Anti-Racist Infrastructure
A collaborative project with Lynn H., Christine H., Summer K., Jack L., and Diem N.
“Racism has been a key feature embedded into the architecture of virtually every system, structure, organization, and technology for the past 400 years. Design as a field has been complicit in the advancement of racist beliefs and practices through products, packaging, services, and etc.”
— Chris Rudd, April 28, 2021
Anti-Racism [ an·ti-rac·ist ]
noun
actively working to identify the ways that race has been constructed to oppress particular groups of people
actively working to destroy the systems of marginalization and oppression, in individual and collective social policies and processes
actively working to eliminate race as a mechanism of oppression through some directed action
Infrastructure [ in·fra·struc·ture ]
noun
purposeful combinations of tangible and intangible resources to enable choices
emphasizes collective, multiple, and relational ways of driving bottom-up change in systems rather than devising change strategies based on a seeming consensus
Design Process
The goal is to collectively design a new infrastructure that addresses an issue and enables Anti-Racist outcomes.
We will identify a specific moment where we were impacted by Racism, imagine a future where we are able to accomplish our goals in that same environment, and use Anti-Racist design principles to create new infrastructures, enabling the imagined future to come to existence.
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By considering each member’s past experiences, we were able to identify the social issue, and furthermore, we were able to use those experiences to design a new infrastructure that met the goal and our needs.
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To create an Anti-Racist Infrastructure, we believed that education was the most important factor. Our idea was that with some strong visual representations of Anti-Racism, we could educate people about the subject and engage their interests to want to learn more.
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People who have a lack of education in race and diversity or have observed judgments and stereotypes, learn how to empathize, reflect, activate, and pursue when coming across our Anti-Racism prototype.
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Fellow colleagues and professors gave us feedback to refine and consider the topic of safety and trust within a community. Education is important; however, with the lack of trust and safety, people will less likely be interested in wanting to learn more about Anti-Racism.
Define : the problem, social issue, and policies that affect
To design our infrastructure, we must identify our issue, policies that might affect, and organize them altogether. We were able to sort the commonalities of our diverse, past experiences, such as Racism at work, streets, church, media, and more.
Ideate : the concept, organization, and infrastructure
Keeping in mind the purpose to educate, we thought of implementing QR codes, zines, wall murals, posters, visual presentations and more. Strong visual representations will leave an impactful message on people’s minds to desire the education.
Prototype : the possible solution, purpose, and education
We began with our brand identity of the Anti-Racist Organization. With bold fonts and colors, the information and visuals become more collective and cohesive, in which will create less distractions and put more attention on the central point.
Feedback & Refine : the key considerations and takeaways
The key takeaway from the feedback was to address the safety and trust within the community. So with that feedback, we further refined those elements through more ideation, such as Emergency Response Project, billboards, and change in media.