What’s better than diversity? Faking diversity for the sake of appearances! Or, at least, that’s what French art school Emile-Cohl must have figured.
Suspicion arose after circulation of a promotional photo, in which some students from the drawing school appeared to have… *clears throat*… tanned a bit, after a group shot was edited. Comparisons between before and after photos, reveal some of the white students' had their skin color darkened to make them appear black. To make matters worse, black people who were not present in the initial photo were photoshopped into the shot.
La photo de base est trouvable sur leur twitter en plus, mon dieu pic.twitter.com/HzF9PVUghe
— Ameliabrador (@ameliabrador) September 9, 2018
According to The Local, the promotional photo was geared towards the launch of a U.S. branch of the Lyon city school and edited by a communications agency, who the school has since ended their contract with. After receiving backlash over the controversial change, Emile-Cohl has terminated access to the U.S. website.
A spokesperson for Emile-Cohl denied any "intention to manipulate reality," reports Black News Global. They also denied being responsible for the "blackwashing" of the students and issued an apology to students whose skin color was darkened.
The communications agency has yet to explain their editing decisions.
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