In an age when digital media matters and is undoubtedly a mandatory aspect of communication, commerce and modern professionalism, it’s no surprise that there’s been a culture shift in the past decade.
Many may not realize that this culture shift heavily affects people of color. Of course, we can state the obvious. The increased media coverage of police brutality and slain unarmed black and Latino people has contributed heavily to this digital cultural shift. In the past five years alone we’ve been inundated with images of slain men, women and children of color at the hands of law enforcement or racist citizens in the U.S., and it’s proven hard to avoid this necessary conversation on social media.
But what happens when you work in the digital media industry? As someone who works at a digital creative agency and is surrounded by social media, digital media and graphics projects, I was interested to see how sensitive subjects and politics would be handled in the workplace, considering some of the client work we get is political.
What do you do as a person of color when the agency you work for is hired to produce political content and graphics for candidates and parties who don’t support or care about people of color and, in fact, have been enemies to people of color?
This is the reality and the little detailed parts of being marginalized that don’t get broadcasted.
These are the small moments of hesitation and disheartening ache that come when you have to work on a project or correspond with a client who does not support the livelihood of people who look like you, yet asks you to help them beautifully present platforms and ideals that disenfranchise your entire community.
If I’m being honest, my expectations for how concerned my coworkers would be about all of this was low and my expectations proved right; however, in no way am I saying that coworkers or employers should be hindered with the concern of sensitivity to projects like these. It’s a part of the job and it happens to involve politics. It doesn’t necessarily reflect my coworkers, my employer or me.
With that being said, I’m one of two people of color in the entire company and the only black person, so having some type of shoulder to lean on is few and far between. The reason this is a big deal is because despite whether or not my coworkers or employer have the same political views as me doesn’t matter. They can’t fully understand or experience how politics affect me directly as someone who is black.
Black people who work in any aspect of the media industry, whether it’s journalism, digital media, storytelling, graphic design or social media, are faced with the reality of having to maintain media integrity, unbiased motivations in order to produce the best work for the client. They’re tasked with reading, reviewing, refining and repeating constant jargon that challenges their very existence.
I’m not offering a solution to this because the only solution is to continue to speak out when and where you’ll be effective and continue to participate in the political process to promote change. I’m simply presenting yet another aspect of being a person of color in hopes that we will all work toward continuing to bring this awareness to the table to ensure that society is more and more mindful to shift the culture to where it should be.
Ishmael Mayhew is a brand strategist, project manager and producer based in Los Angeles, CA. His primary areas of media are focused in digital media, digital branding and storytelling. Ishmael obtained his experience while earning his degree in Media Communications at Full Sail University and while working in the field of media and storytelling for over 5 years. His hope is to continue to impact communities with storytelling and information to improve intrasocietal relations and standards. Follow him on Instagram, Twitter, Facebook and Pinterest.
