Reflection Intersectionality & Social Justice

I had anticipated that there would be more conflict during our privilege activity. I had gone into the activity thinking that there would be a lot more contentious conversations and awkward moments of silence. I was fully prepared to shut down and not want to talk at all. However, I was surprised to find that within my group, we came to a consensus pretty quickly and our reasoning was similar. I think this more reflects the people around me. That the people I surround myself with hold a similar political view as we are all within similar demographics. However, naively it also makes me think that perhaps no one is truly that different from each other. That in the end, everyone just wants free education and healthcare. But again, I think that’s just me being naive. I’m sure if this was done in a red state, the values would be different and the privileges people are willing to pay for would also be very different.

I really appreciated hearing about Sasha’s work at the grass-roots level. So many of the times I heard about all these systematic problems in any field and it intimidates me from doing anything. What can I do? What can anyone person do to fix this giant, multi-headed problem? Sasha’s lecture really reminded me of the power of the collective and the power of community. While one voice might not do much change, an army of voices will definitely be heard. When all voices are telling the same story, how can you ignore it? The lecture also reminded me of how hard it is to create this collective and community. While you may all agree on a single thing, everyone is from different backgrounds and walks of life; thus, conflict is inevitable. How can a community mediate conflict? How can a community still come together despite their differences?

All this talk about grassroots community-building reminds me of a movie I recently watched, Judas and the Black Messiah. The movie is about how Fred Hampton, the chairman of the Black Panther Party in the late 1960s in Chicago, was betrayed to the FBI by William O’Neal. What struck me most about the movie was what the Black Panther Party did to unite their community and what Fred Hampton did to create the Rainbow Coalition. The party’s headquarters, while known for its radicalism, was a sanctuary for their community. The Fred Hampton’s Black Panther Party chapter ran a Free Breakfast for Children program, a free community medical center, a door-to-door health services program, and blood drives for the community. To unite the Young Patriots (an American leftist organization of mostly White Southerners) and the Young Lords (a civil rights organization for Puerto Rico, Latinos, and colonized “Third World” people), Hampton went into their headquarters and talked to them directly even if it put himself in harm’s way. These actions showcase how uniting a community is messy, difficult, and requires a lot of work. You can’t just publish a few flyers and expect people to just come. You need to go door-to-door and invite people to come yourself. You need to go out there and make relationships and cultivate them.

Thus it got me thinking, what on-the-ground activity would we need to engage in so that the community can survive and grow? While there are many activities in existence now, I would like to imagine some children-centered activities this hypothetical design community can have. One idea I have is a child-care service for parents who want to participate in the activities of the community. Through this program, the designer parents will be able to engage in activities and events through the equitable design community. At the same time, children will be receiving care and will be given child-appropriate design activities, such as making a “my life” collage to promote the pluriverse or some sort of consent game to teach children about asking for permission for ideas. Another idea would be a free design-based after-school program within impoverished communities. By highly relying on co-creation and consent-giving, the design community would be able to help the children in need without feeling like a tourist. Children would be asked to come up with the problem and the community would be able to help them through the design process. I would also argue that for this idea to work, the design community would only be there to help mediate and generate ideas, but that the designs need to be implemented by the children themselves; thus making sure the skill lives on within the community.

In taking this class, I have been exposed to a lot of different perspectives and issues that plague the design world. I think it has made me quite cynical and skeptical. But at the same time, I am optimistic that the collective can enact the change they want to see. I have hope that my generation and the next will be able to make design a more equitable and intersectional place.