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City of Toronto, Already Multi-Ethnic, Ups Its Game Via Photoshop
Reader Paul points to the Boing Boing! post about how Toronto upped its multiculturality (?) for an offical publication. Seems you can't have Fun (the name of the mag) without just the right mix of skin colors.
"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."
"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."
In an age of municipal financial crises (in Canada as well as down here), let me sidestep the bizarro need and incompetent inability(!) to find a picture that "captures" (strange word!) Toronto's undeniable mosaic of different types of folks (including at least two sorts of white Canadians). Here's a question: Why do cities waste their money printing these sorts of guides?
ralph|6.23.09 @ 8:44AM|#
"Why do cities waste their money printing these sorts of
guides?"
Because it's Fun.
ed|6.23.09 @ 8:46AM|#
Moreover, why did they substitute a normal guy for what appears to be a leering pedophile?
Some Guy|6.23.09 @ 8:48AM|#
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38641
I was once forced to take an African American Studies course. I
sent this link to my professor to demonstrate the absurdity of
"photoshopping" the WTC firefighter statue that they were planning
to build at the time (I don't know how that ever turned out.)
I missed the next class for some reason, and found out the next
week that it went right over her head. She apparently showed it to
the whole class as if it were real.
Fascitis Necrotizante|6.23.09 @ 8:58AM|#
Also, obviously, here's the
U-Wisconsin cover that did this in 2000.
Both of these creepy, leering black men were incompetently
p-shopped.
Xeones|6.23.09 @ 9:05AM|#
Yeah, that's not even a decent 'shop. Couldn't they have hired someone from SomethingAwful to do it for the cost of, like, a jumbo bag of Fritos?
Bingo|6.23.09 @ 9:08AM|#
Please, Xeones, a bag of Fritos? No self-respecting goon would even open photoshop for less than a couple million EVE ISK or 3 Wendy's Doublestacks.
Art-P.O.G.|6.23.09 @ 9:11AM|#
Meh. Why not just do it to the extent that it confuses/or offends people? Like "Visit Concord, New Hampshire" and the guide has nothing but black people on it. Or "Visit Detroit" and it has just Asian and white people on it.
|6.23.09 @ 9:16AM|#
As much as you reactionary bastards might not like it, leering pedophiles are part of the natural diversity that is the backbone of Toronto. From the unwelcoming beaches of Snake Island Park to the purveyors of really shitty pizza on Yonge Street, pedophiles built this great city and will always have a place in it. They will be confined to public park restrooms and ice cream trucks no longer!
|6.23.09 @ 9:23AM|#
Don't you people know it's racist to imply the black people could be pedophiles? Only white people are pervs.
|6.23.09 @ 9:23AM|#
Well I don't know. Photoshopped black guys are better than no black guys. Where are the black guys at Reason?
Xeones|6.23.09 @ 9:25AM|#
I said the cost of a JUMBO bag of Fritos, Bingo. Like, family-size. For that amount, you can get Doublestacks and a large Mountain Dew. Or just a jumbo bag of Fritos.
fill in the libertarian blank|6.23.09 @ 9:27AM|#
Why do cities waste their _____________ money
printing these sorts of guides?
Brett Stevens|6.23.09 @ 9:29AM|#
There's no historical evidence that diversity works.
It generally appears as a concept in dying societies, when
political conceits become more important than realistic
plans.
As the internal strife spreads, so does the one-upping, and the
society competes internally for who is most diverse.
Eventually, it collapses into third world status.
The Mythical Canadian Libertar|6.23.09 @ 9:30AM|#
>the purveyors of really shitty pizza on Yonge Street
I will not stand idly by, sir, and let you besmirch the good name
of The Big Slice! Sure, their pizza is greasier than most
teenagers, and the restaurant is flanked on both sides by crack
dens, and to the rear by Ryerson University (jury's still out on
which is worse), but I'll be damned if I can go more than a week
without getting my fix. Of the pizza, not the crack.
Anyway, the whole point of Toronto's city government is to waste
money on stupid shit. We have a socialist mayor who maintains
popularity by never saying a word about policy, instead choosing to
just pander to the large new immigrant population by pretending
he's not going out of his way to draw attention to the fact that
he's a member of the party that has a prominent Asian woman and
Hispanic man in it (not a knock against immigration, I love
immigration, hate substanceless group identity pandering).
|6.23.09 @ 9:34AM|#
I will not stand idly by, sir, and let you besmirch the good
name of The Big Slice!
It was just shocking that in a city of such great food, that the
pizza was of about high school cafeteria caliber.
Some Guy|6.23.09 @ 9:46AM|#
There's no historical evidence that diversity
works.
It's worked outstandingly for the United States, actually. Our
entire culture is a bunch of stuff stolen from the various
assimilated cultures. "White People" is only a recently invented
grouping. And they even consider the Irish white now.
The Mythical Canadian Libertar|6.23.09 @ 9:47AM|#
>It was just shocking that in a city of such great food, that
the pizza was of about high school cafeteria caliber.
You must have gone to Amato. Rookie mistake.
Spoonman|6.23.09 @ 9:51AM|#
There's no historical evidence that diversity works.
We're all living in Amerika, Amerika, ist wunderbar...
|6.23.09 @ 9:59AM|#
FYI Toronto city workers are on strike, mad that the city is
trying to take away their 18 bankable sick days per year (!!),
which means we have no garbage collection, day care, you name
it.
Also the government liquor monopoly may also go on strike
soon.
Hopefully this will awaken people in the city to the downside of
public service monopolies.
Abdul|6.23.09 @ 10:02AM|#
This is a marketing opportunity for some enterprising black guy out there to start his own company, offering to photoshop his image into brochures.
|6.23.09 @ 10:05AM|#
In Lolita (1955) Nabokov mentions how American advertisers strive to get the right mix of races in their ads; this kind of thing has been going on a long time.
|6.23.09 @ 10:10AM|#
It was just shocking that in a city of such great food, that the pizza was of about high school cafeteria caliber.
You have to go out College St or Bloor St West to get good pizza in
Toronto. Or that's how it was when I lived there.
Art-P.O.G.|6.23.09 @ 10:10AM|#
This is a marketing opportunity for some enterprising black guy out there to start his own company, offering to photoshop his image into brochures.
:::Strokes chin thoughtfully::: And I'm really good at making creepy facial expressions.
|6.23.09 @ 10:15AM|#
It was just shocking that in a city of such great food, that
the pizza was of about high school cafeteria caliber.
Uh...it's Canada. That's kind of like expecting to find
good pizza in London (you can't).
|6.23.09 @ 10:40AM|#
There are almost half a million Italians in Toronto. Believe me, the pizza here is great.
Hugh Akston|6.23.09 @ 10:46AM|#
Hate to break it to you Dan, none of those Italians are
real.
Photoshop.
SxCx|6.23.09 @ 11:02AM|#
Slices are mostly a source of pain, but we have a few great
sit-down joints like Pizzeria Libretto and Marcello's on St Clair.
The Pizzaiolo chain remains decent and ubiquitous.
But I'm just gonna say it: it's nothing like New York.
Xeones|6.23.09 @ 11:04AM|#
Hate to break it to you Dan, none of those Italians are
real.
To be fair, though, neither is Canada.
Spoonman|6.23.09 @ 11:13AM|#
Posted this to Fark, and somebody there pointed out that they changed the woman's fingers around the little boy to black man's fingers.
Rhywun|6.23.09 @ 11:28AM|#
I have never seen an Italian making pizza in NYC. Maybe in the touristy Times Square joints, but nowhere anyone actually goes.
|6.23.09 @ 11:30AM|#
And they even consider the Irish white now.
Maybe, but don't think for a second I am going to forget all of the
injustices heaped upon great-great-great-great-great Grand Pa
McGill.
|6.23.09 @ 11:32AM|#
Slices are mostly a source of pain, but we have a few great sit-down joints like Pizzeria Libretto and Marcello's on St Clair.
How could I forget St Clair and Dufferin (and further west).
Yeah, Toronto's got lots of good pizza, and gelato, too. But, Yonge
St isn't where it's at.
You've got to get out where the Italians live.
The Mythical Canadian Libertar|6.23.09 @ 11:34AM|#
>The Pizzaiolo chain remains decent and ubiquitous.
Ugh. Dominoes quality, bistro prices. The guy who said College West
was onto something.
The garbage strike is retarded. All the public trash bins have
their openings taped shut, with big signs saying "Please don't
litter." I'm going to set the over/under for percentage of those
signs that end up strewn about the streets at 85. Any takers?
|6.23.09 @ 11:37AM|#
Why do cities waste their money printing these sorts of guides?
probably because it's not their money.
dhex|6.23.09 @ 11:43AM|#
I have never seen an Italian making pizza in NYC. Maybe in
the touristy Times Square joints, but nowhere anyone actually
goes.
that's not entirely true, but you have to travel outside of
manhattan. (sam's in carroll gardens, di fara's, grimaldi's,
michael & angelos 2 in astoria, etc)
the shit people call pizza in the rest of 'merica is scary enough,
i can't even begin to wonder what they do in canada. look what they
did to the bagel!*
* actually, montreal style bagels are perfectly decent.
|6.23.09 @ 12:00PM|#
"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."
My mind deciphered this as: if you don't like what we did to the
picture, you're an intolerant, racist fuck.
Paul|6.23.09 @ 12:11PM|#
Reader "your good buddy johnny clarke" pointed out to me that
this shit was old news in The Onion.
http://www.theonion.com/content/node/38641
AMES, IA-In the spirit of celebrating diversity at Iowa State University, a black guy was digitally added to the cover of the school's 2001 spring-semester course catalog, school officials announced Monday.
|6.23.09 @ 12:14PM|#
To me the odd thing is that the guy they replaced looks like he
might be Hispanic or Middle Eastern or something. But I guess
"diversity" usually means "black" and not other diverse
ethnicities.
Spoonman: Good point. The man would have to have a right arm about
four feet long, possibly with an extra elbow, to make that
work.
Paul|6.23.09 @ 12:16PM|#
Also, obviously, here's the U-Wisconsin cover that did this
in 2000.
Both of these creepy, leering black men were incompetently
p-shopped.
Diversity in public institutions: Black people with odd lighting on
their faces, sneaking into the picture.
Wow, black folks, that's all you amount to in the eyes of the
government and universities.
Horselips|6.23.09 @ 12:32PM|#
It's worked outstandingly for the United States,
actually.
ROFLMAO!! If this is what you call "working outstandingly", I
submit you have a pretty low bar for "working" let alone
"outstanding".
SxCx|6.23.09 @ 12:32PM|#
Decent, reliable, ubiquitous -- that's as far as I'll go in
defending them. Certainly overpriced but a better alternative to
any neighbouring Pizza Pizza (or Dominos, which I'll assume was
named just to start shit). Again, Toronto scores low in slices. I
suspect it's a turnover issue, and nobody knowing any better.
But the bigger thing to address is this perpetual myth that College
Street is still Italian. It isn't. Most moved to St Clair or
Woodbridge. Now it's just half Portuguese half club district, with
lots of leftover facades to make people feel European. In terms of
pizza, I can't think of anything beyond John's Classic and
Bitondo's. Massimo did a passable slice but are too inconsistent to
recommend.
If College West has it, please tell me. I lived on Shaw for over a
year and bike the whole thing every week. Besides the novelty
wood-oven joints near Grace and Beatrice, I sincerely don't know
what people are talking about.
Some Guy|6.23.09 @ 12:42PM|#
ROFLMAO!! If this is what you call "working outstandingly",
I submit you have a pretty low bar for "working" let alone
"outstanding".
From subjugated colony to lone world superpower in 200 years seems
pretty impressive.
Horselips|6.23.09 @ 12:48PM|#
From subjugated colony to lone world superpower in 200 years
seems pretty impressive.
Most of which occurred when we were substantially less diverse. How
much has our position improved since around 1960?
Rhywun|6.23.09 @ 12:49PM|#
Oh right, Grimaldi's. Heard of it, never been. Luckily the Mexicans/other assorted south-of-the-border types do a fine job in Manhattan, as long as you're nowhere near Times Square.
Some Guy|6.23.09 @ 12:57PM|#
Most of which occurred when we were substantially less
diverse. How much has our position improved since around
1960?
You're defining diversity based on today's standards. Even in 1960,
electing a Catholic was as much of a leap as electing a black guy
in 2008.
To someone in 1776, the racial makeup of America would have been
considered incredibly diverse. There were English, French, Germans,
etc...
|6.23.09 @ 1:15PM|#
SxCx
It's been thirty years since I lived in Toronto so I confess that
my info isn't the most up to date.
But now that you mention it I do seem to recall that the Italians
were moving north from College St and the Portuguese were moving
in.
And I can't belive I had forgotten St Clair west of Dufferin since
I've lived so close to that area.
It's sort of like how an older generation (mostly dead now,
thanfully) used to refer to Kensington Market as Jewtown long after
the Jews had almost all moved up to Bathurst north of Lawrence in
the 50s and the market became home to all kinds of other ethnic
groups.
Horselips|6.23.09 @ 1:29PM|#
You're defining diversity based on today's
standards.
Considering it's the diversity based on today's standards that you
seem to find so laudable, yes.
That's my entire point. Diversity of the sort based on today's
standards had nothing to do with our emergence as a superpower.
24AheadDotCom|6.23.09 @ 1:31PM|#
Barely getting in ahead of Nick Gillespie, I recently commented
on Houston's
multicutural vistors guide. Oh, wait, that was over five years
ago. Apparently Nick hadn't seen that page until recently.
Meanwhile, the question becomes, why is Reason giving even more
power to those who come up with things like this? Reason supports
MassiveImmigration, something that gives even more power to the
far-left. It doe$n't make much $en$e. Oh, wait, it doe$.
Some Guy|6.23.09 @ 2:01PM|#
Considering it's the diversity based on today's standards
that you seem to find so laudable, yes.
Really? What evidence can you present to support this claim?
Diversity of the sort based on today's standards had nothing to
do with our emergence as a superpower.
Actually the fact that we no longer consider the "old" diversity to
be diversity at all is a side effect of the very reason why we did.
If morons like you and Al Sharpton would stop trying to prevent
this from continuing, we'd start to get back on the right
track.
The Mythical Canadian Libertar|6.23.09 @ 5:36PM|#
SxCx,
Completely serious about the Dominoes thing. I'll grant that I've
had Pizzaiolo exactly once (order, not slice), but it was
shockingly terrible enough that it still haunts me. It was roughly
Pizza Pizza at the middle of their game quality. Considering the
best Pizza Pizza can do is barely safe for human consumption, I
don't rate Pizzaiolo highly. I suppose it's possible I got them on
an off day, but I just can't imagine a competent pizzeria EVER
being that bad.
There's still Italianness on College, though the bulk of it has
moved north to let the Portuguese in. We used to call the
Italy/Jamaica transitional zone around Dufferin and Eglinton the
land of the pastafarians, but the FSM thing kind of stole the
thunder on that.
For the record, yes, I do consider all of this much more important
than the city's fun guide or it's cover.
Steven Augustine|6.23.09 @ 7:18PM|#
"Both of these creepy, leering black men..."
Obviously, any image of a "black" face functions as a sort of
Rorschach test for the race-obsessed. "Dorky" maybe; but "creepy"?
How so? Sorry, friend: you need counselling. And I sincerely hope
you aren't raising children.
Brett Stevens|6.24.09 @ 1:32PM|#
It's worked outstandingly for the United States, actually. Our
entire culture is a bunch of stuff stolen from the various
assimilated cultures. "White People" is only a recently invented
grouping. And they even consider the Irish white now.
Europeans is an inherent grouping. Putting Southern, Northern and
UK Europeans into a group might be pushing it.
However, I challenge your historical assertion. It takes longer
than 50 years for us to see the consequences of a political change.
How's the USA doing, in terms of quality of existence, relative to
1930 or so?
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