Dori's Moblog

Diversity and the Whose Flag? Controversy on DO

There is a controversy brewing on Design Observer based on William Drenttel's calling out the lack of diversity of a panel of judges of an Adbusters contest to design a global flag. It has set off a firestorm of comments, some of which are plain scary. Below is my response:

First, William, you are super cool and brave to introduce this subject. The fact that you represent a "privileged white American male" makes me hopeful for the future diversity of the design profession, because social and economic justice is not possible, until there are those who are willing to share and, in some cases give up, their positions of privilege in order to allow marginalized others to gain access. You are part of the solution.

I am saddened and bemused by some of the comments to this post. I am saddened by the anger and fear by some of the commentators -- those who feel that their positions of privilege and authority (based on their race and gender) is threatened by the call that a "global" design project reflect more perspectives than that of seven white men. In the immortal words of Sojourner Truth, "If my cup won't hold but a pint and yours holds a quart, wouldn't you be mean not to let me have my little half-measure full?"

Diversity is about the having a range of perspectives in ways that matter to the subject. There are certain categories of identity in which the meanings are often overdetermined. These categories tend to be race/ethnicity, class, gender, and religion. Being overdetermined means that your are more likely to have experiences that significantly differ from someone in another group based on that identity. Yes, there are different perspectives among seven white men but does that represent a wide enough range of experiences, such that one does not overlap with the others.

Note that being judged by the "content of your character" does not mean being color/gender/class/religion blind. One's experiences based on overdetermined differences informs one's character. Experiences of institutional racism may help develop one's strength of resolve to succeed by creating one's own institutions. Experiences of the multi-ethnic culture of Islamic practice may develop one's tolerance for racial differences. Experiences of sexism may make one more expressive of the emotional inner life that is "forbidden" in the business world. These are the content of one's character, but they are generated by the external characteristics to which people positively or negatively respond.

I am bemused by those who are criticizing the call for diversity by pointing out its most cynical or failed implementations. Yes, sometimes diversity can devolve into "visual politics" without substantial differences in perspective. For example, Clarence Thomas was no Thurgood Marshall and Sarah Palin is no Hillary Clinton. But there should be an institutional consciousness that says that if we are going to create a world flag that we should recruit designers who my have different perspectives and experiences of issues of nationalism, internationalism, flags, perhaps flag-burning, and it should be global. Who are the top flag-burning designers?

This is getting "longer than the original post." Suffice to say that intentional or unintentional policies of exclusion of the diversity of perspectives is the root of all evil. The hubris of seven white American men judging the fate of a global flag is not so different than the hubris of the European heads partition of Africa. Shame on Adbusters. Praise for William for calling it out.

Saki Mafundikwa and Black Designers Forum

Last night at UIC, Saki Mafundikwa gave a lecture on design and development in Zimbabwe. I hope to have more time to recount how poignant and amazing it was, especially what he is doing with his design school ZIVA. I have to get ready for today's black designer's forum, so stay tuned.

US Diversity and the Olympics

I was going through some of the images from the Opening Ceremonies for the Olympics in Beijing. I am always struck by how mono-ethnic all the other nation's  teams look compared to the US. The only European nation that was not mono-ethnic looking was Portugal, another reason why I love that place. Brazil was out is its multi-ethnic-racialness, but everyone else was looking pretty homogeneous.

One would think that the world would be different by now with all the globalization and immigration, especially around sports, which tends to be more open than politics. Since I don't have a TV, I will miss almost all of the Olympics, besides my indifference to everything except Track and Field, which as been tarnished by doping scandals.

The US gets a gold for diversity, now if only we can work on Congress.

Neighborhood in the inter-racial zone

This past weekend I rediscovered why I love the neighborhood in Chicago where I live. It's a neighborhood that was formerly Italian, but now has an inter-racial and inter-class mix of old Italian-American families,  loft-dwelling yuppies, Black and Latino young families, students, and me. It's a neighborhood where people hang out at the stores and the shop keepers know you by sight, if not by name.

So this weekend, I went to my local hardware store, where the Italian-American owner in his 50s, and his Irish (40s) and Italian-American friends (60s) were discussing the election. The owner asked me whether I thought that "the blacks," which he apologized for using but he did not know the correct term, was only voting for Obama because he was black. I thus explained the complexity of black America's relationship with Barack Obama. Later a man of Mexican origin joined, and  we all ended up having a pointed but substantive conversation about reparations (we were all against, but for different reasons), whether racism was better now or in the past (most said now, the shop owner said in the past), who has the highest IQ Condoleezza Rice or Oprah (Oprah has a higher emotional IQ, Condi has higher analytical IQ), and about the state of the world today.

Afterwards, we were all amazed by the fact that we could have such a intelligent and in-depth discussion about such delicate topics without anyone getting offended or upset. It made me think that things are much better in the US regarding race relations.

Historic Moment_Obama Wins in Iowa Caucus

Although the reports seem to say that the overwhelmingly white Iowa voters did not see race as a factor in their decision, the fact that Obama garnered 37.5% of the vote marks a significant moment in American history. While it does not mean that America is by any sense a post-racist society, it does mean that race is not as over-determining a category as it was in the past. You can be white, love Oprah, and vote for Obama and it actually be a really good thing because you can bring about change. So thank you Iowa for keeping the faith that one can be judge others by the content of their character over the color of their skin.

Congratulations Obama! You really do represent the potential for change because you have made this moment happen.

Congress of the Oppressed II

My first year in graduate school I had a class with Renato Rosaldo called Cultural Citizenship, which was the first time since 4th grade I had been in the class were the majority of participants were people of color. There were 5-6 Native Americans (East Coast, West Coast, and South), 4 African-Americans (2 biracials and 2 monoracials, including me), 3 Asians (1 Indo-American, 1 Asian-American, and 1 Chinese male), 2-3 latinos, 1 jewish woman, and 1 white gay male. I named the class the Congress of the Oppressed, because every participant comes from a group who suffers from the dominant society's oppression.

What was fascinating about the class was that we had so much internalized the modes of engagement of the "oppressor" that in a class with no heterosexual,  WASP males, we started to oppress each other. This was accomplished by using alienating jargons and competitive argumentation styles that silenced one another. It was painful and heartbreaking that those who should know better did not.

The miracle was that half way through the class, we realized what we were doing, could discuss it, and then changed the dynamics. We began to engage with each other through poetry, music, drawings about the themes and experiences of cultural citizenship. That Congress of the Oppressed experience changed my life, because it made me aware of how in the words of Audre Lorde, "the master's tools can never dismantle his house" and that it is possible to build new houses with new tools for each other.

This is what makes me sad about the news that the Cherokee Nation has removed the 2,800 descendents of black slaves they owned from their roll of citizens by deciding that citizenship is based on "blood." Seventy-six percent had voted in favor of the amendment, thus barring the freedmen from receiving benefits from the $300 million budget, 80% funded by the US federal Government as reported by Daniel Walker of the Coffeyville Journal. In the same article, he mentions how this is part of a long history of racial discrimination by the Cherokee Nation against blacks, including the original enslavement, denial of education and attempts to confiscate their land in the 1880s.

One of the things we talked about in the cultural citizenship class was how blacks, Native Americans, and latinos all jockey for the position of the most oppressed. Thanks to the Cherokee Nation, it seems that the blacks have "won" that title today.

Diversity Efforts in AIGA

In the AIGA Communique, they announced the establishment of a Diversity Task Force, which kicked off in Atlanta. In the description of the event, the endeavor has already made two of the biggest errors in attracting people of color to any organization. They named the first event "Color Blind" and it seems the "a-ha" moment was when people realized that diversity did not mean quotas and lower design standards. So for AIGA, I'd like to make  two points about avoiding the framing of diversity in ways that will completely sabotage your efforts before they begin.

1.
All people of color hate the framing of diversity efforts as “Color blind.”

The “problem” of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, etc. is never the recognition of difference (i.e. Color) but rather the “meaning” of that difference in a society which overdetermines the social characteristics of certain populations by class, education, morality, and criminality. To pretend in an “utopian” fashion that racial and ethnic differences do not exist (as in blindness) erases the unique and positive histories and cultures of people that also define who they are. Diversity efforts should be framed as removing the individual and institutional barriers that keep people from seeing the diversity of classes, educations levels, moral codes, and criminal behaviors that exists in all groups of people, not about blinding oneself to the differences that do exists and the positive “meanings” attached to those differences. 

2.
The assumption that the inclusion of a diverse group of people means a lowering of standards is one of the greatest fallacies that keep people of color from entering “relatively” low status fields like design.

As an exceptionally gifted AA female who has studied/worked in mostly all-white settings since 4th grade, I especially find it egregious when diversity talk always turns to the fear of quotas and lowered standards. There is an assumption that (1) there are no mediocre Caucasians in the design industry or that (2) the “standards” are “just and fair” to begin with or free of bias. The fact that design is not a high-status occupation among many people of color means that the fear of lower design standards seems even more egregious and counterproductive to having the right framework to attract smart and creative designers-to-be.

So I hope there next outing into the diversity foray would be more sensitive.

August Wilson's Radio Golf part 1

Common sense versus book sense. Priviledge versus deprivation. Negros versus Nigga's. Following your life plan versus those of others. All within the context of the 1990s black experience. These were the common themes of Goodman Theater's production of Radio Golf last night.

I love the plays of August Wilson, in the same way I love the books of Walter Mosley and Octavia Butler, Branford Marsalis's I Heard You Twice the First Time CD, and movies of Spike Lee for their desire to chronicle the African American experience in America. They are all able to capture the diversity of the community, as well as our enduring quest for justice.

The themes of Radio Golf seem evermore important with the rise of Barack Obama. There is the wonderful scene in which Sterling Johnson, the voice of conscious in the play, asks Harmond Wilks, the aspiring mayoral candidate,  "Are you going to be the mayor of black people or white people?" Harmond responses that he will be the mayor of all people. Sterling laughs at that response and laments why is it that whites can have an all-white club, but when black people have a club they say, "And it won't be for blacks only."  He wonders why in a school of 1500, if the only 8 blacks kids sit together at lunch, they are "self-segregating" but no one says anything about the other 1492 kids who are sitting together.

Obama cannot afford to be a president for black people (and he has never positioned himself that way.) There was an interesting article about in the NYTimes about his tenure as head of the Harvard Law Review, during the contentious time when figures like Cornell West were being drummed from Harvard. His peers all stated that he avoided "racial" questions and would seem to appear as if he was on everyone's side.  Consensus building is a great diplomatic skill, but it does make you feel that Clinton has been the only president for black people, and that will not change if Obama is elected.  Which is not to say that I do not support Obama and that his consensus building message is not what is needed for the nation, I just mean we, black folks, could never have him as a leader to call our own.

The irony is that the needs, desires, and expectations of the black community are the ones for everyone: social and economic justice, strong family life, low crime, and true educational and job opportunity. If you met the needs of black folks (as  was done through the Civil Rights Movement), you meet the needs of everyone (except the subset of the wealthy and priviledged who do not want the aforementioned things).

Martin Luther King Day

I got up this morning and listened to MLK's "I have a dream" speech. It is interesting because Solidad O'Brian, who is doing a special report on the King Papers, said that this part of the speech was done extemporaneously. He had put down is written speech and riffed on the vibe of the crowd.

The entire speech is 16 minutes long, and the "I have a dream" section is the last 3 minutes. I think people are so inspired about this section because its about the ideal. The ideal society in which people love one another and judge one another with fairness and openness. They never discuss the other parts of the speech because those sections were about the reality of contemporary black life. Even when you discuss contemporary racial and ethnic problems, people want to hear the dream of hope, not the action plan for justice.

So as part of my MLK celebration, I want to talk about the other parts of the speech: the bounced check, justice now, and coming long way.

The Bounced Check

This section is one of the most pertinant to the contemporary black experience because by putting social justice in monetary terms it brings out the issues of economic justice.  We may be able to ride buses and eat at lunch counters, but Blacks in the US continue to suffer from a deficiency of economic justice. We hang at the bottom rungs of all economic ladders. See Black profile from US Census. Download we-1.pdf Yet as Normal Kelly, author of Rhythm and Business is the notion of economic justice "a naïve concept in an aggressive capitalist society like America." But I think the issue of economic justice is the heart of the global fight against exploitation and oppression. Slavery existed because people figured out they could make money on the body and souls of other people. So the message of cashing in the bounced check of economic justice is one that still needs to be heard and the one the MLK was working on when he was assasinated.

Justice Now

This section of the speech is probably my favorite because it addresses the underlying cause of my inherent impatience. People are always telling me to wait and to take the "tranquilizing drug of gradualism," yet I believe that the things that need to happen are 100-200 years overdue. Black Americans had to wait nearly 200 years for their freedom due to being asked to wait for the promiseland. Injustice continues because people are being asked to to wait for the promiseland. What I appreciate about this section is that he says that justice must come now and things cannot go back to business as usual.

Coming a long way

This section of the speech is when MKL is "keeping it real" about the struggles that not just blacks but all of us go through when there is injustice in the world. He talks about those coming from prisons and ghettos. He talks about needed to understand the "common destiny" between blacks and whites. It is by understanding the journey of suffering that makes the Dream necessary and a promise.

So Happy Justice day!!! Let us seize reality so that our dreams of justice can come true.

 

The Doll Test 1940/2005

The year was 1979. I had graduated from Fisher Price wobble people to Barbie Dolls.  My sisters and I opened the Sears Big Book catelogue, and I circled the Barbie dolls I wanted, along with the Dream Corvette, Dream Townhouse, and a slew of other doll-sized consumerables. 

Christmas day. I hungerly open my presents. Flying paper and ribbons revel the Dream Corvette. Yes, now I know I got the doll. More flying paper and ribbons revel a box, there is a blown leg peeking out of a red sequined dress. I like the dress; red is my favorite color.  I open the box and am disappointed. It was okay that the Barbie was black, but she didn't have long flowing hair that I could comb.

The difference between me and black girls in the 1940s and today it seems is that I wasn't upset that the doll was black, I was just upset that she did not have hair I could comb. This is probably tied tothe fact that my mother was a hairdresser and that one of my favorite activities was brushing my grandmother's long silver hair.
According to an ABC News Report, What Dolls Can Tell Us About Race in the US, a New York City high school student, Kiri Davis, created a short video of pre-school girls selecting between black and white dolls, (1) which doll is good or bad, and (2) which doll do you think looks like you. The results according to the report:

Davis asked 4- and 5-year-old kids at a Harlem school the same question in 2005. She found the children's answers were not that different.

In Davis' test, 15 of the 21 children said that the white doll was good and pretty, and that the black doll bad.

In addition, the black girls hesitated when choosing the "bad" black dolls who looked like them. The conclusion is that at the age of 3-5 these girls have already internalized the negative stereotypes of blackness.

Now, I was raised with a healthy race identity. My parents, aunts, and uncles were instrumental in getting Black History Month and African American achievements in the school and in my home in the 1970s. My grandmother would use brown markers and paint to "colorize" all cards and even holiday elves, so that my siblings and I would "see black faces." We wore T-shirts saying "Black is Beautiful" and as I looked around my family, we were a pretty good looking bunch.

This buffered me when in 3rd grade I and others were bussed from our predominately black schools into predominately white suburban schools. Due to tracking, I was never in another class with another black person until maybe college. And the maybe is tied to the fact that it may not have been actually until graduate school.

All that time and perhaps in spite of that, I preferred black dolls, although long hair was required for braiding purposes. In fact, I would always take pride in the fact that the color of my skin was the milk chocolate brown of "black doll" plastic. I am still searching for that color number. The only moment of "weakness" was in 7th grade when I thought maybe a Micheal Jackson nose job was in order, but I got over that fast, like the Jeri Curl.

So why is this self-hatred still continuing in the 21st century? In her 20th anniversary show on Broadway, Whoopi Goldberg dropped the skit of the girl with the yellow towell longing for blue eyes saying, "Things have changed." But maybe they haven't enough because there is no "black is beautiful, black is good" movement and at 3-5 years old you can't read on their own "the great achievements of the black race".

Yet in a world where you can get a doll matched to your hair texture, eye, and skin color, it is a tragedy that 3-5 year old girls are still searching for the bluest eye. Let's hope they get the positive messages of black beauty and pride (they should have to undergo India Aire and Jill Scott therapy) to serve as a buffer from the racist representations that seed this self-hatred.