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How does Invision's documentary "Design Disruptors" represent the design community when everyone featured is white?
8 years ago from Osandi Sekoú, founder | product design
Mahdi Farra, 8 years ago
Still, I don't find it racist at all.
The makers of the video probably don't have a lot from friends from other races, which is okay. I believe that they'd feature anyone good without caring about their race.
Don't be a hater, I know some people are racist but I don't think these people are at all.
Mattan Ingram, 8 years ago
You are mistaking active racism and passive unconscious racism.
The people who made the video clearly do not think less or poorly of other races, but that does not make them incapable of being racist through ignorance or apathy.
It is not a great evil, but neither is it something that should be ignored.
Floyd Williamson, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago )
"Passive unconscious racism."
That isn't even possible and it shows that you clearly don't understand what racism means.
If someone unconsciously includes only one demographic, they are at worse apathetic to certain demographic difficulties, but probably just ignorant. As you admit. Those are problems, but they are distinct from racism.
Coming up with new oxymorons does not help anyone.
Chill dude, you are sounding like the people who claim you can't be racist against white people or anyone who is a majority. Racism is a very broad term that simply means prejudice or selection against a race. That's it. If you want to call it unconscious prejudice be my guest, your semantic disagreement doesn't change my actual point or logic. The way I see it, racism comes in many flavors, some of which are unintentional.
I was simply clarifying that you can call something racist without accusing the people who created it of being actively against a particular race themselves. If you want to address anything, address that point, not a pointless semantic difference.
That is not what racism means, "dude." Let's recognize that words have definitions, and no, they are not pointless semantics. Especially when you go around using the very charged label of racism. Prejudice and racism are two separate things.
Racism is the specific idea that there are inherent and meaningful differences among different racial demographics, almost always bundled with the idea that a certain demographic is superior to another.
Is that what the creators at Invision believe? I highly doubt it. Whatever they are, they are not racist, unconsciously or otherwise.
Jake Lazaroff, 8 years ago First line in Mirriam-Webster's definition of racism:
poor treatment of or violence against people because of their race
Intent is sufficient but not necessary. I think part of the problem is that "racism" is such a loaded term that when someone hears it, they automatically get defensive, as if they're being called bad people. They're not. They might have discriminated against a group of people accidentally, but if they recognize that and try to be more aware then it doesn't have to reflect on them as a person.
How should we describe our system of systematic discrimination against people based on their race if not racist?
Invision is not treating non-white people poorly because of their race. The very definition of racism is active. This is not a difficult concept.
In fact, since you you seem to like Merriam-Webster, here is their full definition:
"A belief that race is the primary determinant of human traits and capacities and that racial differences produce an inherent superiority of a particular race."
Systematic discrimination could, in some cases, also be described as systematic thoughtlessness or apathy. For example, someone is white, and they live in a neighborhood with mostly white people, and their coworkers are mostly or all white. They might create a product that showcases white people out of pure thoughtlessness to include other demographics.
It is not necessarily racism or racial discrimination.
Jake Lazaroff, 8 years ago And the bullet point under that:
racial prejudice or discrimination
These definitions are ORs, not ANDs, so they don't all have to apply. The example that you just described—a white person, able to move to a mostly-white neighborhood, with a social network of almost entirely white people, who creates a product that excludes people of color—exactly describes institutional racism.
If someone is discriminated against on account of their race, it's racism. There doesn't need to be any intent.
(And if you want a more academic definition rather than a dictionary one, racism is a race in power institutionalizing their prejudice against other races).
I am not claiming the people at Invision believe that. I am saying the documentary by failing to depict the range of people who are design disruptors can convey a racist conception of reality. Thus it is not intentional racism, but racism can result from it. A young designer who does not look like one of those disruptors can be discouraged, or a person can have their racial stereotypes and assumptions about designers reenforced.
Jake Lazaroff, 8 years ago (edited 8 years ago ) How people of color are excluded from the tech industry:
White people occupy most of the tech industry.
Employers place a high value on referrals from employees' social networks
75% of whites have entirely white social networks (http://www.washingtonpost.com/news/wonkblog/wp/2014/08/25/three-quarters-of-whites-dont-have-any-non-white-friends/)
White people occupy most of the technology industry.
There might not be any active malicious intent, but it is racism, and we shouldn't hesitate to call it out.
These are really good points, but still if people from different races think this is a problem they should act to that by doing similar stuff that supports their cause, not by complaining about others doing stuff with one race! If you don't like something do something to change it instead of complaining on how unfair/racist it is.
Drew Albinson, 8 years ago
Raising awareness and combating ignorance even in the form of a complaint can lead towards solutions when constructive. And again, those who haven't been given a fair voice such as underrepresented minority individuals don't become empowered by ignoring their underrepresentation/misrepresentation. Yeah, in a perfect world we wouldn't have injustices worth complaining about, but here we are.
Elliott Payne, 8 years ago
if people from different races think this is a problem they should act to that by doing similar stuff that supports their cause
OK, new game plan**
- I'll just call up my uncle who did really well in the telecom boom of the 70's to get some seed funding
- Start a design led company and CRUSH
- Go IPO
- Fund all my college friends' companies
- Those CRUSH
- Find a documentary crew to make a film about it
** Not a real scenario
Dylan Sowell, 8 years ago That is not evidence of discrimination.
Dylan Sowell, 8 years ago Where is the evidence for this racism? This is not a foregone conclusion, it's an open ended question.
You can say the same thing about speakers at conferences, recipients of awards, executives at companies, normal employees at companies… etc. The whitewashing of the tech industry IS racist, and this video is both symptomatic of that and helps to perpetuate it.