The Evolution of Multicultural Iconography
22nd June 2014
Standard Multicultural imagery functions as a visual shibboleth. Businesses, charities, educational institutions, and all levels of government must display the correct icons of diversity or expect to be cast into cultural outer darkness. The ideological guidelines are fairly rigid at any given moment, but they shift over time. Imagery that was acceptable and even laudable to display in 1960 has become doubleplus ungood, and hence unthinkable here in the second decade of the 21st century.
The next time you hear somebody say ‘Diversity is our strength!’ say ‘Prove it.’ and watch them blubber and turn red.
Try searching Google images for “diversity business”. I spent an hour or so last night doing exactly that, and the results were fascinating, albeit frightening. Diversity really is a huge business. Someone is shelling out billions and billions of dollars to all those consultants, think tanks, seminars, and focus groups.
As George Carlin famously said, ‘If somebody nails together two things that have never been nailed together before, some schmuck will buy it from you.’