More intelligent voices have written a lot more important things than I can on racism and the importance of being actively anti-racist — but silence is also a form of being complicit, so I do want to state that Squid supports the movement and opposes racism (and all forms of hatred).

Over on social media I’ve been mostly sharing what I can, doing my small bit to lift up voices that need to be heard, and educating myself.

A great link to resources can be found here.

One thing that is specific to Squid is that the design industry is not the rainbow of inclusivity people think it is — it’s very male, very white, and very straight.

I was surprised too as a queer person entering the industry. And I’m very aware that my privilege as a cisgender white person carries weight.

So that’s the bad news. The good news is it’s starting to shift.

Fuse
An inclusive platform elevating the voices and work from creatives of colour.

Fuse was founded by Jaheed Hussain because he didn’t see himself reflected in the industry, it’s recently taken off massively and is now opening new chapters across the UK. He recently wrote about it in Digital Arts.

LWD — Ladies, Wine, Design*

Empowering women & non-binary creatives around the world.
*Where ladies is trans, non-binary, agender, gender non conforming inclusive, wine is optional, and reforming the design industry is paramount.

Also as a part of the BLM events in the last few weeks and months, I saw people reaching out looking to find LGBTQ+ BIPOC creatives and almost by chance I ran into the Queer Design Club which is not specific to people of colour, but is for queer people in all their diversity.

Which is awesome to discover as a queer person. I’ll post more about that separately!

Over & out
Mark