This course seeks to gain a sense of racial history and societal change by examining the way that race relations have shaped and divided metropolitan areas of the United States. In turn, it shows how the built environment stemming from public and private actions over decades has produced racial injustices in society that undermine democratic decision-making and damages our capacity to deliver the benefits of urban life in an equitable way. We use a white supremacy framework with special emphasis on how public policy has been used to maintain and defend the power and privilege held by white people through urban development. The framework helps reveal the hardened divisions that must be confronted if planners hope to promote just, diverse, and sustainable places. The course aims to help planners and policy makers work successfully on urban problems by understanding the sources of such problems as poverty, residential segregation, and school inequality, and by strengthening a capacity for cultural humility and elevating an appreciation for difference. All students are welcome, regardless of previous exposure to these concepts, because all can contribute to our interpreting and understanding these complex but essential ideas.
Meets
Mon, Wed 8:30-10:00am 2108 A&AB