Conservative Racism (Under)exposed

Andrew Scheer’s Conservatives are now facing criticism as “racist” because of a campaign ad that showed Justin Trudeau as an oil worker, with skin darker than his skin really is. "Some Canadians [nudge nudge] say this is racist." Some were "shocked."

The picture was made by Photoshopping Trudeau’s face on a stock photo of an oil worker. As a practical matter, the ad agency or whoever made the image would have had to match skin tones between the face and the hands. As it happens, oil rig workers tend to be outdoors a lot, and sunlight darkens the skin. It’s called a tan. The image simply could not have worked without such darkening.

To see a deep tan, and immediately think of race, is to be racist. People are more than skin colours. And for that matter, to consider portraying someone as a different race as “racist,” one must begin with the premise that there is something wrong with being of that race.

In other words, the racism is in the eye of the beholder, not in the original picture. This is typically the case these days: the racists call themselves “anti-racist,” and accuse anyone who is not a racist of racism.

It seems we live in the times of which Orwell warned us.