This week, I was assigned to read Good Citizenship: Design as a Social and Political Force by Katherine McCoy. She started her talk with the question, "how can a heterogeneous society develop shared values and yet encourage cultural diversity and personal freedom?" McCoy addresses the state of our country and how designers can be a part of the solution or a part of the problem, and that "we can't afford to be passive anymore." As designers, we hold the power to show people different perspective and help them acknowledge the problems taking place. The reading also talked about how the far-right wants and tries to force their values onto others. I agree with this statement and think it isn't acceptable. We should respect that people have different values and experiences, which this diversity should be appreciated since other places around the world don't have the freedom to share their own opinions. McCoy states that as designers we have to defend our freedom of expression and how it is important that we don't steer away from using art to comment on complex, divisive topics. She says we can't let objectivity disengage us from the topics we care about. I agree with the author when she said "the compassionate designer must strategize on ethical practice and to be informed..." You can be passionate in your piece, but may be misinformed on it. This is what she meant by designers either solving or contributing to the problem. As designers, we must stop being "passive economic servants." and instead we should speak out and use our voice and talents to help evoke emotion and change. Below is an art piece that I came across online that I felt did exactly what McCoy spoke about in the reading. I feel the Pulitzer Prize-winning artist Adam Zyglis used the recent controversy surrounding TikTok's potential ban under the guise of national security to shed light on gun violence, which is in real time physically and emotionally harming the youth in America.
