reflection

Final Reflection

Before the class I knew that products could be geared toward certain people, but I didn’t understand the extent to which they could be ethically harmful. I had heard of obvious instances in which products were deliberately created with the intention of being out of reach of some people and not others. I didn’t know how to ask the right questions to get to the right conclusions.

In the class we looked at the ethics behind advertisements and I found this particularly entertaining, but also helpful for evaluating advertisements in the future. How do these companies sell their product? Are the trying to appeal to reason, pluck at your heart strings, scare you? What are the boundaries of these? These are all questions I learned to ask myself when forming an opinion on an advertisement. It also sometimes takes historical knowledge to fully understand an advertisement and perceive how controversial it really is. For example, I think it was 23 and me (the DNA testing kit) advertises a black woman who is clearly a slave, running away with a white man who seems to be her savior. Knowing my history leads me to believe that this likely isn’t the case why some white people have a small percentage black or vice versa when they look clearly like one of the races. In fact, rape among black women during this time was not uncommon, and it seemed to gloss over much of that history and reintroduce problematic stereotypes like the white savior.

I can’t remember if we discussed this in class or I researched this for a class project, but I found a bridge in New York that is inherently racist. No, the bridge itself isn’t racist, but the creator of the bridge was and was able to achieve a racist agenda by designing the bridge. The bridge is at a certain height such that small cars can pass through, but public transportation cannot. During the era of making the bridge, segregation was a big deal in America (and racial prejudices and Jim Crowe-era problems are still very present) and so the designer decided he did not want black people living in a certain neighborhood. During this time, there were many black people rode public transportation and far more white people who drove their own cars. Through this design, he created a physical filter between black and white people and the effects are still felt today. Even though many people can now drive under the bridge, the area was settled by white people, and continues to be predominantly white because of this bridge. I learned that products not only ___ but also govern the very country we live in and the people who surround us in our communities.

I also learned I can learn about a company’s values through their CSR reports now to see who they donate to.

In the future when facing questions surrounding history and ethics in design, I will have a much more holistic approach to addressing or understanding problems. I will better understand what’s at play and who the stakeholders are. I feel that I am equipped to ask better questions and reach an academic conclusion.