Educational campaign on the history of redlining, and the intersection between historical housing discrimination and present-day environmental racism and wealth inequity
33/21 is an educational project that aims to raise awareness of persistent social, economic, and environmental disparities facing communities of color in America and tell stories from those communities. It examines these issues in the context of the Depression-era federal policy that created “redlining” and led to generations of structural disadvantage which persist to the present day. The project endeavors to tell the stories of these realities in order to shed light on the work being done to rectify them and secure justice.
The goal was to create both a traditional digital campaign as well as elements which could serve as a static educational exhibit to be experienced at length accompanied by informational peripherals such as audio and long-format storytelling.
As 33/21 strives to connect past to present, the project's name comes from the year the the Home Owners’ Loan Corporation (HOLC), the federal agency responsible for creating the “security maps” that originated the practice of “redlining” certain neighborhoods was established—1933—and the year of the project's inception—2021—into which the effects of this single agency’s discriminatory practices, and all those that followed, have persisted.
This iteration of 33/21 highlights a formerly redlined community in San Francisco, specifically telling a story about the Bayview-Hunter’s Point neighborhoods, which have experienced some of the greatest environmental consequences due to historical neglect and present-day challenges to redressing past harms. This community reflects the quintessential connection between housing discrimination and environmental racism.
To convey the chiefly American injustice this project takes aim at, we created a brand that embodies the ragged edges of inequities left to age unaddressed and the emotions of these long-neglected communities: their intensifying frustrations and anger, their sadness and mourning, the heat of their scrutiny, and the grit of their struggle as they focus their energy to hold the red, white, and blue of the United States to account for the tragedies it set into motion.
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