08 Preserve and Invest in Black, Brown, Indigenous & Asian Cultural Spaces

Design Justice demands we acknowledge the history of spatial removal and cultural erasure within urban design and planning and secure the place-keeping of disinherited Black, Brown, Indigenous & Asian cultural spaces.

The design professions of planning, architecture, urban design, and landscape architecture have been complicit in the displacement, and removal of Black, Brown, Indigenous & Asian land and cultural spaces. From forced removal of Indigenous communities to “urban renewal” projects that razed prosperous Black neighborhoods, these unjust and violent policies may have varied in their forms of erasure and exploitation, yet all Black, Brown, Indigenous & Asian communities collectively share the experience of generational dispossession and displacement as a result of white supremacy. 

As such, we call upon designers to demand the protection, prioritization, and investment of all Black, Brown, Indigenous & Asian-owned land, spaces, communities, and cultural centers. Projects and developments taking place in and around these spaces must acknowledge the cultural histories and legacies of that locale, as well as center that community’s direct participation, leadership, and decision-making control to define the project outcomes.