Racism in America, manifested in engineering design: A pledge to take responsibility and action
Note from the author: To the engineers reading this article, this is in no way intended to replace the time we need to be spending hearing, reading, and listening to BIPOC perspectives in design. I encourage all readers to learn underrepresented perspectives (here's a good place to start) and unlearn our systems that perpetuate injustice, which inherently shape the ways in which we design. Engineering spaces often lack reflection and encourage the "this is the way we've always done it" behavior, which we must dismantle since, as I note in this piece, lives are at stake.
As many of you, I am outraged by the killing of George Floyd on May 25, 2020. The event serves as an example of the systemic racial oppression plaguing the United States of America. It’s important to call on our policy makers and public servants to allocate resources to investigating and implementing real changes to our socio/economic/political/institutional system.
But, changes in our systems must happen everywhere, across all industries, and I believe engineers and designers have an important role and responsibility in the U.S’ plight against white supremacy. While racism manifests itself in a variety of ways in the design and implementation of products, systems, and services, I find there to be a lack of acknowledgement to these issues across the engineering and design community. It is important to recognize that design does not happen in a vacuum. Design is not neutral — technology amplifies existing systems.
Here, I present just a few examples of real ways design and engineering have caused harm. And, importantly, I hope to use this as a starting point to personally pledge to seek tangible opportunities for change. I ask other engineers and designers to join me in taking responsibility for the ways our design decisions can perpetuate racial inequalities. It is necessary that engineers creatively, intentionally, and actively research and implement change in their ways of working. Lives are at stake.
Racism in data-driven design
There is overwhelming evidence that systemic racism is perpetuated in the design of many systems: AI algorithms, facial recognition, voice recognition, colored film, automatic products (e.g., soap dispensers), and more. Racism in design reduces access of everyday tools and technology to people who are not white — widening the gap. And, even worse, it can cause serious harm (e.g., driverless cars being less likely to recognize people of color compared to white people). It is important to recognize that the data driving algorithms and design decisions can easily be unrepresentative of the true population, thus favoring the white community. Datasets of behaviors, images, demographics, and user/customer preferences can easily be incomplete, which directly biases any data-driven design decision. For engineers in positions utilizing datasets for design decisions, we must intentionally consider ways these datasets may be incomplete or unrepresentative of the target population and accordingly fill any gaps.
Historical injustices perpetuated by design
Further, design decisions can perpetuate historical injustices and inequalities. This can happen in a variety of ways — I’ll focus on three. A clear reason for perpetuation of inequities is homogeneous design teams, which continues to be a prevailing issue in design and engineering fields. In 2015, less than 5% of engineers in the U.S were black, and according to the American Institute of Architects, only 2% licensed architects in the U.S are black. It’s clear that unrepresentative design teams are more likely to perpetuate institutionalized and systemic racism than diverse teams, for a variety of reasons. It’s important that we invest in representation within our industry and ensure diversity, particularly in decision-making roles. The National Society of Black Engineers offers a variety of resources and agendas in this regard.
Secondly, even if the data your company uses to determine design decisions is market-driven, it may be perpetuating historical injustice. An example of this can be found in Kodak’s first colored film design. At the time, in the 1950s, the primary customers of film were white people, thus, Kodak used white models to determine decisions regarding color saturation and design. By using market-driven data, which was influenced by historical injustices, Kodak perpetuated racism in their technology. Therefore, even if you are using a dataset based on real market data, you must intentionally find ways to mitigate the perpetuation of existing inequalities.
Third, another way that historical injustices are manifested in engineering design is through its funding mechanisms, particularly for early-stage technology companies seeking venture capital. This particularly disproportionately affects women of color; in 2015, a dismal 0.2% of VC funding in 2015 went to companies founded by women of color.
Since design decisions are driven by unrepresentative, incomplete, historically unjust datasets and design teams, as designers and engineers, it is our ethical duty to investigate ways to intentionally mitigate the perpetuation of injustices.
Systematic oppression in design
The design and implementation of infrastructure and technology can not only perpetuate systemic racial oppression — it can also play a lead role in increasing it. Evidence of systemic oppression is found in highway construction through predominately black neighborhoods (previously segregated by law), decreasing access between communities, and decreasing economic opportunity. Haphazard design of low-income housing has increased inequalities, which “created pockets of poverty” and perpetuated segregation. And, some bridges have been designed to purposely block bus routes with the intention of restricting low-income and communities of color from accessing specific neighborhoods.
The work by Antoinette Carroll explicitly highlights these issues (watch her TED Talk here), and efforts by design activist groups, such as her organization Creative Reaction Lab, Reflex Design Collective, and the Equity Design Collaborative and are paving the way for equitable design. Bryan Lee Jr., architect and design principle at Colloqate Design, offers actionable steps to dismantling injustices in built environments, such as reallocating police department funding to disadvantaged neighborhoods and changing ‘affordability’ metrics used to make design and planning decisions.
Pledge of responsibility and action
I want to emphasize that these race-based disparities are due to the larger
discriminatory context of U.S. history and current society, and that design and engineering is just one small piece of a much larger system of injustice and disparities. However, as engineers and designers, we must not remain complacent within our profession and thus recognize the ways systemic oppression can manifest in the design of buildings and technology. Join me in intentionally acknowledging the role design and engineering has played in perpetuating racial injustices. Pledge to seek expertise, resources, and actionable ways to dismantle the inequities we’ve embedded into systems.
