Not Bad for White Guy

A few days ago I saw the above image while trolling through magazines in the Art Library. I thought, "Finally! We designers are going to have a meaningful discussion about privilege, gaze and subjectivity in our work and how to be more transparent and embrace diversity structurally in our hiring practices instead of artificially through sensitivity training and focus group testing.

But no. It was just an article about a famous designer. And just by virtue of the fact that he is a famous designer I bet you know already what he looks like, how wealthy he is and what his politics are like. He is the kind of wealthy creative class dude that other wealthy people say is really 'neat.' He looks back on his career with a sense of pride, knowing he helped build some of the strongest brands in the world. Once a month he has an intern spend a couple hours doing a probono project about AIDS in Africa or breast cancer for him. This makes him feel he has contributed even more to the world. Then he goes to lunch with a Nike exec and meets a Walmart exec for drinks. When you ask him if he has made the world a better place through his work, he never thinks to ask, "better for whom?" He answers with a dull confidence, "yes."

This folks, the guy everyone likes, is the enemy, though most people will probably tell you that he's not bad for a white guy.