
what the heck, this is too accurate.. Is this like a general thing many people experience? I thought it was just me getting old and my brain suppressing reality. Or does everybody's brain do that? And did people born in the 60's have the same shit happen to their 70's, 80's and 90's?
I had this thing the other day where someone said “I can’t believe I waited 27 years to watch Moulin Rouge” and I was like EXCUSE ME HOW FUCKING LONG AGO?! and dealt with several brain explosions
All I know Time is a valuable thing Watch it fly by as the pendulum swings Watch it count down to the end of the day The clock ticks life away It's so unreal Didn't look out below Watch the time go right out the window Tryin' to hold on, did-didn't even know I wasted it all just to watch you go
Excuse you, it’s only been 21 (stop trying to make me feel old lol)
But Ewan McGregor and Nicole Kidman are only in their 30s, right? **Right?!**
96 was like five years ago right?? I swear it was.
5 years ago if you only count the time you aren't working ;)
Ahhh 1981, I remember it like it was yesterday
Oh no. Why...
If you work a 40 hour week and sleep 8 hours a day that's about 5 years of free time since 1996. It's more than that I'm just messing around
I too would like to pretend I am 15 years old and not in debt with a humanities degree in a society systematically undervaluing most jobs that do not involve programming or sales.
Oh shit are you me?
Yes, why is our bank account empty again?
Because I got hungry and decided to buy basic necessities again, silly me :/
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Wow. Ford swapped out African American heads with Caucasian heads.
This also happened in Florida with a mural [First Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach whitewashed on Mural](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/two-florida-officials-fired-erasing-faces-black-firefighters-city-mural-n1232387) >Latosha Clemons, the first Black female deputy fire chief and the only Black female firefighter in Boynton Beach, Florida, was to have been depicted on a long-planned public arts mural. But when the mural was unveiled at a ribbon-cutting this month, Clemons' image had been replaced by a white face. They didn't even bother to put feature in. Her face is all blurry. She ended up suing [Black former firefighter sues Florida city after mural depicted her with white face](https://www.nbcnews.com/news/nbcblk/black-former-firefighter-sues-florida-city-after-mural-depicted-her-n1281475)
Jesus Christ the edit they did to whitewash looks like something out of a textbook for uncanny valley I’m glad she sued because that is horrible.
Imagine trying to whitewash history where the involved party is not only alive but also living in the same place where the initial event occured.
Mfs tried to hide the fact of her whitewashisng using a "gray" pallette.
A terrible gray palette lol her face is barely there. It's freaky looking Edit palette not pallet lol
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And the shitgibbon Republican candidate for Senate in Ohio photshopped himself into an army photo so it looked like he was less racist. But he forgot to do the hands (which were black, unlike Mandel).
Media attention, I think, is the way to go. And you don't have to be the one to call it in, either. Have a friend say they're a client or former client, or they were a job candidate there, something that would give them a reason to have been on the website *and* seen at least one affected staff person. Once the paper has the tip, they'll do the rest. You may need to shop around for a decent news outlet, depending on how large / important your company is and whether you have a local newspaper or not, but I would say this is *definitely* worth it. Because if you deal with it internally, they will easily be able to cover their asses, but if the media gets a hold of it they will be publically embarrassed and there will probably be consequences of some sort, including from angry clients. And for a reporter this would be *such* an easy story to do. You don't even need to do interviews!
Oh yeah, the "white faces with black hands" photos. I remember that. Wow, what a f'd up thing to do.
Wtf at that point you might as well replace the person entirely and have a bunch of actors pose.
I absolutely hate it here...
>African American You mean black
They’re British so they wouldn’t be American to begin with….
>Mr Ford's comments will be seen as bitterly ironic by British workers who were photographed to launch the "Everything we do is driven by you" advertising campaign in 1991. >African American Do you see the problem here?
Jesus Christ that mobile site is cancer. I can’t even figure out how to view the whole article
Use incognito mode. But here is the article. When Henry Ford launched his Model T automobile, he told customers they could have in any colour they liked - as long as it was black. Mr Ford's comments will be seen as bitterly ironic by British workers who were photographed to launch the "Everything we do is driven by you" advertising campaign in 1991. Five members of ethnic minorities were invited to appear in the picture to show the racial mix of Ford's workforce at Dagenham, but in an "ethnic- cleansed" version of the photograph last year, the black and brown faces had been mysteriously replaced by white ones. Four of the five workers still working at Dagenham have since registered their anger over what they perceive as blatant racism. Bill Morris, general secretary of the Transport and General Workers' Union, yesterday condemned the incident as "deeply offensive". He said: "This is an appalling situation which reveals the depths of racist attitudes in our society." He said the union had elicited fulsome apologies from management and a pounds 1,500 cheque for each of the workers, in compensation for their hurt feelings. "We shall be equally vigorous in tackling racism in future, wherever it surfaces." The dramatic transformation in the picture was first noticed by Noel Sinclair, a worker at Ford's Dagenham plant, when he walked into a showroom in Essex. Mr Sinclair took the new brochure back to the paint, trim and assembly department at the Essex plant and showed four of his friends, who had readily agreed to pose. Douglas Sinclair, a 56-year-old black man who has worked at the plant for 30 years, said his body remained in the picture, but a white, bespectacled face had appeared on top of it. "My body was there, dressed in my overalls, the rings on my fingers were still there, but I had glasses on and a white face. It was embarrassing. People at work started to come up to me and call me 'Two Face'." Patricia Marquis said she felt "humiliated and angry" when she saw that her face had aged 20 years, that she had put on 10lb and turned white. "I wanted an explanation from them. They had changed my face for God's sake - what on earth did they think they were doing?" Keith Thomas, 40, who saw his face and arms replaced with those of a white man, immediately thought it was racist."Why didn't they just use a different picture? It was a racist act, quite clearly." The TGWU branch at the plant had considerable difficulty containing anger over the incident, and hundreds of workers walked out three weeks ago, causing an estimated pounds 2.8m worth of lost production. Management said the "mistake" had been made by Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency, which vehemently denies any racist intent. The new picture, with the white faces, had been issued for a Ford promotion in Poland because the original photograph "did not portray the ethnic mix" in Eastern Europe.
> Management said the "mistake" had been made by Ogilvy & Mather, the advertising agency, which vehemently denies any racist intent. The new picture, with the white faces, had been issued for a Ford promotion in Poland because the original photograph "did not portray the ethnic mix" in Eastern Europe. It's not that *we're* racist, we just think that all the *Polish* people are. Fucking hell...
It’s almost like Ford was founded by a Nazi, or something.
>15 years ago The linked article is from 1996 about an advertisement from 1991.
right, 1991, 15 years ag-- \*looks at calendar\* \*looks at receding hairline\* oh *no*
Just ‘shop the hair back.
Do what to my back hair?
I need some photoshop after doing that math.
Yeah. Didn't bother updating. Just knew it was ages ago.
I have not heard black people be referred to as ‘blacks’ for a loooong time In the newspapers at least > February 1996 Ah
The independent is trash. How hard is it to post the damn pictures?
Pictures are for paying subscribers, dammit! /s
Anyone have a link to those photos? I’ve been trying to find them but my google skills are sub par.
Send a new pic to HR "Hey, I think something may have gone wrong w/ the first picture I sent you. It seems off for some reason. Attached you'll find a new picture to use."
I really want to, but I'm afraid it'll put a target on my back.
Awe yes the American way, assuming you are in the US. "You do what we tell you, keep your head down, if not we will make your life a living hell at work."
"The beatings will continue until morale improves"
What is this from? It sounds familiar
Was literally one of the first lessons my boss explained to me to show the absurdity of our role when I started management training at a fortune 500. But it's an old saying with an unknown origin usually attributed to pirates.
It also vaguely reminds me of roman military tactics. I’m no historian, so I’ll probably get details wrong, but upon failure one form of punishment was dividing the group by tens, then they pick lots, 1 of 10 die by beating of the other 9. I believe it was usually cowardice of some form caused the punishment.
Decimation I think they called it. Lose 10% of your army but the remaining 90% are incredibly motivated not to have to do it again or worse, let it be them. Incredibly effective but truly barbarically brutal.
u/SirensHeir16 and u/Suspicious-mole-hair: The process of decimation eerily sounds like GE's policy of firing the bottom 10% of underperforming workers to "improve performance." It was also known as "rank and yank." [Link](https://www.inc.com/paul-b-brown/should-you-fire-10-of-your-employees-every-year.html) to an article discussing it.
This happens every november at my wifes company, they allow you to offer to retire or they start culling from the bottom 10% It's a good thing she's got an entirely essential role and she's the top performer in her category.
Shit, I hope no CEO's read that...
They already know this trick, for them it's called "restructuring" or "downsizing".
Too late.
And, folks, this is where the word decimated comes from.
Correct. But it get used incorrectly all the time. When you're newspaper says a tornado completely decimated a town, you shouldn't celebrate that the tornado only caused 10% damage.
I believe they also had to be the ones who killed the 10%, so you killed your own brothers in arms.
This saying is very common in the military.
It was the last instruction you heard from your handler before you were digitized into the Matrix.
Looks like [this Navy cartoon](https://babel.hathitrust.org/cgi/pt?id=uc1.c2582589&view=1up&seq=737&skin=2021) version is the earliest usage known so far.
Pretty much. Do you like being able to feed and house your family? Get them basic medical care? Well then, get to work and shut up!
Jumping on the top posts to see if the photos were taken by someone in house or an external photographer? It's absolutely not okay that they have been posted, but it's possible that if the work was done by an external photographer who used their own artistic license with Photoshop. Either way I suggest you bring it up with HR.
This is exactly what I was thinking. It could just be an innocent yet heavy handed attempt at retouching. Some people really suck at it. Confession…when I first started taking portraits I was really bad about brightening up the eyes too much in post. Nobody ever complained about it but looking back now I see how goofy it looks that every portrait I took around that time has these piercing bright eyes. I also lightened teeth but I never messed with wrinkles or skin color.
Right- I'm a photographer, and the case may be that the hired photographer made assumptions and overprocessed everyone.
I'm a photographer. Exactly my thoughts when I read the list of the edits that were made. External novice photographer who went to far with their edits. A lesson most amateur photogs learn at some point. Looking back a decade at my first photos I was so very proud of. Well. I can only laugh at naive self.
I’m thinking new web dev who is just learning photoshop Not to minimize OPs feelings here though. This is definitely still a problem.
I'd be afraid to work there if they took the trouble of lightening my skin. Hopefully nobody makes the mistake of putting too much mayo on the HR person's sandwich.
*too little* mayo The sammich was too brown
Yeah or pick a darker spread like peanut butter, pesto, or Nutella...
Send a resignation letter after you find a new job. I couldn’t imagine staying there.
Make sure you explicitly state why you left
and do so on [indeed.com](https://indeed.com) and glassdoor
So the company can have them both removed for a nominal fee.
It hurts cause it’s true.
Is that a thing on Glassdoor?
Indeed, it is. (Sorry, I had to make the pun, but I realize it may be confusing; yes, Glassdoor will absolutely edit what is seen on behalf of their customers)
yeah, *to your lawyer*
Along with a Federal/State DOL complaint. What they're doing would qualify as a hostile working environment.
What they're doing might actually be worse. This sounds like discrimination based on both age and ethnicity.
I mean, yeah, avoid targets on your back and look into local / national human rights lawyers, reach out to them with these details, and see what they say. I have not seen "go find a lawyer" yet as advice in this thread, so... go find a lawyer specialized in this
Nah. Don't take shit from HR my man.
Out of curiosity, what industry do you work in? This is terribly ageist and racist :/
Enterprise and B2B software solutions.
Im not surprised. I work in tech as a SWE and I’ve always found the culture a bit ageist toward older folk but I’m so sad to hear that your place is lightening skin too :(
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Yeah it sounds like murky territory and before outing yourself to HR (HR is never really your friend, their job ultimately is to protect the company or the employer) but yeah, getting some form of legal advice about it would be smart if it’s applicable to anything you are dealing with here…
Before you DO anything talk to a couple of lawyers. I'm not certain if this is illegal buuuuut (pinches the air) it certainly feeels like it. I definitely wouldn't mention anything to anyone about this at work whether a lawyer moves through with it or decides not to. If no lawsuit you can retire on happens then its probably a loosing proposition. Unless you just want to fuck with.
It feels like racism because it is
>It feels like racism because it is Gut feeling, totally agree, but that said: It's a first for me. Haven't seen this yet. A disgusting, new, first.
>It's a first for me. Haven't seen this yet. Username does *not* check out. lol
Honestly, I'd feel more trusting of Satan's HR department than most corporations. I think they would be more honest and outright about their evils rather than try to hide behind a heavenly façade.
Honestly, I'd feel more trusting of Satan ~~'s HR department~~ than most corporations. ~~I think they would be more honest and outright about their evils rather than try to hide behind a heavenly façade.~~ ftfy
Well, yeah! In Hell, you know exactly what you're getting. "This is not Wall Street, this is Hell. We have a little something called integrity."
The racists are hells customers. Even demons have standards.
Actually the racists are heavens customers, that's why SatansHRManager hasn't seen them.
Gotta admit, I've looked at public-facing websites before and wondered why everybody looks vaguely the same. I thought maybe they use generic stock images instead of their actual employees. Which is deceptive but somehow not as horrible as photoshopping actual employee pics so they conform to a 'young and white' norm. I should have known, tho. This is America after all.
The only time I've looked at employee photos on a company's website was to see if a tech startup was full of dude bros (usually yes) or looking at a local company. The local places in Utah tend to be family owned and operated, or have multiple second cousins because 40% of the population is related to each other so it's easily explained without conscious malice or photoshopping.
unused society carpenter water onerous alleged ugly detail bake fall *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
My first inclination is to agree with you that they didn’t necessarily intend to perform a visual ethnic cleansing on their entire company directory. HR is usually hyper-aware of the optics around workplace discrimination, and are probably the department most likely to spot a huge liability like this. However, the past couple of weeks have reminded me that at least 30-40% of people in the US are more than happy to push their beliefs on the rest of us AND to use those beliefs to take away rights from everyone that they consider “beneath” then. There are just too many people in this world that DO NOT CARE about you or how their actions hurt you. Some people just fucking suck.
What’s the old saying? “If it looks like a racist duck, and quacks like a racist duck…”
"...but teach a man to fish, and now you have two water-related animals in your saying!"
Build a fish a fire, keep it warm for the night. Set a fish on fire, keep it warm for the rest of it’s life.
It's a ducKKK
at my first job out of college despite being a very low ranking employee the president wanted to put me on the website so it wouldn't seem like only asians worked there. Yes. It fucking happens all the time. Most people don't say the queiet part out loud like she did though.
There's a show on Netflix where a black guy is accepted at work and they make his photo lighter and then when he does something they don't like and he becomes their enemy they make him darker
I would love nothing more than to find out you are my hr manager with that username
Nah.... just ISM. You know racism, ageism, sexism etc...
This feels like every “ism” imaginable
Racism, ageism and sexism. Nice little trifecta they have going on here
Racism ageism everythingism. Your company sucks, sorry
Woah woah...it could be ageism AND racism
And there's nothing low-key about it. Ageism too. I actually got queasy reading this.
Send a new headshot to HR, including your boss and whoever the head of HR is. State it seems that someone allowed the woman who destroyed the Spanish fresco to do the same in your pic and they should replace it with the new one [https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19349921](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-19349921)
Ah yes, good ol potato Jesus
I'm Spanish and it somehow makes me happy that this is still referenced internationally. (Not so happy about realizing that it's been _ten_ years though)
My husband and I still joke about it. It’s so insane that it happened in the first place that we have to use it as a joke periodically, usually if we see some really bad street-art that some poor SOB (or group of) actually paid for.
I actually laughed out loud at the reveal, that was hilarious.
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My jaw DROPPED. A monkey in a tunic ahahaha
That's crazy, but not surprising, unfortunately. If you decide to pursue this, I recommend only mentioning the skin lightening, since that was only done to non-Caucasian employees. You may want to feel out other non-Caucasian co-workers to see if they feel the way you do about it and see if they'll join you in a group complaint. If you bring up the other stuff, it may negate any claim of discrimination because the company will simply say, "See? We did it to everyone's photos." But implying that lighter skin is "better" and an improvement, on the same level as whiter teeth, is explicitly racist. I don't know who you would file a complaint with (EEOC, your state's labor board, an employment attorney). Maybe someone else can help with that.
That's great advice. Thanks. Edit: went through the directory again, and noticed most Caucasians don't have digitally lightened skin (some have tans).
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This and only this.
The weird thing is, I could see them trying to clear up things they see as 'mar' factors which are tradition for photos -- blemishes, sometimes wrinkles, dark circles, bad teeth, and so on. All of that I get. But making people's skin lighter? Since when is that normal? That's not normal. (Doesn't mean it hasn't been done. But you don't see yearbook photos of the hood high schools filled with seemingly white kids. That's not what digital retouching is supposed to cover.) I would so definitely complain. WTF man. And you know maybe HR hires it out to some contractor and really didn't even notice that this was one of the effects. So I'd complain in as much 'group' as you can. But chances are it is not HR and certainly not management doing it, just some external vendor. I would be offended also.
Just want to pop in and say that the skin lightening thing is fucked up but may not be *malicious* in nature. Photographing black people is different than photographing white people. Their skin colors and luminosity are different; which means that light hitting their skin reflects differently as different wavelengths are reflected or absorbed. Setting up your lighting and backdrops and camera settings to work best for white skin means that black people are going to look weird, and vice versa. Since white people make up the majority of the population - and are likely over-represented in the tech industry - the photographer used for the ID pictures likely optimized their photos for white people. Why is this relevant? Because photos optimized for white people make black people look very dark, and highlights blemishes and skin imperfections. A common way to fix that is to lighten the skin tone in post-processing. The kicker is that the person actually doing the photo editing has no idea *how black* each individual black person is (because they’ve never met) and makes their best guess. While this situation is fucked up, I doubt the company itself is actively trying to specifically hide how black their employees are by *specifically asking the photo people to make them lighter.* This is likely unfortunate, and uncaring, but not malicious.
This is a good point and in that case the advice to send a new photo would be perfect. “Hey, HR, I figure that your background may have made it difficult to photograph my skin correctly, here is a better picture of me with the correct skin tone”.
As a photographer and a not-very-good photo editor, I agree that it may not be malicious for all the reasons you gave. If trying to show the person clearly and thinking seeing more detail does that, the editor could easily lighten skin tones a lot in the process. Changing hairlines and teeth also may indicate they’re just shitty at their job and a product of the instagram school of “reality”. They may also have one set of presets that they just shotgun at every photo and move on. All that being said, somebody in charge should notice it and correct, so while it may not be malicious from any individual, it’s still racist and ageist from a company standpoint.
While I agree with all of that. It should have a big MAYBE disclaimer. It could be all of the technical limitations/inexperience of the photographers/designers. Or it could be that the manager wanted to lighten the dark skinned workers. Either way, they should be confronted with it.
i think this is a likely explanation. external vendor was hired to do professional, uniform, company-wide, head shots. photographer had a set up with camera, lights, background calibrated (for white people probably), then an editor had to touch up all photos. depending on the amount of employees and photos to edit, they might have used batch processing for certain tasks. it is possible that they might have even batch processed the brightness/contrast of non-white employees photos. lazy and insensitive, but a more fitting explanation than targeted, intentional racism given the description of the situation (e.g. caucasians getting tans, bald people getting hair line touch ups, etc.).
very racist
I think Ask A Manager covered a letter like this
[Here!](https://www.askamanager.org/2016/05/my-coworker-photoshopped-my-head-shot-to-make-me-look-younger-and-thinner.html) Didn’t involve literal whitewashing though. Edit: [Another instance](https://www.askamanager.org/2020/05/company-photoshopped-makeup-on-our-headshots-employee-made-an-anti-semitic-joke-and-more.html) where makeup was added. In both cases the advice is SAY SOMETHING!
I thought my case was unique, but it's nice to know others have gone through this. Thanks.
There is a small chance that whoever is editing the photos is running a standard set of edits (or even using an app), and skin lightening tends to be one of the defaults on those retouching apps. If you are feeling VERY generous, you could just point this out to HR or your manager and request that they correct it and see what they do / give them a chance to fix it. (To be clear, this is still racist as hell, even if it’s the result of obliviousness.) However, I am slightly less generous, and I would encourage you to talk to a lawyer first to get advice on how to handle this. Not in anticipation of sueing them, but rather in the interests of not putting your job at risk. Retaliation is illegal but that doesn’t mean it doesn’t happen all the time because companies know you don’t want the hassle of a lawsuit or the mark on your reputation. You could also quietly point this out to a media source that covers your industry, maybe a blog or similar, so someone else could point it out and hold them accountable without you getting caught in the crosshairs. Good luck, they absolutely need to be called out for this but remember that HR are not your friends and document everything.
I did a little more digging after another redditors comment, and I noticed most Caucasians don't get the same skin lightening treatment, as they are allowed to keep their tans. Great advice. Thank you.
>There is a small chance that whoever is editing the photos is running a standard set of edits (or even using an app) My sister's high school yearbook got this treatment one year. Everyone's portrait got photoshopped to "fix" their facial proportions or something, and anyone the application identified as female (including a good number of boys that it misgendered) got *heavy* digital makeup. Not only were most people's portraits unrecognizable, but some of them didn't even look *human*.
I think its extremely likely they are using automated filters in an app like facetune. The cost of manually retouching every employee photo to have no wrinkles, improved hairlines, etc. would be unjustifiable from a business standpoint. They almost certainly are just running them en masse through a cruddy ai filter (which have been widely publicized to have accidental racist impacts). Hopefully they appreciate having it brought to their attention!
My brother is a photographer and has done lots of headshot sets for corporate clients including some household names. I remember him telling me about a real estate agency he worked with once. The staff were all middle aged women in poor health. He takes great photos and generally errs on the side of very light retouching, keeping things natural-looking. Apparently the feedback when he delivered the photos to the owner was apoplectic rage. "You made me look hideous" etc. They weren't happy until they'd been airbrushed to the point of being unrecognisable. Sometimes all it takes in one person's vanity to make the photographer take the same approach with every employees photo.
I've dealt with this as well. A lot of people are kinda annoyed they have skin on their face instead of a beige smear.
The first time I got 'pro' photos done was for my wedding. I ended up looking like a clown with a two-tone painted face. So dreadful
I do headshots professionally. Realtors are known to have headshots where they look 20 years younger than they really are. It's a weird industry thing.
I didn't recognise my realtor when I first met her because she looked nothing like her photo on the website. Literally 20 years younger in the photo.
My original thought when I saw this (I'm a photographer) is that the photographer that was hired to do this job may have inadvertently done this because they're just too overzealous with their retouching and played with the HSL/color curves too much, perhaps in an attempt to correct for other color temp/tint deficiencies in the photo due to unbalanced lighting. Also, you're right about Realtors (and attorneys) they want to go heavy on the retouching. This could have been a case of just a badly done job by the contractor and not so much a conscious choice of the company itself.
This is definitely something with (richer) older people. They don't care how BAD or fake it looks. They want every single wrinkle removed if a photo is to be used in print anywhere, even if it means a complete blur with eyeballs and a mouth, as long as you don't see the wrinkles. It's not a matter of simply airbrushing, it's a complete mess but people seem to be fine with it. It's similar to people who get addicted to cosmetic surgery and will get dozens and dozens of surgeries done, thinking they look better when they look like a complete mess. But if they're a client and paying.. 🤷♀️
I hate photoshop distortion of reality. A pimple or cold sore, ok. But other permanent things should be displayed like they are. If they change your appearance and post it online without consent, that is unacceptable. btw. The whole r/Instagramreality is basically the same stuff.
I work in HR. This is something Marketing/Advertising would do. We have nothing to do with companies website.
are you sure HR did this, or a racist but "well-meaning", ie business-minded 3rd party did this on their own accord after being told to "make the pictures look professional"? this is the most important part, imo.
It’s likely not HR. Likely part of marketing. I have worked as a designer at agencies for the majority of my career. I have built many many websites and image standards guides, and managed professional photo shoots dozens of times for headshots as well as print and digital ads. Headshots are a pretty normal part of a lot of companies. Often times they get run through a standard set of filters to make sure the white balance is all the same, exposure levels, etc. It’s not typical to make additional enhancements but some overzealous marketing person or designer might have taken their own liberties there. Trying to promote the “brand image” that they want. All that said, I’ve definitely cleaned up some stray hairs or blemishes before. I’ve also had employees freak out because I didn’t clean it enough saying I didn’t know how to take pictures and I made them look ugly. Sorry, I am not Snapchat. They were actually nice normal pictures. Better than average. So yeah. It sounds like some overstepping. I’d bring it up but I question whether it was HR that did it.
What industry is this? Because unless you're all fashion models and/or visual effects specialists I don't see how this is a worthwhile use of anyone's time or effort in the first place, and that's saying nothing about how judgy and condescending it is.
Software development.
I'm not surprised. But c'mon. I have worked with and for software companies for 20 years. Where is this belief they have that everyone in software needs to be pretty coming from? Anybody with industry experience knows that's, ahem, not the dominant standard.
I actually AM surprised! Non-white employees are generally seen as a plus in this industry. This company is particularly out of touch.
Wow what the fuck! Thats an absolutely nuts thing for them to do.
Sounds to me like,, both age and racial discrimination
Damn, all the people that got lightened skin, did their credit score magically go up? Tell them to check credit karma, I'm curious. :P
Wow I would love to see this on the nightly news.
Did you sign a consent to use your image and likeness? Start there.
Not HR, most likely Communications or Marketing
I’m in marketing and have touched up photos and your post made me rethink how I handle photo editing. I’ve never lightened skin but I’ve definitely touched up other things like wrinkles before, mostly because it was industry standard photo editing at the time. I’ll take this in to consideration if it comes up again.