Architizer, n.d.: The Architects of Systemic Racism
In my second year of architectural studies at a university in Michigan, I was introduced to the “history of architecture.” As a South African, I was particularly excited about this course because the syllabus revealed that it covered African architecture. When the class began, we were briefly taught about ancient Egyptian architecture stretching from the first known architect who designed the pyramid of Saqqara to how great Egyptian ingenuity laid the foundation for the classical architectural language of the ancient Greeks and Romans. Learning that early inventions in African architecture shaped western architecture was revolutionary, but my excitement was short-lived as after only 14 pages into Egyptian architecture, we went on to study 576 pages of western architecture with slivers of Islamic architecture.
As the great architect I.M. Pei best put it, “Life is architecture and architecture is the mirror of life.” Due to my frustrations about the erasure of contributions of other African nations, I spent the next three years of architecture school feeling like architecture wasn’t for people who looked like me because I was learning about and designing buildings that people from my community might never have the privilege to see, let alone inhabit.
Architecture is never neutral; it either heals or hurts. According to a study by the National Community Reinvestment Coalition, three out of four neighborhoods that were redlined on government maps 80 years ago continue to struggle economically.
