Wikihow turned Obama, Beyoncé, and Jay Z white to explain "How to become a congressman." pic.twitter.com/QNTGz5wjaq
— FORMATION (@beyupdates_) January 22, 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
@wikiHow 2/ Within minutes of the 1st tweet, a volunteer removed the image. We then started investigating how it got on wikiHow at all.
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
@wikiHow 3/ We learned it was made 3 years ago by a team of illustrators who work as one. One person sketches, the other person colors.
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
@wikiHow 4/ The sketcher sent the colorist a black and white sketch. The colorist did not know the race of the models.
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
@wikiHow 5/ The colorist wasn’t aware it was Obama and Beyoncé. We don’t think the illustrator intentionally whitewashed here.
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
@wikiHow 6/ This doesn’t excuse the fact that we hosted a terrible image on wikiHow and we needed more diversity on that article period.
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017
@wikiHow 7/ We’re talking with our illustrators to prevent recurrence and encourage diversity. Especially in positions of power.
— wikiHow (@wikiHow) January 24, 2017