1. RACIAL EQUITY: AFFECT REAL CHANGE
As institutions of higher education consider ways to affect and sustain real change, Critical Race Theory—a framework for understanding the implications of systemic racism across all aspects of society—offers a lens through which to examine and rethink planning and design.
Key insights that inform an impactful response include:
Space Is Not Neutral
Educational and social settings are not neutral. Planning and design can both reproduce and transform inequities in powerful ways. Likewise, space does not operate independently of race; our understanding of space is shaped by our racial identity and positionality, and varies based on our lived experiences.
The socializing influences of the built environment range from how a campus is planned, to architectural style, scale, transparency, and materials. What may feel welcoming and comfortable to some may feel daunting, imposing, and inaccessible to others. How do people interact with a Jeffersonian-inspired quad campus versus a newer mixed-use campus that meshes living with learning? What makes one person feel welcomed but compels another to pass quickly through? How do students, faculty, and staff read and experience, for example, classical versus modern buildings?
“Safe Space” Is a Misnomer
One needs only to recall recent tragedies in “safe spaces”—ranging from gay bars to places of worship—to recognize that marginalized people inhabit no true safe space in an inequitable and violent society.
While campus safe spaces—physical or virtual spaces where students are theoretically free from discriminatory behaviors and targeted violence—may offer students the opportunity to connect with others in affirming ways, to some they can feel fabricated, disjointed, cloistered, or separate from the broader campus community.
Our attention needs to shift away from specific “safe spaces” to creating spaces that are welcoming and inclusive throughout the campus. Our definition of “placemaking” needs to include inclusivity. What does an inclusive space look and feel like? What are its characteristics? How do we make sure the spaces we create are truly for everyone?
Colorblind Engagement Doesn’t Work
“The predominant emphasis in programming on function, usage, and aesthetics acts to dismiss the socio-spatial realities of diverse communities,” said Amara H. Pérez, PhD, social justice educator, community organizer, community-engaged researcher, and critical strategist. “To design for justice, we must understand how racial and other disparities are linked to and reproduced by spatial arrangements. This can only be achieved when people most affected by racism and other social inequities are engaged in a collaborative inquiry effort to expose how space normalizes the status quo and how design can make a difference.”
As we plan and design buildings and campuses to be welcoming places for everyone, the lived experiences of the people who will inhabit the spaces become ascendant. While adopting inclusive approaches to planning and design holds the promise of discovering new possibilities, it can also present real challenges when we ignore the social realities facing students.
Who is available to participate, when, and how? What interdisciplinary disciplines, theoretical frameworks, and perspectives might better inform the process? These questions and many more—including questions and considerations formed by the very students who will inhabit the new learning environments—offer a new baseline for just and equitable planning and design.
Not having an outreach plan that aims to engage communities historically excluded is a practice that maintains the status quo. The Black Lives Matter movement is largely ground up; for systemic change to occur, policy and planning need to be enacted.
It can be easy for administrators, planning professionals, and architects to talk about the marginalized identities of the students we serve. But as professionals, we rarely examine or talk openly about our own identities, acknowledge our biases, or consider the ways in which we may be complicit or complacent in reproducing inequities through our work. We conduct outreach that asks people to show us their insides, but we typically present our un-vulnerable, polished exteriors.
What changes when we challenge and broaden the traditional methods for the planning and design of campus spaces? How might lines of questioning better acknowledge the racialized and gendered experiences of communities inhabiting and traversing campus space?
Not Having a Plan Is an Exclusionary Practice
This is a crucial moment for racial equity in the United States. Ideally, national awareness around racial justice will continue to influence all aspects of education, work, politics, and life. In reality, change will require real, sustained effort.
While the rise of the radical right and pushback from racist power dynamics are real threats, it’s growing day-to-day apathy that presents the greatest challenge to progress. Our awareness could wane as other “priorities” become more prominent. As we’ve seen throughout history, it's easy to fall back into a pattern or habit once an issue isn’t front and center.
When it comes to planning the built environment, not having an outreach plan that aims to engage communities historically excluded is a practice that maintains the status quo. The Black Lives Matter movement is largely ground-up; for systemic change to occur, policy and planning need to be enacted.
How do we keep make racial justice an ongoing priority? How do we avoid losing the momentum of Black Lives Matter to affect and sustain real change? How do we dismantle structural racism on our college campuses? With effective integrated planning.