I Have a Dream...

I am a graphic designer. I design Web sites, book covers, direct mail ads, and whatever else needs to be laid out and prepared for presentation to the public. When asked what I do for a living, I usually shrug a little shrug, smile, and say that I make pretty pictures.

There are people in a lot of those pretty pictures. People working at computers, professionals walking purposefully, and students rapt in attention to some unseen instructor. And, in all those faces, you'd be lucky to spot one Anglo male. There are an impressive number of Asian women, Hispanic men, Asian men, and black women, though.

I do this on purpose.

When I first started designing, I gave no thought to ethnicity of gender in those people. I just looked for the picture that worked best for my purposes. Somewhere along the way, though, people started asking me about gender. Specifically, women in the office started asking about gender. "Why isn't there a woman on that book cover?"

Then, one of our larger partners (one of the largest tech companies in the world) asked us to do design work for a line of our products that were branded for them. The company was very up front about a need for ethnic and gender diversity. "Couldn't we find someone Asian for this one?"

At that point, I exorcised white men from my work. Being a good little designer boy, it simply seemed easier to design without white men. I knew the objections and requests for changes that would come if I put a white male face on the covers, so I didn't. It was an easy way to save time and effort while gathering pats on the back and attaboys for my good designs and sensitivity.

Somewhere inside, I grin a humorless grin about that.

These books that I design covers for are for the tech industry. By leaving out Anglo males, I'm under representing a good portion of the workers in the field. Yet, not a single person has asked why there aren't more white men on the covers. More specifically, I've never had a white male ask me why he is underrepresented in my work.

Every day I go to work and make gender and ethnicity an issue. I discriminate. I do it because it's expedient, and I do it because I don't really have a choice. If I want a job in the industry, this is one of those unwritten rules that most of us live with these days.

The Al Sharptons and Vagina Warriors of the world have made it impossible for me to do my job without making a specific accounting for skin color and sex. It feels hypocritical, and I'm certain that Doctor Martin Luther King, Junior would not particularly approve.

Well, I have a dream, too. I dream that one day I won't have to judge models by the color of their skin or by their gender. I look forward to a day when a model's value is in their ability to convey a message, not an ethnicity.

Until the, white men will just have to wait their turn in line.

Posted by zombyboy at February 22, 2004 03:15 PM | TrackBack