For publishers in the elementary ed biz, diversity is the rule of the day, and diversity is all about stereotyping, isn't it? So what happens when your stock photos don't look stereotypical enough? Like, you have excessively pale Mexicans or something equally undesirable. You find some Asians that LOOK Mexican. D'oh. As Jeff Jacoby reports:
The cofounder of PhotoEdit Inc., a commercial archive that specializes
in pictures of what it calls ``ethnic and minority people in all walks
of life," advises publishers that images of Chicanos can be passed off
as American Indians from the Southwest, because they "look very
similar." Similarly, [Daniel Golden of the Wall Street Journal] notes, a textbook photographer tells
clients that since the "facial features" of some Asians resemble
Indians from Mexico, "there are some times where you can flip-flop."
Similarly, if your disabled kids don't look too spiffy:
Well, you can always do what Houghton Mifflin does. The well-known
textbook publisher keeps a wheelchair on hand as a prop and hires
able-bodied children from a modeling agency to pose in it. It keeps
colorful pairs of crutches on hand, too -- in case a child model turns
out to be the wrong size for the wheelchair.
Fabulous article. Read the whole thing. H/t Wretchard
