Imagination turns Brown bombers into terrorists and white bombers into mentally ill victims. Imagination has people thinking they can go from being poor to a millionaire as part of a shared American dream.

And that imagination is so respected that those who kill based on an imagined, radicalized fear of Black people are rarely held accountable. Trayvon Martin and Mike Brown and Renisha McBride and so many others are dead because, in some white imagination, they were dangerous. We can only become more aware of them when we reflect on the behaviors that society rewards and punishes, who they serve and benefit, and who is harmed and neglected.įeminist, activist, and writer adrienne maree brown* captures the sentiment perfectly in her book Emergent Strategy: Shaping Change, Changing Worlds. These are ideas that can feel too complicated to undo. Dominant messages in society still tell us that disability is a weakness, that gender is binary, that race is a measure of value, that activism is trouble, and that rest is laziness. In the U.S., from a young age, the majority of people are taught to value individualism over the collective, scarcity (there isn’t enough) over abundance (there is enough). The problem is that our “out-of-the-box” thinking generally happens within the confines of the colonial imagination - simply because, for many of us, it’s all we’ve ever known. To rewrite these rules, we need to think outside the box. This is the first step to imagining, and then creating, a more inclusive workplace, society, and world. Once we recognize this, we can reclaim our agency to change them. Think about why many European countries ban burqas and niqabs on grounds of public security and gender equality, but permit face masks, which conceal the same features.Īs a design strategist who works with companies to create more inclusive customer and employee experiences, I believe these standards belong to something called the colonial imagination - ideas born out of colonial, white supremacist, patriarchal, and hyper-capitalist values with the intention of upholding power and privilege for a select few, at the expense of everyone else. Your building probably relies on a thermal comfort model designed in the 1960s to appease 150-pound, 40-year-old men. Think about why your office is always freezing. Think about the concept of a “weekend.” Who does it benefit? The 40-hour work week, with a two-day rest period, was actually invented to drive capitalism and to afford time off for Christian and Jewish holy days. This is, of course, just one example of the many unwritten, but largely accepted, rules we’re taught to follow. Still, big retailers continue to replicate and rely on this model. It’s now become so engrained in practice that many of us don’t question it, unless it impacts us personally. How often have you questioned the separation and labeling of “men’s” and “women’s” clothing in retails stores? It’s a standard that was established years ago, when most people were less conscious of (or simply didn’t care about) the harm this practice has on gender non-conforming people - or anyone who challenges the binary. The catalyst for real change exists in our ability to radically imagine new possibilities (even if they feel out of reach), to question the way things are, and to stretch the boundaries of what could be.

When we talk about thinking outside the box, the real exercise and challenge is to step entirely out of those boundaries.

The problem is that our “out-of-the-box” thinking generally happens within the confines of the colonial imagination.

To rewrite these rules, we need to think outside the box.

The author argues that these standards belong to something called the colonial imagination - ideas born out of colonial, white supremacist, patriarchal, and hyper-capitalist values with the intention of upholding power and privilege for a select few, at the expense of everyone else.

For example, the belief that clothing is gendered, the concept of a weekend, and even more official laws like the ban of burqas and niqabs in European countries. Society is filled with unwritten rules that many of us are taught to follow from a young age.

Out of the box