Lisa Mercer

Participants will the opportunity to analyze and discuss different forms of racialized design. Participants would be analyzing one of the three identifiers outlined by Racism Untaught: artifact, system, or experience. Racism Untaught is a research study focused on the development of tools that are able to assist in identifying racialized design and critically assessing anti-racist design concepts. The tools use the design research process and provide designers with the opportunity to identify and guide discussion focused on designs that have supported the overgeneralization of historically powerless communities. These conversations require a brave space that will allow participants to speak to their own social experiences with racialized design or convey knowledge and validation of said experiences. Through conversations in workshops, we have learned the value of designers (at any level of cultural understanding) having a shared vocabulary when identifying racialized design. The ability to identify and discuss the overgeneralization of historically underinvested communities is imperative to guide the necessary social shift in design. Through the use of community agreements and a sharing of vocabulary, this conversation will allow participants to either speak to their own social experiences with racialized design and convey knowledge and validation of said experiences. The learning of a shared vocabulary narrowing in on multiple elements of racialized design would enable collaborative partners to change patterns and work together to deter the continuum of this overgeneralization.