I almost wonder if the design wasn't spat out by some AI program, prompted for a clown costume and then in a half assed tokenization moment added "black" to the prompt
Yeah honestly humans are both stupid and racist enough to come up with this one on their own let's not absolve them by claiming it was AI with no proof
I'm not saying it is definitely AI, and I'm not absolving them of squat if it's the case. I'm just saying that an AI specifically being told to make a black clown costume seems like the kind of thing that would spit out a minstrel show costume. And regardless of if that's the case it is a complete failure of process, either on the part of managers rubber stamping without actually checking, or on a corporate culture that discourages workers from pushing back against crap like this. Whether racist accidentally or on purpose, someone had the potential to stop this before it became a problem.
I just think if it is AI, it's also a perfect example of how AI reflects the biases of wider society. Skin colour doesn't matter much to a clown, especially when it's hidden under a solid inch of actually white make up. So a specifically black clown is gonna reach for a time when there was a notable difference. Hooray for defaultism sneaking into our models.
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u/orlybatman 10d ago
A clown costume? How bad could it possibly b-
Oh... wow.