This social campaign poster was part of a graphic illustration assignment at Whitecliffe College, New Zealand. To give it some context, I chose a personal issue, which was racial stereotypes. This project was an opportunity for me to challenge myself to develop a poster and attempt to use semiotics. I wanted to generate dialogue around the passive racism that happens in New Zealand.

The quote that this poster is based around is "I'm Chinese but I'm not from China." This personally relates to me, because I grew up as a New Zealand-born Malaysian Chinese, so I had experienced both cultures. However, I wanted to make this social poster more relatable to other audiences. So, I stripped it down and wrote "I am but I'm not." This is an easy tagline that can be used to represent a social campaign and is not specific to a race, so it can be used for other causes such as gender, religion, etc.

The inspiration was taken from this activity as part of embracing diversity in my world http://www.edchange.org/multicultural/activities/circlesofself.html

To me, some people think it's funny or it's just a game when they are making stereotypical racist remarks. Well, it ain't a game,I don't even need to tell you what's behind those faces, you already know.

The face is in reference to a Human Rights Commission campaign, 'Give Nothing to Racism.' More information can be found here: https://www.hrc.co.nz/news/give-nothing-racism/

This project was part of a university assignment and is not associated with the Human Rights Commission.