Contested space, within and without.
I’ve been watching the world shifting for a long time. A tug of war between those who can’t be silent anymore and those who believe the first group should never have been given a voice. This fundamental conflict plays out in countless arenas, upsetting old structures that were based on the cracked foundations of systemic inequality. Those who have benefited from living within these citadels of power and privilege are working hard to preserve the old order, patching the cracks almost as fast as our axes create them. What they don’t realize is that we’ve come to pull the whole tower down, with them still inside it if need be.
Simply put, I’m an urban planner – graduate student, practicing professional, and enthusiast – who can’t be silent anymore. Who can’t just sit still and watch others do the real, meaningful work. Despite being an unflinching progressive in word (and voting record), I’ve long-struggled with aspects of identity and purpose that made staying up in the stands the most attractive option. From there, I could support my team loudly and enthusiastically, but at the end of the day, I would go home without bruises and scars and still pretend I made a difference.
But I can’t do that anymore. So I won’t do that anymore.
To look at urban issues and give your well-informed, highly educated, critically thought-out opinion without then going out into the streets, to the door of your local representative’s office, or the halls of the Capitol itself to advocate for it is an empty gesture. So many of us get stuck at that tipping point of action. One of the aims of this blog is to look at the issues of planners of color like myself – navigating the competing pressures of activism and professionalism or academic rigor, learning to be unapologetically Black (in my case, at least) in planning spaces that stifle radical ideas by design, making your real-life-informed activist convictions and agenda transferable into actionable plans and policy – and articulate ways of shedding the fear through solidarity of purpose. My hope is that the content that I post will reflect a trajectory of change in my own life as a more engaged and ferocious advocate for progressive, equity-driven, sustainability-minded causes. I have a long way to go. I hope some of you will join me.
Fear of a Black Planner 