Design and Ethnicity

Growing up as a white male in modern times I would consider myself very lucky, especially when reading up on this subject within Architecture, which severely opened my eyes to issues within the profession and other professions as well. It is important that we look back and learn from the past and excel forwards in the future creating equal opportunities for every human being within our profession of Architecture as well as a global society in general. The challenges I have faced and will face are incomparable to that of minority groups in modern day, but especially those who lived 60 years ago. In 1955 Rosa Parks was jailed for refusing to give up her seat to a white male, which makes you recoil hearing that this happened not too long ago. The UK as a whole in 2014 showed that 87.2% were White British of the 64.6 million living here, which is an astounding statistic.

Within Architecture the statistics of ethnicity in Architecture was even more surprising to me having no prior knowledge of the subject, with 93.6% of Architects being White with only 0.9% being black and less than 3% for for Asian, mixed race or other backgrounds. 9% of BAME responses say they strongly agree that they have been victims of racism in the work place with a further 15% agreeing as well. Improvements are looking to be made within the profession such as with the statement from the BIID stating they want BAME designers to flourish and enjoy successful careers without discrimination like everyone should be able to experience. 

The groups within Architecture and design looking to change the workplace for the better are young groups which shines a small light on the future that things will improve in the future. Based off of this I not only hope, but believe we will eventually achieve equality within the profession as well as society, where a designers creativity and work ethic is judged, not their beliefs or ethnicity.