The illustration showed Beyoncé, Barack Obama and Jay Z at a 2012 fundraiser
y'all. google "wikihow congressman" and look at this foolishness 🙄they couldn't just keep them black? pic.twitter.com/WrSuYV6Veo
— Zazie Beetz (@AfroFrias) January 22, 2017
WikiHow has apologised for white-washing Beyoncé, Jay Z and Barack Obama in a picture shared on its website.
The online platform, which offers free how-to guides on various subjects, said it was “disgusted and ashamed” after seeing the image.
The illustration featured within an article about how to become a congressman, and was based on a 2012 photo of the trio at a New York fundraising event. WikiHow has since said that the image should never have appeared on the site.
The company explained the white-washing through a thread of Tweets, which state that the image was made by a team of three illustrators, who act as one, a sketcher and a colourist. The colourist apparently didn’t realise the picture was of Obama, Beyoncé and Jay-Z, therefore claiming that the white-washing wasn’t deliberate.
“We’re talking with our illustrators to prevent recurrence and encourage diversity. Especially in positions of power,” read one of the Tweets.
1/ When we saw the whitewashed image of Obama, Jay Z & Beyoncé, we were disgusted & ashamed. It never should have been on wikiHow. https://t.co/tCIgpPpD2R
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
1/ When we saw the whitewashed image of Obama, Jay Z & Beyoncé, we were disgusted & ashamed. It never should have been on wikiHow. https://t.co/tCIgpPpD2R
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
