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Microsoft Poland Photoshops Black Guy To White One

wanted writes "If you look at Microsoft's Poland business solutions Web site, you will probably not notice anything odd about the main picture. However, when you compare it with the original English version, you can see that someone decided that showing black people in Poland is probably not going to be convincing to business. They just Photoshopped the head of a white guy in for the black one, in an amateurish way, leaving his hand unchanged. (Here's a mirror in case something should happen to the original.)" We noted a few months back that the city of Toronto had done something similar.

120 of 964 comments (clear)

  1. Dark Tan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    Perhaps it was just a spray on tan?

    1. Re:Dark Tan? by mhlo · · Score: 5, Funny

      Microsoft Poland doesn't like black people.

    2. Re:Dark Tan? by Jurily · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Microsoft Poland doesn't like black people.

      That's not necessarily true. In Central Europe, nationalism is alive and well (actually increasing due to the perceived cultural threat from the EU), and a picture with three different skin colors for three people will not be interpreted as affirmative action, but unwanted external cultural influence.

      Particularly the black guy, as you don't expect to see black people every day.

      In Hungary, at least, the original picture would cause outrage from the far-right and a measurable decrease in sales.

    3. Re:Dark Tan? by JWSmythe · · Score: 5, Insightful

      or to paraphrase, "market to your demographic". If our customer base is white, show white people in the advertising.

      I've noticed that billboards in black neighbors show blacks. In Hispanic neighborhoods, they show Hispanics. etc, etc, etc.

      This was just a poor attempt at getting something out the door to fit the job, rather than doing another shoot with fresh models.

      --
      Serious? Seriousness is well above my pay grade.
    4. Re:Dark Tan? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 3, Funny

      it's so badly photoshopped that they probably used paint...

    5. Re:Dark Tan? by hh4m · · Score: 5, Informative
    6. Re:Dark Tan? by dajak · · Score: 4, Insightful

      I don't think the issue is whether you are able to connect to a black man. The picture for a Pole just screams "foreign", since the picture is nonrepresentative for a Polish office setting, just like a picture of for instance a family in an American style kitchen wouldn't communicate "family" but again "foreign". To get the feeling you are trying to communicate across you need to localize.

    7. Re:Dark Tan? by 1u3hr · · Score: 3, Interesting
      The original showed an Asian guy, a black guy and a white woman. How tediously politically correct. Also completely unrealistic for Poland. (Is it even realistic for the US?)

      I'm reminded of the original Mission Impossible series in the 60s. One agent, Barney, was black. He often was sent "undercover" to various (fictional) "Eastern Bloc" countries, and no one noticed, despite him being the only black guy in the whole city (well, we never saw any others).

    8. Re:Dark Tan? by kju · · Score: 4, Interesting

      ...and they failed! Apparently they were in such a hurry that they now forgot to enlarge the orange box behind the text (as they did with the modified picture).

      I wonder if nobody noticed that it looks totally awful.

    9. Re:Dark Tan? by Aladrin · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Can't speak for Poland, but for the US... yes, it's realistic. I work for a company that does it's business over the internet and we've hired just about every 'race' you can imagine, and not because it's mandated. They were legitimately the right persons for the job. (Thank God we don't do any of the 'affirmative action' bullshit. It's just as racist as being racist is.)

      A picture like the one from MS (but with younger people) would be spot-on in a meeting from any department in the company, including accounting, customer service, and tech.

      As for Mission Impossible... An American in Russia would be pretty freaking obvious no matter what color his skin was. The facial features are just too different and noticeable.

      --
      "If you make people think they're thinking, they'll love you; But if you really make them think, they'll hate you." - DM
    10. Re:Dark Tan? by Errtu76 · · Score: 4, Insightful

      That's not necessarily true. In Central Europe, nationalism is alive and well (actually increasing due to the perceived cultural threat from the EU), and a picture with three different skin colors for three people will not be interpreted as affirmative action, but unwanted external cultural influence.

      Particularly the black guy, as you don't expect to see black people every day.

      In Hungary, at least, the original picture would cause outrage from the far-right and a measurable decrease in sales.

      In Holland we could not care less. Outrage over a picture like this? People in Hungary should get out more often. And i don't think that sales would suddenly drop because of this. The people who are dumb enough to get offended by this usually aren't the ones that make decisions that cause companies to buy the product or not.

    11. Re:Dark Tan? by plastbox · · Score: 3, Funny

      I'm not sure I understand.. by

      American style kitchen

      ..do you mean MacDonald's? Because I'm pretty sure most Europeans don't exactly consider MacDonald's foreign.

    12. Re:Dark Tan? by 1u3hr · · Score: 3, Insightful
      A picture like the one from MS (but with younger people) would be spot-on in a meeting from any department in the company, including accounting, customer service, and tech.

      So there aren't any white males in your company?

    13. Re:Dark Tan? by lawpoop · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Outrage over a picture like this? People in Hungary should get out more often.

      Well, that's kind of the point. You walk outside in Poland, and you don't see any black people.

      What would be the reaction if this were marketed in Europe, and all three people were Asian? "Is this a Japanese board room?" Or if all three people were very dark-skinned black: "Where's this taking place? Kenya?" It's sort of the same thing.

      --
      Computers are useless. They can only give you answers.
      -- Pablo Picasso
    14. Re:Dark Tan? by Arrawa · · Score: 4, Funny

      Actually we would care. There's no office in the Netherlands where the employees are this clean-cut and well dressed :-)

    15. Re:Dark Tan? by Registered+Coward+v2 · · Score: 4, Funny

      The original showed an Asian guy, a black guy and a white woman. How tediously politically correct. Also completely unrealistic for Poland. (Is it even realistic for the US?)

      I'm reminded of the original Mission Impossible series in the 60s. One agent, Barney, was black. He often was sent "undercover" to various (fictional) "Eastern Bloc" countries, and no one noticed, despite him being the only black guy in the whole city (well, we never saw any others).

      Which is why it was called Mission Impossible.

      --
      I'm a consultant - I convert gibberish into cash-flow.
    16. Re:Dark Tan? by mdwh2 · · Score: 2, Interesting

      OTOH, it is quite possible to actually see this kind of diversity.

      Yes, indeed. If they make up 13.4%, then in a photo of 3, the probability of at least one black person being present is about 35%. Not more often than not - but nonetheless large enough that you'll see a fair number of black people in photos in advertising. Just because something is uncommon doesn't mean you'll never see it at all. With the large number of adverts, you'd expect to see plenty of non-white people.

      And surely, the idea that any given picture must itself be proportionally representative of the population is itself poltically correct? If instead the participants are chosen independent of race, then you'll get some photos without any black people, and some photos where they are overrepresented. Let's be honest now - if someone was saying "black people are 13.4% of the population, so in our cast of 50 people, we need to have 6 or 7 black people", I bet we'd have people saying how politically correct that was...

      Do you have evidence that non-white people are overrepresented in American media? If anything, I'd suspect the reverse.

      The problem is that people ignore the large amounts of times a black person isn't shown, and on the few occasions where one is, it's "OMG, how PC!" Just because a group are in a minority, doesn't mean they are never seen at all.

      I also bet that if someone Photoshopped a white person to be black, there'd be no end of screaming "It's PC gone mad" from people, rather than saying "But they're just trying to better represent and connect with their market".

    17. Re:Dark Tan? by jedidiah · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Ok. So you need to "localize" the images. That makes a certain amount of sense. Except they didn't completely "localize" the image. They just got rid of the black guy while leaving the asian one behind. Also since we're going to the trouble of "localizing" then getting rid of the WASPy white faces would probably be a good idea too.

      The "localized" version doesn't look terribly European either.

      --
      A Pirate and a Puritan look the same on a balance sheet.
    18. Re:Dark Tan? by skorch · · Score: 5, Insightful

      The original showed an Asian guy, a black guy and a white woman. How tediously politically correct. Also completely unrealistic for Poland. (Is it even realistic for the US?)

      Is it even realistic for the US? Are you serious? I'm a black guy born on the African continent sitting in an office with a white woman and a jewish guy. In the office right next to mine there's an asian woman and a guy from the UK. Just walking down the hall yields people from every ethnicity. Sure there are obvious majorities and minorities, but it's almost impossible to snap a candid photo of this office and not have a pretty colorful palette of skin-tones. I'm not exactly a fan of political correctness, but I think this recent anti-PC movement smacks of a type of reactionary bigotry I'm even less comfortable with (probably because it always seems to be coming from the same 'demographic' of people).

      The issue isn't that they felt having white guys in their ad would be more appropriate for their intended audience, the issue is that they whitewashed a black guy out of an existing image (poorly), suggesting that the black guy would be unacceptable (but the asian and woman were fine?). If they found the orriginal image inappropriate, then find, buy, or cast and shoot another photo that more suits your demographic. Slapping a black guy in white face is just stupid (look at the results), and I can't see how it's not insulting, if to no one else but your intended audience; suggesting they can't handle the sight of a black guy.

  2. Even Stranger...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    is the white macbook in the picture......

    1. Re:Even Stranger...... by yoyhed · · Score: 5, Funny

      Or the fact that the monitor isn't plugged into anything.

      By the way, I'd already read this on a couple other news sites, and the bluntness of Slashdot's headline cracked me up. The other sites said something like "Microsoft hires racist marketing team". Then Slashdot steps in with "MS PHOTOSHOPS WHITE DUDE OVER SOME BLACK GUY".

      --
      WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
    2. Re:Even Stranger...... by squidinkcalligraphy · · Score: 3, Interesting

      ... with the apple logo photoshopped out

      --
      "I think it would be a good idea" Gandhi, on Western Civilisation
    3. Re:Even Stranger...... by Jurily · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What surprises me is that the black guy had to go, while the asian is alright.

      They couldn't just take a new fucking picture with Polish people on it, now could they?

    4. Re:Even Stranger...... by blackraven14250 · · Score: 2, Informative

      They wouldn't be able to use the Apple logo anyway. You can't put someone else's trademark in your own promotional materials!

    5. Re:Even Stranger...... by c6gunner · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Seems like the old stereotypes at work. Hire Asians, they're smart! Don't hire those negores, though; they're lazy and they steal!

      Having been born in a part of Europe that isn't much different from Poland, I can safely say that these stereotypes were quite common in much of Europe, at least while I was a child. When we moved to Canada, seeing asians didn't strike me as all that odd, but I really didn't know what to make of blacks. I got in trouble more than once at school for making racist comments about (or to) black classmates, but thanks to having spent my formative years in a nation which placidly accepts racial bigotry, it wasn't until years later that I really understood that there was anything wrong about the things I had said. I think it's hard for people who were born into multicultural societies to really understand what it's like being raised in that kind of culture.

    6. Re:Even Stranger...... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny
      the ports on the side certainly look like an exact match to me.

      Maybe.

      But any Mac user know it's the ports in the rear that get the most use.

    7. Re:Even Stranger...... by Jurily · · Score: 2, Insightful

      it wasn't until years later that I really understood that there was anything wrong about the things I had said.

      Translation: they finally brainwashed you. People are not equal, never were, and never will be, no matter how hard you try to believe it. But now we need a $8 million study to acknowledge the fact that men and women think differently.

      Of course kids will joke at each others' expense: you're fat, she's blonde, he's black. That's all perfectly normal. The fact that people think merely making a nigger joke is racist means things are seriously fucked up. Quoting Troy: "It's not an insult to say a dead man - is dead."

      Racism is when you hate those who are different for no logical reason, not merely talk about it casually and be fine with it. Also, most people here accept evolution for a fact, yet deny that it applies to humans as well. Ever heard the term "doublethink"?

    8. Re:Even Stranger...... by mustafap · · Score: 4, Funny

      I don't know what's funnier - your comment or the fact that it was modded 'Informative'

      --
      Open Source Drum Kit, LPLC deve board - mjhdesigns.com
    9. Re:Even Stranger...... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Racism is when you hate those who are different for no logical reason, not merely talk about it casually and be fine with it.

      Uh, no. Racism is not limited to "hate"- you can love people of one race over all others for no reason other than they are members of that race, that's still racism.

      However, what is total bullshit about your analysis is that you think "talking casually about it and being fine with it" is not racism. Duh! You judge an entire group based on the attributes of a few individuals, but because you joke about it you aren't racist?

      Dude, you've brainwashed yourself with your own rationalizations. You've embraced your own version of doublethink.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    10. Re:Even Stranger...... by Jurily · · Score: 2, Insightful

      However, what is total bullshit about your analysis is that you think "talking casually about it and being fine with it" is not racism. Duh! You judge an entire group based on the attributes of a few individuals, but because you joke about it you aren't racist?

      Who said I judge anyone? I just don't shy away from the topic of skin color any more than from the topic of hair color. Consider the following joke: "How long is a gypsy girl a virgin? As long as she's stronger than her younger brother, runs faster than her older brother, and her dad's still in jail." If you can't tell it to your best friend, who happens to be a gypsy, and expect a good laugh from it over a beer at the pub, it's you who thinks way too much about ethnicity.

      And here is what I consider a normal approach on the topic.

    11. Re:Even Stranger...... by Jah-Wren+Ryel · · Score: 4, Insightful

      If you can't tell it to your best friend, who happens to be a gypsy, and expect a good laugh from it over a beer at the pub, it's you who thinks way too much about ethnicity.

      And if you personally can't replace "gypsy" with any ethnic group and find the joke just as funny then you are stereotyping. And puh-lease, "my best friend is a ..." is the first sentence in the book of how to be a racist.

      --
      When information is power, privacy is freedom.
    12. Re:Even Stranger...... by darkonc · · Score: 5, Interesting
      In grade 7 I went to a boarding school. One of my friends was a guy who was born in Texas in the late '50s. (( pertinent point: I'm half-black))

      He grew up in an all-white (segregated_ neighborhood where racist comments like "come on, act like a white man" were quite the norm.
      He didn't even think to question those kinds of comments until he ended up sharing a table with me for a couple of months. I'll tell you -- those racist comments were a hard habit to break. Even into the second month, he would still occasionally go "Oh come on, act like a whi.... blah, oh shit I did it again", and then spend the next couple of minutes apologizing to me.

      It would have been funny if it wasn't for the fact that he was so hurt by what was coming out of his mouth.

      My point though, is that -- until he met me, and the one other black student at the school, he hadn't even thought to reconsider the racist comments and jokes that he had grown up with -- or the racist attitudes that went with them.

      Now, I realize that anti-racism really has to go a long way past simply banning racist jokes, but that does, at least, cause people to consider that the other racist attitudes that may be floating around their space aren't the norm and/or don't represent the real (and generally rather minor) differences between the races.

      and, if you want to get a handle on just how close we all are, consider that geneticists were able to find more genetic diversity in a single band of chimps, than across the various human races.

      --
      Sometimes boldness is in fashion. Sometimes only the brave will be bold.
    13. Re:Even Stranger...... by Sebilrazen · · Score: 5, Funny

      My best friend is an ellipsis, what are you saying? (Though don't tell the other punctuation, I don't want them to think I'm playing favorites.)

      --
      "There are no facts, only interpretations." --Friedrich Nietzsche.
    14. Re:Even Stranger...... by TheVelvetFlamebait · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Dude, you've brainwashed yourself with your own rationalizations. You've embraced your own version of doublethink.

      No way! If you say things like "brainwashing" and "doublethink" that many times, naturally you're totally immune to such phenomena! How could I possibly be wrong?

      --
      You know, there is a difference between trolling and pointing out the flaws in your reasoning. Just saying.
    15. Re:Even Stranger...... by EdIII · · Score: 3, Funny

      Uh, no, it's "the latinos steal". Get your stereotypes right!

      Hence the joke... A black guy and a hispanic woman have children... they grew up too lazy to steal....

    16. Re:Even Stranger...... by agentgonzo · · Score: 4, Insightful

      What makes me laugh is how carefully choreographed the original photo was. One black person, one asian, one white. Two men, one woman. It's amazing to see publicity photos etc and notice how many of them have the we-must-have-one-of-everything mentality in them. If everyone wasn't so paranoid about offending anyone, then the publicity shoot would have probably had a brief of "get three people in a room to look like they're having a fun meeting, then take a photo". Because everyone's afraid of being called a racist, I'm sure the brief would have included the caveat "Make sure one is black, one is Asian and at least one of them is a woman". The only thing that's missing is an "I'm gay" sign on one of them.

    17. Re:Even Stranger...... by moeinvt · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The fact that you're expressing the typical politically correct BS while the OP is expressing a minority opinion should tell you who has been brainwashed.

      A joke wouldn't be a joke without an element of truth.
      For instance, try to make a joke about Chinese people being "lazy" and see if you can elicit a laugh, even from an evil racist.

      Making a racial, religious, or cultural based joke is not "judging" a group as a whole, merely making fun of a stereotype easily formed by inductive reasoning. No intelligent person would universalize such a statement to 100% of the subject group.

      Are you REALLY offended by such things? Or are you just exhibiting the Pavlovian-style "feigned offense" response that you were conditioned to make by TV and higher education?

    18. Re:Even Stranger...... by CastrTroy · · Score: 2, Interesting

      It's funny what used to be considered perfectly acceptable tv. I don't know what's worse, the blatant racism of the 70's, or the violence of today's TV shows.

      Granted, most of the comments Archie made, are quite reminiscent of things my grandfather would have said, who was born in roughly the same time as Archie's character. While i'm sure it's quite consistent with many people's attitudes, I still find it odd that they would portray it on TV.

      --

      Anthropic principle: We see the universe the way it is because if it were different we would not be here to see it.
  3. Know your market. by palegray.net · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The racism flag seems to get trotted out a little too often these days. Statistically speaking, are there a heck of a lot of black guys in Poland? Honest question, really. I dislike Microsoft for a lot of things, but the racism tag seems a little odd; I wasn't aware they had a reputation in that department.

    1. Re:Know your market. by Digitus1337 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What parent is trying to say is that Microsoft isn't racist... Polish people are.

    2. Re:Know your market. by larry+bagina · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Statistically, what are the chances of a perfect diversity trifecta of asian guy, black guy, and white woman? In an ad, pretty good. In real life, not so much.

      --
      Do you even lift?

      These aren't the 'roids you're looking for.

    3. Re:Know your market. by Runaway1956 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      What you seem to be saying, is that targeting a specific market is somehow racist. If your market lives in a city of a million, and the black population is around 15, putting black faces in your advert isn't going to make sales. It will only make your advert look exotic, at best.

      As I recall, Poland didn't have a civil war to free the slaves. Nor were a lot of Africans likely to immigrate to Poland during the days of the Soviet. Prior to the Soviet, Poland was more in the business of exporting people, rather than importing. Like, my great grandparents, for instance.

      Before I leave, I've just got to say, fuck politically correct. It's from the soviet union, and has no business in the free world. Fuck politically correct again, and again, you communist bastards!

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
    4. Re:Know your market. by MrKaos · · Score: 5, Funny

      Statistically, what are the chances of a perfect diversity trifecta of asian guy, black guy, and white woman? In an ad, pretty good. In real life, not so much.

      Rule 34?

      --
      My ism, it's full of beliefs.
    5. Re:Know your market. by hjf · · Score: 2, Insightful

      writing from Argentina here.

      Here we don't have many black people (black as in african, but there are dark-skinned people). So it's weird here to see an ad in which a black guy is just "sitting there". you don't see that in the office. the ad is supposed to be something people can relate to, and if you're not used to seeing black people, you find it weird.

      should microsoft make a different ad, featuring white people, for poland? probably. should they photoshop-out the black guy? that's pretty lame really.

    6. Re:Know your market. by igny · · Score: 4, Insightful

      Many Polish people may indeed be nationalist, they may be anti-semites, russophobes... but racists? There are just not so many black people in Poland. Microsoft was probably right thinking that having black people in the ads would not connect in a 99.9% white population.

      --
      In theory there is no difference between theory and practice. In practice there is. - Yogi Berra
    7. Re:Know your market. by travisb828 · · Score: 2, Informative

      They left the Asian guy, but you do have a point. When Clinton addressed the Serbian people back in the 90's they made him a little extra pasty for the audience.

    8. Re:Know your market. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      I grew up in Poland (81-93). And yes there was very little diversity in our population especially coming out of the communist era, where Russian mandate purged Poland of almost all non-Natives. Which considering what they did to countries like Estonia, Latvia, and Georgia I consider generous! I would say given my experience it's not that Polish people are racist, it's more that racism is a very new concept. Having had grown up in a totally homogeneous society, I could not even conceptualize any other kind of a society. I did not consider attacking anyone just because they were different. The few people I did see that were Asian or African only invoked extreme curiosity in me.

      Then as communism fell the wave after wave of immigrants started to hit Poland. They could be seen begging for money on streets of all of our major cities. Not even sure where all of them were coming from, only thing that was apparent was there somewhat darker hue. These immigrants stoked all kinds of nationalistic feelings amongst my people, and often were met with violence. To understand such a strong response you must consider that prior to the fall of communism for many years (since the end of WW2) the word Pole was synonymous with Slavic and Catholic. There was no variation. So in essence it was as if the collective being of our society was under attack. Xenophobia was a very natural response (in a Human sense), and I believe it prevails to this day.

    9. Re:Know your market. by yoyhed · · Score: 5, Funny

      My favorite from Microsoft was for Visual C++ Express Edition. They used to have a couple of 17-18 year old Asian girls smiling and pointing at a computer screen as the headline picture for Express Edition's website. Who smiles and laughs at code with a friend anyway? Not hot Asian chicks.

      --
      WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
    10. Re:Know your market. by FooAtWFU · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Prior to the Soviets? During the Soviets, my dearly departed grandmother was "exported" from Poland to a Siberian labor camp (as was the rest of her family), mostly since her father was a war hero in the earlier Polish-Bolshevik war. (He got some of the townsfolk from the nearby village of to help pull a few big machine-gun caissons out of a ditch, and subsequently helped save the rear ends of the retreating Polish cavalry. I don't think the Soviets liked the family. Too much initiative.)

      --
      The World Wide Web is dying. Soon, we shall have only the Internet.
    11. Re:Know your market. by Thantik · · Score: 2, Insightful
      I hate to be so blunt...

      Then why'd they leave the asian guy in there? There a lot more asians in poland than blacks?

    12. Re:Know your market. by AHuxley · · Score: 5, Interesting

      Poland like many parts of Eastern Europe did 'clean' up after ww2 by driving out anyone not Polish.
      The last months of 1945-46 did let many parts of the Eastern Europe become very "homogeneous".
      Decades later you can blame the Germans up to 45, the Soviets post 45.
      In reality the locals did sort things out in a very permanent way.

      --
      Domestic spying is now "Benign Information Gathering"
    13. Re:Know your market. by lennier · · Score: 5, Insightful

      Speaking for myself, as a New Zealander, when I see African-looking people as the carefully-selected diverse-skin-tone group for a posed ad -- as opposed to Pacific Island or Asian, which are the faces we really see here -- it automatically makes me think "American". It's roughly the same effect as having people wearing cowboy hats and speaking in a twang.

      And that's generally an instant negative effect. It means you're saying "1. We're not a local company. 2. We're owned by some big American corporation you've never heard of who's never heard of you. 3. We're either too out of touch or too lazy to produce localised ad cop. 4. We're probably not going to localise any other resources for you, just design a one-size-fits-all media set in Texas and print 'em in China. 5. We're not going to listen to anything you have to say or care what your market segment thinks. 7. But we did run our media buy past our New York-based sensitivity screening group, so yay diversity!"

      --
      You are not a brain: http://books.google.com/books?id=2oV61CeDx-YC
    14. Re:Know your market. by Jurily · · Score: 4, Insightful

      There are just not so many black people in Poland.

      Mod parent up. People in Central Europe don't give a shit about USian prejudices. We have our own.

      Do you hate gypsies?

    15. Re:Know your market. by bz386 · · Score: 3, Informative

      Mod parent up. People that regard this as racist have probably never been to Poland or any other Eastern European country. For historical reasons, you will very rarely see black or Asian people in any of those countries. Having an ad with a black person is just not believable. Personally if I saw a local add like that in my home country it would immediately say "ah, this is obviously a US add, so the product is probably very US centric", simply because the ad shows a black person. This is not racist, it is just a fact. Americans probably don't notice it, but for "political correctness" reasons many American publications always made sure that every group of people they showed always had a mix of races/types of people. If you ever watched a cheap teen movie that has a story about some group of kids, the group would always have some white kids, one of them being fat, at least one Asian guy and at least one black guy. Not having this combination of races/types of people in the movie would be considered politically incorrect in the US. Seeing a group of people of mixed races is an everyday and normal thing. Seeing a group of people of mixed races in Eastern Europe is a rare occurrence, so a picture with a black person will immediately tell you that the picture was most probably made outside of the country. Imagine an ad showing a couple driving to work in a car - a Volga Coupe. Would this ad be believable to you if it was shown in the US? No, because you would never see that car driving down an American freeway. What the ad does show is that Microsoft is cheap. Instead of taking a new photo, adopted to the local market, they just photoshoped an existing one - badly.

    16. Re:Know your market. by jameskojiro · · Score: 2, Informative

      Because some Polish folks have Asia based blood in them, thank you, Genghis Khan you insufferable bastard!

      --
      Tsukasa: All I really want, is to be left alone...
    17. Re:Know your market. by 10Ghz · · Score: 2, Informative
      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    18. Re:Know your market. by CharlyFoxtrot · · Score: 5, Funny

      The racism flag seems to get trotted out a little too often these days.

      Come on. Everyone known those stupid polacks are dirty racists :o)

      --
      If all else fails, immortality can always be assured by spectacular error.
    19. Re:Know your market. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

      As a "current" Pole (born 82) I have to say that I mainly agree with you. None the less I don't think that we are xenophobic. Some fringe cases, as for instance the ultra right wing minded and older people brought up in a different time are, as they always (or most of the time) are in other countries as well. But I wouldn't say that Poles in general are xenophobic or racism. The fact is that we didn't really have any diversity in society for a very long time and just now we begin to learn about new cultures, new people and so one. As you've said we are mostly curious.

      As to the matter at hand, Microsoft Poland did the "right" thing. A black (sorry I don't know what the PC way is of saying that :-)) man is a very rare thing in Poland, doubly so in a business context. So the ad wouldn't be as believable with him in it. The quality of the work is something completely diffrent

    20. Re:Know your market. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Informative

      The penalty for protecting a Jew was the death of the entire family. Couple that with all the Volksdeutches - ie ethnic Germans who only spoke Polish in western parts of Poland who happily collaborated with the Germans I would say you are full of BS. Poland invited most of the Jews in the middle ages and had some of the most progressive anti-discrimination laws - the fact that it was so full of Jews proves that - they enjoyed living there.

      Please learn your history and stop calling everyone anti-semitic, because you're anti-Polish and Jews are not more special than anyone else. 'Anti-semitic my-behind', you anti-Polish bigot.

    21. Re:Know your market. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Informative

      Poland has an unfortunate history both during and directly after the war, extending into the 60s. The embarassing reaction to the relatively recent release of Jan T Gross's book (hereby incorporated by reference) in which the former Kaczynski, the former Primitive Polish Prime minister even tried to prosecute the author.

      It's important to remember that during the war the Poles had much harder situations for rescuing Jews than in most other countries (you risked your entire family going to a concentration camp; elsewhere you risk only yourself and only prison) and many still did. It's also worth remembering that the reason Jews were in Poland was because they were historically treated better there than elsewhere. Poland is much further along coming to terms with and apologizing (though with reservations) for it's former anti-semitism (even Kaczynski has made efforts to return passports to the victims of the 60s) than a number of surrounding countries.

      Essentially anyone who tells you that Poles are all good is a Holocaust revisionist. As is anyone who tells you that they are all bad.

      In all cases where I referenced Wikipedia, all references in the page references are incorporated by reference as material to read. There; is that enough citations for you?

    22. Re:Know your market. by Trepidity · · Score: 3, Interesting

      Companies routinely do a lot of other things that couldn't be called racist very easily, in order to match their target audience. For southern European audiences, for example, people with blonde hair are airbrushed or swapped out to avoid making the ad seem too foreign.

    23. Re:Know your market. by stephanruby · · Score: 2, Informative

      Bill Clinton isn't black?

    24. Re:Know your market. by mwvdlee · · Score: 4, Insightful

      it automatically makes me think "American".

      Pretty much any picture where obviously boring and unrealistically diverse people are fakely smiling for no apparent reason whilst wearing pastel coloured sweaters or light gray suits, it screams "american" to me. The second feeling I get is nausea from the candy-coated overdose of political correctness. Can anybody here identify with any of the people on that Microsoft photo?

      --
      Slashdot social media options: AIM, ICQ, Yahoo, Jabber and Mobile Text. Why no MySpace?
    25. Re:Know your market. by shutdown+-p+now · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Do you hate gypsies?

      Yes, actually (see, I'm from Eastern Europe, too). Though I don't consider it racism, because the hatred isn't towards race or ethnicity - it is towards a specific culture (I wonder if there's a term for that), which, IMO, is really deserving it. A gypsy who doesn't live like one isn't one anymore, as far as I'm concerned.

    26. Re:Know your market. by CAIMLAS · · Score: 4, Interesting

      Here's something nobody ever considers: what makes different skin colors "diverse"? They don't; they make people different colors. Associating race/color with diversity is a slight to all people, as it in and of itself is truly racist: "Oh, look; he has different color skin. He must be different/exciting/exotic/angry/mean/fun!" No, he's just a man - like you and like me, and every other goddamn man on this planet. (We then go on to associate their skin color or features with their behavior, as is biologically imperative, just as a soldier learns what an enemy combatant's uniform looks like or a dog learns that a specific bag that comes into the house every once in a while has treats.)

      Also, xenophobic and racist have two very distinctly different meanings. Racism is a hatred of an "essence" of a person's race, and those people; xenophobia is a fear (and maybe hatred) of outside cultures and forces, which is much more understandable (and natural, as such things tend to be disruptive.) What I suspect has happened in Poland (and has/is happening in many other places as well) is that it's an internal struggle trying to deal with what is seen as an invading culture and way of life - fear and anger at their structured world being disrupted, and someone 'forcing' change around them in their environment. Look at the Balkans for a perfect example: many distinctly different cultures, but all (mostly) very genetically similar people, yet... chaos. Their cultures are night and day from each other, resulting in an ethnic clusterf*ck.

      I think people in today's 'diverse' and 'connected' world need to take a step back and look at what used to make sense, in so many ways: good fences make good neighbors. All this cultural "blending" (which doesn't happen, ethnic ghettos form with a few stragglers leave to join the 'parent' culture to give the appearance of diversity) is not going to end well for anyone.

      --
      ~/ssh slashdot.org ssh: connect to host slashdot.org port 22: too many beers
    27. Re:Know your market. by mqduck · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Many Polish people may indeed be ... anti-semites ... but racists?

      What the hell are you talking about?

      --
      Property is theft.
    28. Re:Know your market. by 10Ghz · · Score: 3, Insightful

      I have no desire to make excuses for the atrocities that Nazis committed in Poland during WW2. I was merely answering the question regarding expulsion of Germans from Poland, which did happen.

      And it should also be noted that most of the Germans were expelled from areas that used to be part of Germany, not areas that Germany conquered from Poland during the war.

      Also, atrocity is an atrocity. Driving people from their homes through threats (and sometimes more than just threats) of violence is an atrocity that should be condemned. Yes, Poland went through hell and back during the war. Does that make it OK for them to mistreat others in return? Is it OK to mistreat Germans because some other Germans did some shitty things?

      After the Holocaust and WWII in general, you could make a decent argument that the German language should only live on in Hell.

      No you could not. Or are you saying that we would be better off today, had Germans been exterminated during and after WW2? To me it seems that modern Germany makes a positive contribution to the World, a contribution that we would lack, had history taken the course you desire. And how exactly would the Allied been one bit better than Nazis were, had they started killing surrendered Germans in their millions?

      --
      Lesbian Nazi Hookers Abducted by UFOs and Forced Into Weight Loss Programs - -all next week on Town Talk.
    29. Re:Know your market. by BikeHelmet · · Score: 3, Interesting

      I know the feeling. My hometown of ~10k must've had 5 black people in it. It was so rare seeing one, that I couldn't help but stare. Looking back, I wonder if that made them uncomfortable. :P

      But I also stared when I met a guy 4" 3'

    30. Re:Know your market. by ciderVisor · · Score: 5, Funny

      I can't remember the man's name right now, but one American pilot was finally freed some years back, and living in Chicago. I read an interview that he did with someone, but can't even remember who interviewed him.

      +5 Informative.

      --
      Squirrel!
    31. Re:Know your market. by ciderVisor · · Score: 2, Funny

      It's on the bed right next to the 9; 8 is supposedly filming.

      In the previous scene, 7 ate 9.

      --
      Squirrel!
    32. Re:Know your market. by maxwell+demon · · Score: 2, Funny

      The fuck? Now the god damn porn has to be PC?!

      You really don't want Mac porn!

      --
      The Tao of math: The numbers you can count are not the real numbers.
    33. Re:Know your market. by Yvanhoe · · Score: 2, Interesting

      I would also add that Poland is often seen in Europe as our Texas : they are fervently catholic, anti-gay, anti-abortion, and in favor of death penalty (despite it being abolished on all EU). Sorry AC, I know all Poles are not like that, but your leadership really doesn't make Poland the most sexy country to be in when you don't obey the Pope's commands.

      --
      The Wise adapts himself to the world. The Fool adapts the world to himself. Therefore, all progress depends on the Fool.
    34. Re:Know your market. by VJ42 · · Score: 5, Informative

      Though I don't consider it racism, because the hatred isn't towards race or ethnicity - it is towards a specific culture

      The Romani Gypsies prevalent in eastern Europe are an ethnic group, not a cultural one, so yes it is racism. Irish and "New age" travelers are a separate group and not properly referred to as Gypsies.

      --
      If I have nothing to hide, you have no reason to search me
    35. Re:Know your market. by yoyhed · · Score: 2, Funny

      Luckily I use Gmail, sent it to a friend when I saw it, and thus still have it:

      Here.

      --
      WHO NEEDS SHIFT WHEN YOU HAVE CAPSLOCK/ DAMN1
  4. I would have put a 14" dong on him. by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 2, Funny

    If you're going to doctor it, at least have some fun with it....

    1. Re:I would have put a 14" dong on him. by flyingfsck · · Score: 2, Funny

      They should at least have turned the Macbook black to compensate.

      --
      Excuse me, but please get off my Pennisetum Clandestinum, eh!
  5. Who else was epecting by Techman83 · · Score: 4, Funny

    That the guy had actually been "photo shopped" white, rather then just a different person!

    --
    # cat /dev/mem | strings | grep -i cat
    Damn, my RAM is full of cats. MEOW!!
  6. 50th Anniversary of Black Like Me by theodp · · Score: 2, Funny

    Maybe it's Microsoft's way of celebrating the 50th anniversary of the writing of Black Like Me.

    1. Re:50th Anniversary of Black Like Me by Runaway1956 · · Score: 2, Funny

      Hell, I thought Bill Clinton wrote that book. (How many people are awrare that Clinton was a mutant? He combined all of the white man's worst traits with all of the black man's worst traits, with a few of women's worst traits spliced in to make him everybody's bitch.)

      --
      "Windows is like the faint smell of piss in a subway: it's there, and there's nothing you can do about it." - Charlie Br
  7. This happens all the time... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 4, Informative

    http://photoshopdisasters.blogspot.com/

  8. Just like MSNBC: changing black people to white by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Interesting

    They changed a black guy into a white guy, but they used cropping.
    A black man took a gun to an anti-Obamacare rally. MSNBC showed his picture, or at least a picture of his shirt and gun (no hands or head), claimed it was a white guy and that he was motivated by racism.

    Link here: Instapundit and Afterburner video

    1. Re:Just like MSNBC: changing black people to white by Brianwa · · Score: 2, Insightful

      I'm pretty sure they do that sort of stuff all the time. Earlier this year there was a small scandal regarding a teacher at a local school. The school resource officer involved apparently would not give comments that the news stations wanted, so they got a recording of a *different* police officer and played it while displaying a candid telephoto shot of the first guy. The newspapers also quoted the wrong officer and suggested that they were quoting the correct person.

    2. Re:Just like MSNBC: changing black people to white by Brownstar · · Score: 3, Informative

      http://www.azcentral.com/members/Blog/WATCHBLOG/60115

      Is a story about the white guy with the gun in question.

    3. Re:Just like MSNBC: changing black people to white by twostix · · Score: 2, Informative

      Conspiracy theory, what the hell are you talking about?

      There's extended *MSNBC* video footage of a black guy holding a semi automatic assault rifle at an anti-"Obama Care" rally.

      The pundits on MSNBC were talking about the crazy racist WHITE people turning up at these events armed when there was a BLACK GUY ON SCREEN ARMED TO THE TEETH. The on site reporter even interviewed him! All of which they conveniently cut when they wanted to rant about the crazy white rednecks.

      Watch the goddamned video you ignorant shill, then pull your head out of your knee jerk reactionary arse and realise that "your guys" media outlets are behaving just as badly as the media outlet of guys that just got kicked out.

      I *really* hated the dishonesty, lies and absolute bullshit that the right pushed onto the world for 8 years and hoped (stupidly it would seem) that the left would be a little better. Boy was I wrong, dishonest AND hypocrites.

      Fuck sake...

    4. Re:Just like MSNBC: changing black people to white by twostix · · Score: 2, Informative

      Umm no.

      Did you even watch the video?? Apparently not.

      The "gun in question" is an AR-15 assault rifle held by a black guy that was interviewed by the onsite MSNBC reporter at an anti-"obamacare" town hall meeting. The fact that he was black and the interview was conveniently cut by MSNBC when they were showing footage of his gun and ranting on about the evil racist white rednecks that want to kill the black president.

      The link you have (bizarrely) supplied is a completely separate event in another part of the country weeks ago.

      Why the fuck are you modded up your post doesn't even make sense! It's not *that hard* to watch 5 minutes of video.

      Intellectual dishonesty is a far worse crime than uneducated ignorance.

  9. How offensive by sheehaje · · Score: 5, Funny

    I find this very rude and discriminatory. How do we know this guy wasn't Gimped?

  10. That's nothing... by NewbieProgrammerMan · · Score: 4, Funny

    You should see the real original picture before MS photoshopped in those two non-Busey guys.

    (Yes, stolen from reddit.)

    --
    [b.belong('us') for b in bases if b.owner() == 'you']
  11. What about the Asian guy? by bahamlabs · · Score: 4, Insightful

    If they Photoshopped in a white guy over the black guy, what about the Asian guy? I mean, how likely are you to see a Korean guy walking the streets of Poland? ( Or maybe I just don't know the streets of Poland).

    --
    --Bahamlabs
    1. Re:What about the Asian guy? by Bob_Who · · Score: 3, Funny

      If they Photoshopped in a white guy over the black guy, what about the Asian guy? I mean, how likely are you to see a Korean guy walking the streets of Poland? ( Or maybe I just don't know the streets of Poland).

      Korean? He's Canadian, just like a lot of Asians in Poland. However, the sex change operation threw me for a loop, his name is Brenda.

  12. It's just the same by lsolano · · Score: 2, Insightful

    Both pictures are just the result of what a marketing department researched out that sells.

    The black man in the US pictures DOES NOT mean that they're not racist, not at all. I'm not saying that they are racist either. He's there because he can help to sell more.

    That's it.

    We all have seen those TV adds, that, no matter what is being sold, show a Latin, an Asian and a black child just to appear that they have evolved into a society when stupid racism times are long gone.

    Races are just resources to sell, from a marketing point of view.

    Just in case I'm Latin and yes, I took already my diazepam pill ten minutes ago.

  13. Black guy? by Jerrei · · Score: 3, Interesting

    I see an ugly guy being photoshopped into a good looking one. What does race have to do with it?

  14. Photoshopping Real Life by DynaSoar · · Score: 2, Informative

    Around 20 years ago someone arranged a 'living flag' ceremony on Mount Trashmore in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Invitations went out to any and all military people stationed in the area, an enormous number of potential attendees. People showed up, the event was held, photographers took pictures. After, the phone company wanted to use some of the photos for the covers of the phone book. Upon examination it turned out that very few non-white persons had attended. The phone company couldn't see their way clear to use pictures of reality, so they held a bogus living flag event with a mix of non-whites of much greater proportion that in real life, and even in the military. (I suppose that of real life makes you then it may do the same for the basic, well devised lie, so the best way to prevent this uncomfortable feeling is to lie real big.) Those pictures got used. People who attended the event found out and publicized the fact, but after the initial splash the matter remained known but non-newsworthy. Also after, I was told but can't confirm that some of the photos were altered to increase the female presence and to make some of the people more attractive.

    --
    "I may be synthetic, but I'm not stupid." -- Bishop 341-B
  15. Re:romney? by bendodge · · Score: 4, Funny

    Notice that they fixed it so hastily they forgot to extend the orange bar for the text like they did the first time around.

    --
    The government can't save you.
  16. Re:Reality by Star_Gazer · · Score: 3, Insightful

    That has nothing to do with the digital world, it just got easier. Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Che and Castro all had former "friends" who happened to fall out of grace removed from pictures in their times. But of course this is going back much more, way before the availability of photography. Media was never and will never be reliable in general.

    And I would argue that using raw data to is the only reliable way to inform yourself, anything that has been selected, annotated or edited is the problem, bringing over a certain point of view which is not necessarily neutral. Of course, this will seldom be possible because you dont' have access to that raw data.

  17. Knowing how PC the US is these days... by davevr · · Score: 4, Insightful

    ... I wouldn't be surprised if the photo was originally was white and the US side photoshopped in a black guy.

    1. Re:Knowing how PC the US is these days... by Trogre · · Score: 2, Insightful

      Take a look at the windowsill to the right of each guy's head.

      I think it puts to rest any speculation on which photo was the original, if in fact either model was ever actually there.

      --
      "Nine times out of ten, starting a fire is not the best way to solve the problem." - my wife
    2. Re:Knowing how PC the US is these days... by christophe · · Score: 2, Insightful

      (Warning: braod and probably abusive generalization below.)

      It's always funny to see such photos on American products or ads in my part of Europe.

      I remember the photo on the packaging of a computer mouse for children (from MS?): a boy with blue eyes and fair hair (in the center), a Chinese-looking girl, a black boy. This is an American mix, not a European one.

      To be PC in the West-European market, you have to add an Arab- or Turkish-looking child. In France the typical hair is darker than in the States and blue eyes not very common, so the fair hair boy looks like one of our Dutch tourists. Our proportion of Asian people is low outside of Paris, and they are more Vietnamese than Chinese.

      It depends heavily on the country (I suppose that you could say between the states inside the US.)
      You cannot be PC and have the same photo for all countries. Unless that you want to appear like a soul-less company with American-style management.

      BTW, the white person in many of such photos is always in the best position: on the mouse packaging, the boy was in the middle; in a recent ad for Visual Studio, the white young man is on the front and a Chinese-looking girl in the background; and in the photo from the article, the white woman is the only one active (she seems to be the boss). Neither do I see fat or disabled persons.

      --
      Christophe (Don't hesitate to point out my spelling and grammar mistakes, I want to learn - Thanks).
  18. Proper Use of Photoshop Trademark by HomerJ · · Score: 5, Funny

    Trademarks help protect corporate and product identity, and Photoshop is one of Adobe's most valuable trademarks. By following the below guidelines, you can help Adobe protect the Photoshop brand name.

    The Photoshop trademark must never be used as a common verb or as a noun. The Photoshop trademark should always be capitalized and should never be used in possessive form, or as a slang term. It should be used as an adjective to describe the product, and should never be used in abbreviated form. The following examples illustrate these rules:

    Trademarks are not verbs.

    CORRECT: The image was enhanced using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
    INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.

    Trademarks are not nouns.

    CORRECT: The image pokes fun at the Senator.
    INCORRECT: The photoshop pokes fun at the Senator.

    Always capitalize and use trademarks in their correct form.

    CORRECT: The image was enhanced with Adobe® Photoshop® Elements software.
    INCORRECT: The image was photoshopped.
    INCORRECT: The image was Photoshopped.
    INCORRECT: The image was Adobe® Photoshopped.

    Trademarks must never be used as slang terms.

    CORRECT: Those who use Adobe® Photoshop® software to manipulate images as a hobby see their work as an art form.
    INCORRECT: A photoshopper sees his hobby as an art form. INCORRECT: My hobby is photoshopping.

    Trademarks must never be used in possessive form.

    CORRECT: The new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software are impressive.
    INCORRECT: Photoshop's features are impressive.

    Trademarks are proper adjectives and should be followed by the generic terms they describe.

    CORRECT: The image was manipulated using Adobe® Photoshop® software.
    INCORRECT: The image was manipulated using Photoshop.

    Trademarks must never be abbreviated.

    CORRECT: Take a look at the new features in Adobe® Photoshop® software.
    INCORRECT: Take a look at the new features in PS.

    The trademark owner should be identified whenever possible.

    Adobe and Photoshop are either registered trademarks or trademarks of Adobe Systems Incorporated in the United States and/or other countries.

  19. This explains it by ILuvRamen · · Score: 2, Informative

    Everyone keeps saying they "photoshopped" it. This is Microsoft. Adobe makes Photoshop. Clearly from that quality editing, they used a Microsoft photo editor like Picture It. Actually that's exactly what you'd get if you used Picture It lol.

    --
    Google's Super Secret Search Algorithm: SELECT @search_results FROM internet WHERE @search_results = 'good'
  20. Re:Not very many black people in Poland by Ash-Fox · · Score: 2, Informative

    Note: This is my opinion, but it is based off a substantial amount of real life experiences and knowledge.

    I'm just guessing that since Poland is mostly just poor farmers and just poor people in general, they don't really have as many immigrants coming in compared to Western Europe.

    This is not the case at all.

    Having lived in Poland for over 12 years (I am a foreigner), I can tell you that Polish people tend to be quite prejudiced against anyone who is not Polish. They believe non-Polish people are stealing their jobs, their way of life and as such do everything in their power to discriminate against such people. I lived in Szczecin which is a major Polish border city to the German side, not too far away from Berlin.

    In Berlin, you could see about 25-45% of people on the street were black, in Poland, over the course of 12 years, I only saw one and Berlin was only two hours away. I heard quite a few stories about people complaining to companies that employed foreigners and even boycotted them for that reason. I've also been the subject of much discrimination in the country (unlike any of the other countries I've lived in).

    Poland it self is quite forward with technologies, mobile phone networks have the latest 3g technologies first, the Internet infrastructure has always been quite quickly deployed in Poland. Being one of the first countries to support nationwide dial up to having the first nation wide DSL systems in place.

    To put it simply, Poland is not ready for foreigners outside of their tourist cities (Warszawa, Krakow) and likely won't be for a while. Many people fear foreigners as some kind of evil, people of a different skin make it even worse for people who haven't ever seen a person with different skin colour before. They are not technologically backwards nor do they have a lack of access to resources beyond money (although the economy problems don't seem to have hit Poland much like the rest of the world).

    Don't get me wrong, Poland is integrating with the rest of Europe and learning to accept, but it is still very backwards in this regard (despite having had a "constitution" of their own before the USA acknowledging the rights of all individuals by law, no matter the race, gender, skin colour - not that it matters).

    The people are just prejudiced and it will take some changes before a black person is considered socially acceptable by most.

    --
    Change is certain; progress is not obligatory.
  21. Who is more racist? by DerekLyons · · Score: 2, Interesting

    Who is more racist, the person who decided the black guy should be photoshopped out? Or the person who think a black guy must be included because of the color of his skin?

  22. Re:Reality by orzetto · · Score: 2, Informative

    Stalin, Mao, Hitler, Che and Castro all had former "friends" who happened to fall out of grace removed from pictures in their times.

    [citationneeded]. We agree on Stalin, but all the others did not use damnatio memoriæ. In particular, Che Guevara was never head of any country, so he could not have done it even if he had wanted it. Counterexamples welcome.

    --
    Victims of 9/11: <3000. Traffic in the US: >30,000/y
  23. Go Australia! by SL+Baur · · Score: 3, Insightful

    Many Polish peoples are also racists.

    By a strict definition, I'm also racist. Australians that I have encountered (without exception) in international airports have been unfailingly polite, helpful and friendly. Clearly a superior group of people.

    My next international vacation is definitely going to be in Australia.

  24. Re:Reality by Star_Gazer · · Score: 3, Informative

    I'll retract Che, as I couldn't find an example, but for the rest:
    http://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/farid/research/digitaltampering/

    I don't want to google more, but I remember seeing many more examples over the years.

    You don't need to be a head of state to have photos edited, btw. It just need some devoted followers in the press or something like that.

  25. Modded Funny but not a Joke by ChienAndalu · · Score: 4, Informative

    just to clarify that they aren't kidding

  26. Too soon? by Hognoxious · · Score: 2, Funny

    Well if Michael Jackson could do it...

    --
    Confucius say, "Find worm in apple - bad. Find half a worm - worse."
  27. polish original mirror by hany · · Score: 2, Informative

    Where the mirror of polish original? Looks like it got lost. :)

    --
    hany
  28. I'm sorry, but you are wrong. by kklein · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Um, no.

    I am a white American living in Japan. I've been here about 10 years. People say racist things to me all the time. No, they don't mean any offense (usually), but that doesn't mean that I don't get offended. But I didn't used to.

    When I first got here, little comments like "Oh! You can use chopsticks!" and "Wow, you can write kanji just like a Japanese person!" and "everyone move over; Klein needs space" (even though I am a very little guy), I thought it was quaint.

    Now when those comments are made, it makes me feel excluded. As if I can never be treated normally, just because of my brown hair and blue eyes. The novelty has worn off.

    A woman complemented me on my amazing Japanese a few months ago when I used a word I literally learned in my first semester of Japanese study. It bummed me out the rest of the day.

    Then there's the "special" treatment you get from cops. And drunks.

    Maybe at one point I thought minorities in the US were being oversensitive, but I think that after 10 years, I finally get it. Finding hateful racist people is getting harder every day, thank god, but when you're a minority, everything is just a little racist. You're treated differently, and it doesn't have anything to do with how you act or what you can or can't do. It just comes down to your physical attributes, and you can't change those. It just gets... tiring.

    But I have it better than minorities in the US or Canada or wherever. This is not my home country. If I ever get totally sick of it (and I'll be honest, there are some things happening these days that are really making me question if it's worth being here--the cops' treatment is getting more special by the day), I can go home to the US where I'll be just another regular white guy. But a regular black guy in the US can't go anywhere. It's his home, and his life is one of being treated differently every single day. I understand why some people get touchy. I'm getting touchy, and I don't have it anywhere near as bad as black people in the US.

    So there's the perspective of a white guy who has figured it out without any brainwashing.

    Watch your mouth, people. It sucks when the main thing people remember about you is your race.

    1. Re:I'm sorry, but you are wrong. by nauvillain · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Watch your mouth, people. It sucks when the main thing people remember about you is your race.

      Your experience is that of one belonging to a minority, and the response of most people to that minority. Would be the same if you were extremely handsome, if you had one arm, if you had a Lamborghini. Racism is more common than 'Lamborghinism', so it gets more attention. But it's the same phenomenon, and you cannot blame the average Joe for categorizing you according to the minority you represent.

    2. Re:I'm sorry, but you are wrong. by quenda · · Score: 5, Funny

      A woman complemented me on my amazing Japanese

      Thats nothing. An American complimented me on my English after I told her I was from Australia. Toughen up!

    3. Re:I'm sorry, but you are wrong. by Tink2000 · · Score: 3, Insightful

      Lots, actually. "He's so well-spoken." You hear it applied to black people far more often than white people.

    4. Re:I'm sorry, but you are wrong. by glennpratt · · Score: 2, Insightful

      ... you cannot blame the average Joe for categorizing you according to the minority you represent.

      Why not? There a plenty of times when "average Joe's" assumptions are just plain wrong.

  29. It drives me nuts by ILongForDarkness · · Score: 2, Insightful

    that every company feels that every time they show a group of customers it has to be "diverse". For example the pic from the article: asian man, black man, white woman. Wow I guess MS doesn't have any white men using their products, and here I thought that was the majority in IT. Who knew. Anyways seems stupid to go out of your way to create artificial diversity.

  30. Re:Dark Tan? - Long hair? by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    http://img402.imageshack.us/img402/7308/microsoftlocalisation.jpg

  31. "the ports in the rear that get the most use." by stupidflanders · · Score: 2, Informative

    That's what she said.

  32. Stupid marketroid smiles.. by tobe · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'm just totally amazed that marketing hasn't realised that no-one swallows this 'we're all at work and we're totally loving it' utter bullshit that every file photo they have exudes. Just look at them in that photo.. all sitting there with their brilliant teeth, perfectly pressed business suits not a hair out of place and those BIG CHEESEY SHIT-EATING GRINS. Is she showing them pictures of kittens ?? Kittens are nice. They make me smile. But no.. the inference is that it's a fucking Powerpoint presentation.

    FUCK OFF WITH THAT ALREADY. Have you ever seen a scene like that in your office. Don't you normally have at most a neutral expression whilst you're concentrating. This ridiculous crap they try to feed us that using their product will make us taller, more attractive, whiten our teeth and let us get more sleep is just insulting. It's software. Sell it like bridges.

    And HR can all fuck off too...

  33. couldn't they have just made him whiter .. :) by rs232 · · Score: 2, Funny

    Couldn't they have just made him 'whiter' ? White Obama Senator Obama

    --
    davecb5620@gmail.com
  34. Re:There is no race! by RobVB · · Score: 2, Funny

    And if you won't listen to Snaller, listen to Admiral Adama.

    --
    I'd rather you rationally disagree than irrationally agree.
  35. Re:No African-Americans in Poland doncha know by MooUK · · Score: 2, Insightful

    I'd doubt that textbook was written in 1650 - the wording would be modern.

    At a guess, the original wording for that census would have been "Negro" or similar.

  36. Reminds me of a Polish joke by geekoid · · Score: 4, Funny

    A polish man finds a lantern laying on the ground.
    He takes it home and while cleaning it a genie appears.
    The Genie says:
    "For freeing me from the lantern, I shall grant you three wishes."
    The polish man thinks for a second and says "I wish for a mongol invasion of Poland, please."
    The Genie grants him his wish, the mongols invade, and then leave.
    The Genie says "Name your second wish."
    The man thinks for a moment and says "I wish for a mongol invasion of Poland, please."
    The Genie looks at bit puzzled, but grants him his wish.
    The Mongol invade, and then leave.
    "Now name you third wish"
    The man thinks for a bit and says "I wish for a mongol invasion of Poland, please."
    The confused Genie says "I'll grant you your wish, but would you tell me why you keep wishing for this?"
    The polish man says "Sure, each time the mongols invade Poland they have to go through Russia twice."

    --
    The Kruger Dunning explains most post on /. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dunning%E2%80%93Kruger_effect