I have occasionally volunteered my services as a PC thug. That’s PC as in “politically correct.” (Though it’s also true that I do my photo editing on a Lenovo and not a MacBook Pro. I have my reasons, but that’s another post.)

A couple of months ago, I got an error page while working on one of my main microstock sites, Dreamstime. Here’s a screenshot of the error message:

Here’s the letter I wrote to Dreamstime:

I’m sure it is unintentional, but the image that appears with your site’s 404 error strongly resembles the racist stereotype blackface characters seen in the ‘minstrel show’ genre. I suggest you remove the image and replace it with a less potentially offensive one.

Here’s the response I got:

Thank you for contacting Dreamstime. We are extremely sorry the image in question has been perceived as such. We have by no means intended to refer or point to minstrel shows. It is a comic image of a person that has been subject to an electric shock. The result of such contact with high voltage has often been comically depicted in raised hair and burnt skin.

Best regards,

Carmen Pietraru
Quality Assurance and Support

Here’s my follow-up letter, which I waited a good six weeks before sending:

Carmen,

I’ve noticed that the image in question is still in use. Are there any plans to change it? I would think out of sensitivity to your users that you would want to avoid even the perception that you were making use of an image that has, at best, echoes of a long-established history of racist imagery, however unintentional it may have been in this case. I would also think that in the millions of images hosted by Dreamstime, there would be plenty of appropriate images that would not have these problematic overtones.

I have shown it to friends who have had a similar concerns as mine. If there are no plans to remove it, I may share it with yet more friends and encourage them to share their opinion of this image with Dreamstime as well.

Peace,
Ryan Rodrick Beiler

I sent this last message in May,  haven’t received a response, and they’re still using the image (click here to see it in action), so I’m making good on my promise to Carmen and Dreamstime. I’m sharing this image with you so that you can share your opinion about it. So what do you think? Am I over-reacting to an innocent image and unintended offense? I’m not trying to be the know-it-all white guy who sees Bamboozled once and wants to impress everyone with my racial sensitivity.

But I am trying to be an ally.

If you think Dreamstime needs to find a new error image, here’s a link to their contact page. It’d be great if you could post copies of your message in the comments section of this post. I’m curious what other folks think. I like Dreamstime–it’s one of my best-performing microstock sites. I just want them to get a new error page image. When I complained about BigStock on this blog a while back, that got a response, so maybe this will.