Anti-racist reading list for designers

Photo by Ehimetalor Akhere Unuabona on Unsplash

Updated 10/6/20:

As designers, we preach empathy, inclusion, and accessibility, yet like most of tech, the industry is 71% White. Knowing it is impossible to be unbiased, how are we supposed to be user-centric when the overwhelming majority of our colleagues look the same?

My aim for this list is to begin a dialogue challenging our own privilege, biases, and assumptions as designers. I’ve seen a lot of great reading lists lately, but none geared towards designers. I don’t pretend to have answers and know this is just a single step. These resources have been crowd-sourced by designers across the country. Please reach out if you see something harmful, incorrect, or want to contribute.

There is a responsibility that comes with designing in the digital age, and it is vital we address the role that White privilege plays within our industry. We cannot stay silent.

Books

• Design Justice by Sasha Costanza-Chock. An exploration of how design might be led by marginalized communities and dismantle structural inequality.
• Race After Technology by Ruha Benjamin. A cut through tech-industry hype to understand how emerging technologies can reinforce White supremacy and deepen social inequity.
• Technically Wrong by Sara Wachter-Boettcher. A revealing look at how tech industry bias and blind spots get baked into digital products — and harm us all.
• Cross Cultural Design by Senongo Akpem. A List Apart book exploring how to create culturally relevant and responsible experiences that reach a truly global audience.
• Field Guide: Equity Centered Community Design by Creative Reaction Lab. A problem solving process based on equity, humility-building, addressing power dynamics, and co-creating.
• Teaching to Transgress by bell hooks. A book rethinking the role of the classroom to create a new kind of education as the practice of freedom and resistance.

Articles

• My manifesto towards changing the conversation around race, equity, and bias in design by Lesley Ann Noel on Medium
• Black Lives Matter is Not a Design Challenge by Schessa Garbutt on Medium
• The Design Community Must Not Stay Silent by Harrison Wheeler on Medium and UX Collective
• Black Centered Design is the Future of Business by Woodrow Winchester III on Fast Company
• How to Begin Designing for Diversity by Project Inkblot on The Creative Independent
• Design Thinking is a Rebrand for White Supremacy by Darin Buzon on Medium
• What Not To Say To Your Black Colleagues Right Now by Monica Torres in Huff Post
• Design Thinking Is Fundamentally Conservative and Preserves the Status Quo by Natasha Iskander in Harvard Business Review
• Black Lives Matter: How the Tech Community Can Provide Support by Jennifer Riggins in The New Stack
• Of course technology perpetuates racism. It was designed that way. by Charlton McIlwain in MIT Technology Review
• Typography as A Radical Act by Silas Munro in AIGA’s Eye on Design
• What Does It Mean to Decolonize Design? by Anoushka Khandwala in AIGA’s Eye on Design
• Black Designers: Missing in Action by Cheryl D. Miller in Print Mag
• Black Designers: Still Missing in Action by Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller in Print Mag
• Black Designers: Forward in Action: Part I by Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller in Print Mag
• Black Designers: Forward in Action: Part II by Cheryl D. Holmes-Miller in Print Mag
• Speech recognition technology is racist by Thomas Macaulay in The Next Web
• What is Blind Hiring? by Kate Glazebrook on Applied

Events

• 6/18 Black in UX Panel by Twitter Design(View Recording)
• 6/27: Where Are The Black Designers (View Recording)
• 7/23–7/25: Allied Media Conference
• 8/11: How Traditional Design Thinking Protects White Supremacy by Creative Reaction Lab.
• 10/2: Restorative Design Conference by Greater Good Studio

Additional Resources

• A Designer’s Critical Alphabet by Lesley-Ann Noel
• Decentering Whiteness in Design History by Victoria Rose Pass, et all
• The Inclusion & Diversity Compendium for Designers by Marissa Louie
• Anti-Racism Design Resources
• Design Guild for Justice
• Design as Protest Listserv
• Blacks who Design
• Allied Media Project
• Design Justice for Black Lives

The UX Collective donates US$1 for each article published in our platform. This story contributed to UX Para Minas Pretas (UX For Black Women), a Brazilian organization focused on promoting equity of Black women in the tech industry through initiatives of action, empowerment, and knowledge sharing. Silence against systemic racism is not an option. Build the design community you believe in.