How important is equality and ethnicity in design?
Black Lives Matter Protest Movement
This lecture focused on the topic of ethnicity and gender within society, higher education and architecture. This was particularly interesting looking at all of the ONS and RIBA statistics around racism, gender discrimination and ethnicity gaps and how this effects working environments.
Compared to 1995 where Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat to a white man, the murder of George Floyd in 2020 shows a slow progression in improvement. Out of the 64.6 million 2014 UK population (ONS), 56.2 million (87.2%) were White British. This statistic plainly shows the lack of diversity in the UK. However, looking at the split of different nationalities and identities within this data set, the UK is considered as a very multicultural country.
VIDEO:
In terms of architecture and the wider design industry, 93.6% of architects are white with less than 8% in the BAME category. 'Architecture has some challenges to meet' . The RIBA has goals to improve the range of diversity in the future and to create smaller gaps in ethnic groups.
'There is a job to be done'
Due to the lack of BAME and wider ethnic groups being represented through higher education, the RIBA and the BIID, more needs to be done to improve diversity and inclusion within society. Everyone deserves to be equally represented no matter what their background or gender, so more needs to be advocated for and change needs to happen.
Women's representation in architecture
References:
Center for Prevention MN. (2021). What is Black Lives Matter? [Video]. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCLjCg4D-FQ.
Equity, diversity and inclusion. Architecture.com. Retrieved from https://www.architecture.com/about/equality-diversity-and-inclusion.
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