How to Spot and Stop Whitewashing POC in Edits

lightsoverastoria:

I often see on my dash or through the edit tags, edits of people of color where their skin is whitewashed, meaning that their skin in the edit is inappropriately lighter than their actual skin color. This is racist (research it, that’s not what this post is about). I’ve mentioned this on my blog and people suggested I make a full length tutorial on it. 

I make edits, okay I get it. Most times I’ll make a coloring for the first gif in a set and then just use it on every other gif in the set, or maybe even use a premade coloring. But this process doesn’t always work if you have POC involved, most of the time it leads to white washing.

In this post, I’ll be talking about how to know when you should be careful about coloring, providing photoshop tutorials on how to edit your existing coloring groups to not whitewash, and show other tips and tricks I’ve learned over time. 

I’m a POC and even I had problems with this when I first started using Photoshop, because sometimes you just don’t realize, and it takes time to build those skills and unlearn subconscious racism! So I hope this post helps people become more conscious of whitewashing and to stop doing it. If you need further help figuring out something on Photoshop, message me :)

***Non-editors and white people absolutely should reblog so that you, and others, can be conscious of whitewashing. When you see a whitewashed edit, you should talk to the editor about it politely (even on anon!) or at the very least not reblog.

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