Ok so it was not necessarily EVER the original cover, if Travis said it was "too scary for black people" since he would be probably the main decision maker. It doesnt just alienate black people, alot of white people that buy cd's are freaked out by seeing that kinda stuff, and since everyone knows most buyer's are white, I am sure that people in general were the main consideration there.
But since we brought up the black thing, its not anything against Tech, but you just don't ever see black people flocking to buy shit that looks like that, why would you commit album suicide like that. It would be like selling the best food in the world but putting a picture of a charred animal carcass on the picture of the box. Yeah that is what the food is but it just don't look appealing.