DCNOMA Statement on Social Justice

 
 

June 10, 2020

With heavy hearts and trembling intensity, we find ourselves at a point where, again, we must state what should be obvious. BLACK LIVES MATTER.

Recent weeks punctuate a deep rooted history of American institutions asserting oppressive authority over marginalized communities. Once again, the time comes to activate in the interest of self-preservation. Though the cycle feels familiar, we all believe today the path forward and the resulting outcomes can and will be different. It must be different. Moreover, it has already begun.

The degree of solidarity brings hope to this period of social redress. From ourselves, our fellow marginalized communities, our allies, and the global community – millions around the world brave a global pandemic to demonstrate vigorous solidarity in our cause. Still, the Black community, as the target of this aggression, must be the guiding conscience to lead, to advocate for, and to exemplify the shared future that we all require.

Social redress requires resolute invasion against systemic racism and oppression as a collective mass on every effective front.

  • Policing needs to change.

  • Criminal justice practices need to change.

  • Civic and political enfranchisement needs to change.

  • Economic access needs to change.

  • Employment practices and work-place culture needs to change.

  • Education needs to change.

  • Community development, planning, and design, each impacted by the previous factors, needs to change -- here we are best suited to exercise our strengths.

By virtue of our mandate to protect the health, safety, and welfare of the public, we, as architects and designers, trained and uniquely positioned to serve the public – the entire inclusive public. We have a duty, on all three of these fronts, to address the afflictions wrought against marginalized communities for far too long – the Black community in particular.

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With this regard, the National Leaders of NOMA re-calibrated our collective mission and challenged us ALL (Access, Leadership, and Legacy) to be BRAVE.

Moving forward, through this election year and beyond, it is critical that we remain vigilant and vigorous in our efforts. We must actively espouse and promote tenets of social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion - focal points of core fairness - at every opportunity through and within the design community. We must vocalize our objections to any efforts to assuage these issues. Silent acquiescence and neutral complicity must be combated as vigorously as overt oppression.

The DistrictNOMA Chapter calls upon its members and member firms to engage, both inwardly and outwardly, in this regard. Here, in the Nation’s Capital, DCNOMA is uniquely situated to affect change on a local, national, and global level. The power of our example reaches farther than anyone may realize, and the reach that each of us have within our respective networks is unfathomable. Every stance on the issues becomes a note within a chorus that resonates within an audience, hungry for the message. Empower yourself to bring your note, your voice, to our design community.

Tomorrow, on Thursday, June 11, 2020, DCNOMA joins the AIA|DC for a Town Hall -- AIA|DC Board on Social Justice Challenges - Howard Mack, NOMA, and Michael Marshall, NOMA, AIA, will represent DCNOMA on the panel. Next week, on Wednesday, June 16, 2020, DCNOMA co-hosting a subsequent Forum with WIELD and LA.IDEA as the beginning of a continual dialogue for our design community to vocalize our issues and perhaps brainstorm effective paths forward. More details to follow. We invite you to join, participate, listen, share your perspective, and embrace your peers as we endure together.

Through our participation, we lift up and protect one another – our nameless faceless unmet brethren. Peoples’ treatment of one another is a testament of collective character. We must find and keep the courage to care for one another as we care for ourselves and the communities we serve.

Thank you, 

DCNOMA