Daily REPairations No. 1: Cite Black People
Hello! I shared a version of the following with a peer client, Future Firm. I have the pleasure of working with them and our client on a gem of a National Register-listed building on Chicago's South Side. With their permission, I am publishing it as the inaugural article for Daily REPairations. Perhaps the larger architecture/historic preservation community might benefit from this, and beyond. If you manage an office/workplace, and have stated a commitment to racial and gender equity, the following might help you in putting the commitment, the DEI/DEIA/JEDI statements into practice. I trust that you, the reader, will receive the following feedback with grace and as the gift I intend it to be received.
Welcome to the inaugural article in a series I am calling "Daily Racial Equity Practices" or "Daily REPairations".
Why Daily? OK, technically, not daily ... I wear multiple hats :c ) However ... however, while I will not publish the articles daily, perhaps these offerings will provide suggestions for your daily racial equity practice. Could be something to request for yourself as you practice setting boundaries/self-care/self-respect. Or, as a way to work in a more equitable, respectful way with your clients, peers, and consultants.
And the word "Reparations" is in this. Please explain. Yes, there are many ways to give reparations, on a local, state, federal level. But, we can also grant to each other on a personal level reparations or repairations as Lauren Hood, chairwoman of the City Planning Commission of the City of Detroit, once phrased it. Here, in this series, I am approaching repairations as repairing our personal connections.
Let's get started.
Daily REPairation No. 1: Cite Black people, cite fellow team members when sharing ideas that originated from them.
Maybe this is a practice that you are already doing, so perhaps this is a reminder. An easy practice for a company to do, to be more racially equitable, gender equitable, etc., is to attribute ideas to their team members, in private and in public. It demonstrates a level of respect for colleagues. And, it also is an act of repairations - yes, note the spelling of "reparations" as opposed to its known spelling, a revised spelling attributed to Lauren Hood, a Black woman who applies a lens of reparations to her approach to community design work.
The thinking behind repairations is that we need to counter the negative imagery of Black people in society with positive imagery. This behavior is how we as a society repair the damage done to the image of Black people - replacing the negative with images of the opposite. And, one way we do that is by citing Black women, citing Black men. For more information, please see the website Cite Black Women.
Since 2019 or so, something I have felt compelled to do is advocate more for what I need as a Black person, especially in spaces where I am the only Black person, which is very common in architecture, historic preservation, construction management. The professional realm is an area where I have been doing a lot of this advocacy as I receive requests to do things like work with non-Black people in majority non-Black spaces. This advocacy is an act of courage and vulnerability.
Therefore, it might be uncomfortable to hear, but something that Black people need more of for racial equity is credit for our ideas, our innovations, our positive contributions to society in general. The key misconception of those of us in the workplace is that we are a "diversity hire", something similar a colleague once told me, or only a part of a project team for "MWBE" points. While that might be the case, what leads to us being in positions most often is an application and skill set that exceeds expectations because people have low expectations of us.
An act of racial equity is citation and credit for our thoughts and ideas, to counter the aforementioned misconception. It is imperative to cite Black people when we make contributions to the team, especially novel ideas/observations that can change the course of a design, project, or product. And, it is a good practice in general to build team morale to cite everyone individually, occasionally. In architecture, in particular, citation helps to pivot the field away from the perception of the lone architect / "starchitect" to the collaborative effort which is the reality of design.
Again, I trust that the following feedback will be received with grace and as the gift I intend it to be received. So much of our behavior is automatic that unless we receive feedback, we will continue to do it. We don't know what we don't know until we know it.
.......
The client received the feedback, apologized to me, and in turn they proposed the following action items they will take. To me, and based on the research on how to apologize, the client's response was a healthy approach to repairing our work relationship. Their repair action items are below, sharing with their permission:
Email to the Owner: The client will write a brief note on reply all to the previous email that acknowledges that they should have credited me directly in their initial email. They also set aside a separate meeting for me to present the research.
Internal reflection: The client will dedicate time with their office to read and reflect on the references I shared with them about citation, and discuss together to make sure we can avoid this situation happening again - and be proactive about acknowledging and making visible the work of Black women and Black collaborators in all our projects.
Future phases: Implement a phase "kick-off" meeting between wrkSHäp | kiloWatt and the client at the beginning of every phase, so we can plan on points of client communication and collaboration. If we plan ahead, we can make sure everyone is comfortable with how we engage the client and the public on our collaboration on this project.
These action items are great because they display acknowledgment of harm done and accountability - two actions for making amends, repairations. What are other repairations you have implemented in your own firm and/or community?
wrkSHäp | kiloWatt, LLC illuminates possibilities in historic preservation and owner's representation. The design studio is available for racial equity audits for architecture firms, consultants, organizations, and more who specialize in historic preservation and public history practices. Interested in working with wrkSHäp | kiloWatt, LLC? Send a project idea to kennedy - click here.