Racial Equity in Design
Our call to action
Our commitment to instilling racial equity at IBM and beyond.
It’s about time we have the courage to start the conversation.
Summary
It’s about time we design an equitable future. The Racial Equity in Design initiative is committed to instilling racial equity at our company and our industry through our interactions, investments, and actions. It was created to spark often uncomfortable but ever-necessary dialog on racial and social inequity and to accelerate change.
Our workstream under the Racial Equity in Design project designed a community-crafted set of action statements. They are the foundation of the work with practical steps towards a culture of equity entitled “Our call to action.” We hope this creates meaningful discussion and catalyzes action and change, now.
Note: All Carbon sites in my portfolio were designed for mobile, tablet, and desktop, but this project is public and external. 97% of users on our internal sites are desktop users, so intentionally not all are depicted with mobile screens.
User need
This project was born out of racial and social injustices that occurred over centuries, specifically catalyzed by the May 2020 murder of George Floyd, as well as Trayvon Martin, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Atatiana Jefferson, Philando Castile, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, Jacob Blake, Daniel Prude, and the many killed, harassed, victimized that we cannot name because there were no cameras or witnesses. IBM Designers came together to hold a discussion for expressing otherwise muted frustration. From that important and engaging discussion, the Racial Equity in Design initiative came to be.
Systemic racism reaches deep into all aspects of our society, and impacts all of our futures. We recognized that now is the time to come together and effect change, and this is an issue that still needs to be solved. We cannot pretend that within our company and within our industry, diversity is an issue that does not exist. We created this work to confront continued social justice issues and to make space to:
show up authentically
express how we feel
make new connections
share lived experiences
Our goal
Our goal is to make IBM Design as systemically antiracist as possible.
Beyond that, we intend this work to create conversations and effect real action and change towards antiracist and equitable futures both within IBM and in the design and technology industries. We strive toward creating a design industry where people of all races, ethnicities, gender identities, religions, ages, abilities, orientations, social classes, and cultures are met with equity.
Racial Equity in Design Home
Our call to action
Background
It’s about time we prioritize racial
equity in our beliefs and actions.
It’s about time we ask the tough
questions that lead to transformation.
The team
The first release of the project was built over roughly over a 6-month period, lead by a diverse team of business leaders, designers, and colleagues dedicated to making IBM a more equitable place. Several workstreams emerged to build the components; Our call to action, Field guide, and the It’s about time podcast.
A full list of our team contributors are listed at the bottom of this page.
Contribution
Content Design
I contributed as a content designer on the Our call to action workstream. I worked with a team of six to craft our statements from a rough draft state, over many iterations with input on tone, content direction, and message from our senior leadership team, designers, and other IBMers.
The work is prefaced by a belief statement followed by five calls to action, each with a few suggestions for taking action today. The work also includes some resources related to the calls to action to enable designers and professionals to gain educated perspectives and take action towards inclusive and equitable cultures in the spaces they frequent.
Impact
This work was released in late January of 2021. The creation of the project already has built momentum in terms of meaningful and empathy-focused conversations. This effort was created so that long-term, real and impactful lasting change to thwart systemic racism will occur.
We would like to showcase top commitment statements for how designers and design leaders will take action towards an equitable future [or already are], and have set up a form to collect them in efforts to inspire others.
If you’re in the design or tech industry, please feel free to submit your commitment statement today:
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