Years ago a student made a drawing of me. The drawing depicted my skin darker than it is. While I was flattered she thought of me for her class drawing, it left me wondering what her was perception of my ethnicity. My preoccupation with their perception resulted in the development of a fictional city. The drawing along with concerns I had been nurturing over our society’s attitudes towards immigration became the subject of a personal project. This personal project was titled The City of Ethnos.
I started sketches playing on the idea of perception and ethnicity. Because there are nine letters in the word ethnicity, it occurred to me, I could paint the letters in ethnicity in skin colors from light to dark. As a result the last four letters in the word became more obvious to my then six year old daughter. As soon as she walked in, she said it’s a city! Mama it’s a city! I was in shock that I had not seen it before. The city of Ethnos was born.
A little over a decade ago, the issues about immigration, immigrants, border security, book banning, and others were the subject of hot debates — political and otherwise. Not much has changed since then. The City of Ethnos became a personal response to these issues but more to the point it was a response to an increasingly attitude of looking inwards, and the resentment that was building up in the country. Regardless of where you stand on these issues, this project explored attitudes and conversations in a satirical manner. My intent is not to offend but rather give us something to consider.
Since the idea for The City of Ethnos comes from the word ethnicity, it would be good to look at its definition. Ethnicity is defined as:
ethnicity
Ethnic character, background, or affiliation.
An ethnic group.
The common characteristics of a group of people.
An ethnic quality or affiliation resulting from racial or cultural ties.
But the word ethnocentric is defined as:
ethnocentric
characterized by or based on the attitude that one's own group is superior
Thus, a group that feels or thinks that shared characteristics amongst a group of people are better than other groups. To a certain degree we all practice a certain level of ethnocentricity. We laud our cultural, political, religious, sport, and entertainment icons. We might even state that they are better than x or y. But, when we take that beyond to develop personal and collective stances that can denigrate other human beings, we are on very, very thin ice. We develop narratives and beliefs that alienate and denigrate people. I have visited several countries and I have seen this to be true in each of them. We lose something of our humanity in the process. We become angry and acerbic and we might not even notice it. We become prejudiced assuming motivations about those we complain about without really knowing them.
For the concept of The City of Ethnos I developed logo. As I mentioned earlier, there are nine letters in the word ethnicity. This number became the foundation of the elements in the branding and collateral. The logo is a lowercase e with its crossbar altered by adding a small square in the center. The small square becomes center of the nine stars crowning the lowercase e. Each star represents a skin color and a series of nine areas of concern for the city’s optimum development. The flag is a radiating pattern emanating from the same center in the lowercase e as the stars. I designed seven posters so far. My goal was to develop a body of work of nine posters each addressing an area of concern for this fictional city’s development.
In this post, I will share the posters I had designed with a description.
The City of Ethnos tourist poster and the city’s profile
Population: 90,000
80% Ethnian and 20% “others” pending approval by the City of Ethnos.
Language: Ethnian. Ethnian is the only approved and official language. English, Spanish, Chinese, and others are not approved languages. The penalty for not speaking Ethnian is detention in the Deportation Center in the countryside. After treatment is received at the Deportation Center, the City of Ethnos decides if deportation is needed. It is expected that the time in the Deportation Center serve to learn the language. Meals are free.
Religion: Ethnicism
Diety: Ethnia
Church: City of Ethnos Church of Ethnia
Geography: Similar in size to Greece and Alabama, US.
Weather: Perfect all year around. Not too hot, not too cold. Slightly rainy at times.
Environmental current issues: Maintaining racial and language approved diversity. A color skin chart of 9 approved skin colors maintains racial diversity. These colors are easily measured in CMYK and RGB for accuracy. Many Ethnian citizens are concerned that “others” will take away jobs from citizens.
Communications: Broadcast, mobile and land telephones, and Internet owned by the City of Ethnos City Hall.
Culture: The City of Ethnos is a very diverse country. Because 9 skin colors are approved, one can see people of various skin colors. Ethnic diversity is based on 9 colors that ought to maintain approved diversity.
Politics: The City of Ethnos allows Ethnian citizens who present approved documentation to have jobs. Failure to provide such documentation results in being sent to the Deportation Center for a comprehensive investigation and time of reflection under the supervision of the City of Ethnos Border Patrol.
Citizens must also take care their skin color consistently maintains validation. Random screenings are required from employers to maintain skin-approved diversity. The penalty for color skin changes involves turning over all private property to the City of Ethnos and time in the Deportation Center for further evaluation.
1-800-DEPORT-EM
“We speak English in this country and if you do not like it, GO BACK TO YOUR COUNTRY!” We have heard this comment either directed at someone we know or to us personally if we are immigrants. Well, while thinking about what to do about this the way I best know how, I came up with a sign, kind of like a traffic sign poking fun at the attitudes that are being cultivated lately around us. This is so sad that it’s funny. In The City of Ethnos no other language will be tolerated except Ethnian.
Is Mickey an Ethian citizen?
We value our cultural icons. Mickey Mouse seems to be among those icons we considered to be American. Yet, Mickey has no papers, has dark skin color, and has huge ears. Hmmnm… it makes you think?
Ethnicity skin color chart
Kris Kobach, named “America’s Deporter in Chief” by Tony Dukoupil in an article for Newsweek has been linked to FAIR (Federation for American Immigration Reform). Amanda Peterson Beadle, former reporter at Think Progress and currently at Catalist states, “one of the main goals [of FAIR] is to overturn the Immigration and Nationality Act of 1965, which “ended a decades-long, racist quota system that limited immigration mostly to northern Europeans.” She continues to state that “FAIR’s founder John Tanton has said that he wants the U.S. to remain a majority-white nation through limiting the number of non-whites who enter the U.S.”
Based on these references I designed the color skin chart. The City of Ethnos root word ethnicity has 9 letters. Each letter has been assigned a skin color from light to dark. The City of Ethnos though considering itself to be diverse, has allowed 90,000 citizens whose skin color is on the chart. The purpose of the chart is to identify the color one’s skin belongs to while in a very gradual process make the City of Ethnos whiter with every passing generation. Those whose skin color is not approved are sent to an Educational Center also considered to be the Detention Center for further education and deportation.
Book Hall of Fame
In response to book banning several years back, I designed this poster that stated in a positive manner which books to read. Thus, the poster is titled Book Hall of Fame. Only nine books so far are approved to correspond to the nine stars in the City of Ethnos logo. We are still banning books as we know from recent reports.
Detention Center
This poster was done in response to the question of what happens to those whose color is not approved or have no papers to work. My response was an Educational Center. However this is not merely an educational center. It is a detention center and the unapproved ones will be treated as detainees with no rights whatsoever. This was the first poster were I explored fear and the dark side of it all.
Freedom of thought
The City of Ethnos promotes free speech, investigation, religion and others as long as it is done by any approved Ethian method. This poster encapsulates in its simplicity the reality of it all.
When I came to this country, I had been a junior high school teacher for about five years. Due to each state’s requirements one can’t simply work as an educator upon relocating. To support myself while going to school, I worked several odd jobs. One of them was being a housekeeper in a motel by the highway. All of my coworkers were caucasian. I was the only minority. But something that always intrigued me was that no matter which ethnicity someone is from, we all dirty our rooms the same. The water can get murky from dirt regardless of our skin color. We are really not that different. We want to live a better life.
Love,
Alma