Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Social Justice

Critical Race Theory (CRT) emerged in the 1970s due to the civil rights era in the United States. Its early proponents were Drek Bell, Alan Freeman, and Richard Delgado. CRT is invested in "studying and transforming the relationship between race, racism, and power" (Delgado & Stefancic, 2017). Apart from reflecting on inequality and power relations, CRT seeks on finding ways to counterbalance these.

"CRT scholars do not only locate an individual’s identity and experience of the world in his or her racial identifications but also their membership to a specific class, gender, nation, sexual orientation, etc. They read these diverse cultural texts as proof of the institutionalized inequalities racialized groups and individuals experience every day" (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.).

Some of the questions that a CRT framework poses are: 

• "What types of texts and other cultural artifacts reflect the dominant culture’s perceptions of race?"  (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.)
• "How can we accurately reflect the experiences of victims of racism?"  (Purdue Online Writing Lab, n.d.)
• How has education served to assimilate and impose master narratives on BIPOC students; i.e. the silencing and epistemicide of indigenous, Black, and POC knowledge?
• What are some of the initiatives and actions that higher education institutions can take to support BIPOC students, and faculty?
• How can education combat systemic racism?
• How can students access knowledge that is pertinent to their racial and ethnic identities? (challenging countermajoritarianism).
• How do educators counter Eurocentrism, hegemony, and myths around BIPOC?

Design Justice Framework emerged in 2016 as the result of the work of a community of practitioners who are embedded in social movements and community-based organizations. This group participates in a steering committee that reviews and approves the strategies and principles of Design Justice. One of its notable proponents is Dr. Sasha Costanza-Chock, an associate professor at MIT and a board member of the Allied Media Projects. The pillar of Design Justice is that it "rethinks design processes, centers people who are normally marginalized by design, and uses collaborative, creative practices to address the deepest challenges our communities face" (Design Justice Network, 2018).  According to Costanza-Chock (2020), the 10 principles for Design Justice are:

1. "We use design to sustain, heal, and empower our communities, as well as to seek liberation from exploitative and oppressive systems."
2. "We center the voices of those who are directly impacted by the outcomes of the design process."
3. "We prioritize design's impact on the community over the intentions of the designer."
4. "We view change as emergent from an accountable, accessible, and collaborative process, rather than as a point at the end of a process."
5. "We see the role of the designer as a facilitator rather than an expert."
6. "We believe that everyone is an expert based on their own lived experience, and that we all have unique and brilliant contributions to bring to  a design process."
7. "We share design knowledge and tools with our communities."
8. "We work towards sustainable, community-led and-controlled outcomes."
9. "We work toward non-exploitative solutions that reconnect us to the earth and each other."
10. "Before seeking new design solutions, we look for what is already working at the community level. We honor and uplift traditional, indigenous, and local knowledge and practices."

The principles and approaches proposed by Design Justice work hand-in-hand with Participatory Action Research (PAR) methods. Although Design Justice is not a PAR project, it is posses similar principles and methods of research.