Everyday Racism: What Planners Can Do

LEARNING OUTCOMES

• Understand the perceptions, viewpoints, and life experiences of professional planners of color in the workplace and in institutions.
• Understand the broader context in how planning practitioners and faculty respond to the needs of communities of color.
• Identify strategies that the American Planning Association (APA) and Association of Collegiate Schools of Planning (ACSP) can take to educate and train practicing planning professionals on diversity issues to promote greater inclusion in the workplace and in institutions.

MORE SESSION DETAILS

As communities become increasingly diverse, planning practitioners are faced with not only rectifying the effects of past social injustice and mitigating systemic racism, sexism, and classicism, but also addressing new needs to ensure even the most marginalized residents have a high quality of life. Despite the increased enrollment rate of African American and Latinx students in institutions of higher learning, research on their experiences about institutional climate in planning education are rare. Likewise, representation of African Americans and Latinx planners in the profession and research that examines how these practitioners, students, and faculty perceive or experience diversity within the planning field remains scarce. Having a better understanding of the barriers of racism as well as the value of diversity in the academe and workplace is needed, as are more representation and agency of marginalized groups to fill this gap.

This panel discusses the results of four studies on the climate for diversity for African American and Latino planners, educators, and students, and it addresses ways to promote diversity/inclusion in urban planning practice and education. A panel presentation on these four studies explores strategies for workplaces and institutions to more effectively promote diversity and inclusion for traditionally marginalized groups.

Session Speakers

April Jackson
Organizer and Speaker
Florida State University
Tallahassee, FL

Elizabeth Tyler, FAICP
Speaker
City of San Pablo
Albany, CA

Ivis Garcia, AICP
Speaker
Texas A&M University
College Station, TX

Miguel A. Vazquez, FAICP
Moderator
Riverside County
Riverside, CA

Stacy A. Harwood
Speaker
University of Utah
Salt Lake City, UT