Designed for display at a national human rights conference in Canada, this poster is intended to prompt Caucasian youth to educate themselves about privilege based on skin colour. It seeks to show that although privilege is not something individual people personally choose to benefit from, we must work together to eliminate it.

Ladders function well as a visual metaphor for privilege because although we understand that higher ladders correspond to a better situation, the height of ladders does not imply that any particular person shown is better than another, they have simply been placed in a different circumstance.

 

The illustrative approach used on the ladders creates a cage-like texture, implying that people are trapped by the structures around them, much as non-privileged individuals are trapped by systemic discrimination.

 

Putting focus on the two individuals working to unite the divided groups creates a message that is aspirational, rather than scolding. This approach that has been proven more effective at reducing racist behaviours than guilt or shaming.