Fans of Houston songstress Beyoncé were quick to take action after a whitewashed image of Bey, Jay Z and former President Barack Obama surfaced on popular how-to site wikiHow.
The particular wikiHow page detailed the steps one would take in order to become a congressman.
An explanation for the “Schedule and attend fundraising events” step featured an illustration of a photo of Beyoncé and Jay Z meeting with Obama at a fundraiser in 2012. Unlike the photo it took its cue from, those in the illustration are all noticeably white.
After the illustration went viral in part thanks to a Beyoncé fan account, wikiHow quickly stepped into action, removing the image and issuing the following apology/explanation on Twitter:
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“When we saw the whitewashed image of Obama, Jay Z & Beyoncé, we were disgusted & ashamed. It never should have been on wikiHow. Within minutes of the 1st tweet, a volunteer removed the image. We then started investigating how it got on wikiHow at all. We learned it was made 3 years ago by a team of illustrators who work as one. One person sketches, the other person colors. The sketcher sent the colorist a black and white sketch. The colorist did not know the race of the models. The colorist wasn’t aware it was Obama and Beyoncé. We don’t think the illustrator intentionally whitewashed here.
“This doesn’t excuse the fact that we hosted a terrible image on wikiHow and we needed more diversity on that article period,” WikiHow added. “We’re talking with our illustrators to prevent recurrence and encourage diversity. Especially in positions of power.”
