Inclusive: A Classroom Kit to Celebrate Diversity WORDS, PHOTOS, AND ILLUSTRATIONS BY LISSA VO
I remember back in elementary school, I would stare at the posters on the classroom wall and compare my classmates to the kids in the posters to see who looked the most alike. During these exercises, I noticed that there was never a person in the posters that looked like me. It didn’t bother me much, but what really got under my skin (literally) was that I could never find my skin tone, or anything even close to it, in crayons. My only options were white, black, and brown—peach, tan, and light brown as well, if we had a 24-pack. I’m not sure why I focused on those things as a child, but I always wondered why I wasn’t included. It created thoughts in my head that I wasn’t important enough to be in something as mundane as the visuals around the classroom. Years later, I still struggle to find representation in media, whether it’s in cheesy stock photos, commercials, books, movies or television shows. During my last semester in the graphic design BFA program at the University of Minnesota — Twin Cities, I created a classroom kit named Inclusive. This kit included stickers and posters featuring racially diverse children, as well as a wide range of skin tone
coloring materials. The goal of this project was to create a resource for elementary school teachers so that they can feel confident that their education materials reflect the diversity of their classrooms. Implemented in a classroom setting, the inclusive visuals and school supplies would help instill confidence in children at an early age. The exhibition turned out better than I expected. The reaction I got was very positive and supportive. Despite my success, the journey to get there wasn’t the easiest.
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The biggest issue I encountered while working on the project was the lack of helpful feedback, as well as understanding, from my white classmates. Every week during critiques, they always talked about how amazing my message of diversity was and never gave me constructive criticism. I felt like they were afraid to say the wrong thing and always tiptoed around me. One day in class, we had to give feedback to everyone’s work anonymously. I received a note from a classmate that said they were confused on the idea of the project and that the lack of
