Kyle Davy and Mike McMeekin
The history of engineering for urban development and infrastructure is commonly told as a story of progress, achievement, and positive contributions to society. There is, however, another part of that narrative that is often left out or glossed over — that is the story of how, on too many occasions, engineering work has also contributed to racial inequity and harm. Examples include efforts that helped give rise to segregated urban development patterns, routing of freeways that divided and devastated minority neighborhoods, siting of hazardous industrial and infrastructure facilities in low-income areas, and unequal access to clean water and sanitation infrastructure.
Engineering Change Lab – USA (ECL), launched its Engineering Equitable Communities (EEC) initiative to explore this more complete narrative and to pilot new practices and behaviors that engineering practitioners can adopt to prevent future inequity, heal past harms, and help create a more just future for our urban environments.
The EEC initiative has been designed to also test the applicability of the Truth, Racial Healing and Transformation (TRHT) framework and Rx Racial Healing Circle methods pioneered by the W.K. Kellogg Foundation and Dr. Gail Christopher to the work of the engineering community.
As a major step forward in this effort, ECL convened a workshop for engineering practitioners on December 18 and 19, 2023, at Metro State University’s CAVEA Theater in downtown Denver. Participants included representatives of ECL and local and national engineering organizations.
The idea to explore this important topic originated at the 2021 ECL Engineering Ideas Institute. The workshop in Denver was the culmination of two years of learning and planning regarding meaningful action that ECL could take with respect to the issue of engineering and inequality in our communities.
Workshop participants experienced the power of racial healing circles, learned about the THRT framework; gained new insights about inclusion and fairness; explored the past and current narrative of racial equity and engineering; and mapped out a range of potential meaningful next steps for the Denver area and for the engineering community that could be taken to foster racial healing and equity.
The first day of the workshop was designed and facilitated by Dr. J. Goosby Smith, Vice President Community Belonging and Chief Diversity Officer at Pepperdine University, and Tessa Updike, Associate Professor and Archivist at The Citadel, the Military College of South Carolina. The day began with a Rx Racial Healing circle, where participants shared personal stories, in a way that was both authentic and vulnerable enough to foster trust and build relationships. Story telling was supported with a set of touchstones designed to both guide dialogue and provide safety for deep learning and difficult conversations.
The Rx Racial Healing Circle process is specifically designed to build trust and foster connections between people coming from different backgrounds. Updike crystalized the learning from the circle experience with a reading from Maya Angelou’s poem, “Human Family,” which concludes with the thought, “We are more alike, my friends, than we are unalike.”
Goosby Smith and Updike then introduced the story of the Truth, Racial Healing, and Transformation (TRHT) framework. They noted that the TRHT approach and its underlying racial healing philosophy have been applied in numerous cities and on college campuses across the U.S. The TRHT process is based on a belief that change should be centered on local coalitions committed to truth-telling and trust and relationship building and be motivated by a deep understanding of the racial history of the local community. Updike illustrated the power of narrative change through the story of Charles Foster, the first African American student to attend The Citadel.
The final part of the first day featured a presentation and discussion of new concepts in understanding inclusion and fairness and the application of those ideas to building community relationships based on Dr. Goosby Smith’s research. This research emphasizes the concept of Ubuntic InclusionTM, which, as Goosby Smith describes, “stems from a central tenet of African philosophy, that all human beings are interconnected and interdependent.” The Ubuntic InclusionTM model includes eight key ingredients.
- Connection
- Care
- Intrapersonal Inclusion
- Communication
- Mentoring & Coaching
- Fairness
- Trust
- Visibility & Reward
Consideration of all these ingredients is critical to building inclusive cultures within organizations and also to building inclusive relationships between engineering practitioners and the communities that they work with and within.
As shown in the framework diagram, the TRHT process pairs “racial healing through trust and relationship building” with “narrative change and truth telling” as foundational elements enabling a community to create a new inclusive vision and take action to move toward a more just and equitable future.
The second day of the workshop, led by Kyle Davy, ECL’s Creative Director and Lead Facilitator, began with a deeper exploration of narrative change, focused on the past and current story of engineering’s relationship to racial equity and justice in communities. Several key elements emerged as participants sought to better understand the current, dominant narrative and both what and why certain story lines are often left out of it.
- A comprehensive approach to community engagement is often “not in our scope of work.”
- We do what we are told. It is someone else’s job to define the problem.
- We are great problem solvers, but not leaders.
- We check the box on contractual DBE requirements and feel we are “done” with that.
- We think we can do everything and don’t need assistance from outside expertise.
In addition, with respect to the current narrative Davy observed that …
- Our pragmatic mindset blinds us to socio-economic conditions and considerations outside our immediate scope of work.
- We are just one of a constellation of actors that shape the urban environment, and we are content to “follow” because we don’t consider ourselves to be one of the powerful actors.
- We are well rewarded for our pragmatic work (while ignoring the broader context) as beneficiaries of significant public and private spending on infrastructure, e.g. interstate funding in the 50s and 60s.
- When constrained by resources (budgets), we often choose to serve the politically powerful instead of standing up for the concerns of the less powerful in minority and low income communities impacted by the work.
Participants imagined a future positive, enabling narrative where …
- Representatives of disadvantaged communities are deeply involved in defining the problems their communities face and in developing solutions to these problems.
- The engineering community is a contributor to changing regulations and policies that have contributed to negative impacts and harm in the past.
- The ethics of the engineering community have expanded.
- People and their narratives matter.
- Everyone impacted by our work has a voice, particularly those who have been harmed in the past and those still vulnerable today.
- Decision-making now includes “should we build it” along with “can we build it.”
Participants also reflected on how the TRHT framework and Rx Racial Healing Circle approach could be applied to engineering equitable communities. Key points from the discussion are summarized below.
- There will be resistance to this approach.
- An African American participant expressed surprise at the lack of knowledge of the history when the Black community is completely aware of it. He fears that many in the minority community will believe it is too late and will be checked out.
- There are segments of the Engineering Community that want to contribute positively. A participant from Engineers Without Borders (EWB) cited the large number of retired engineers that are interested in working with EWB. They no longer feel constrained by their employers.
- All of us in the room have a platform. We can grow the seed that has been planted here and be an advocate when we see injustice – regulations, education, project scoping, project decision-making.
- We need to start early with community engagement – before we start solving the wrong problem. We must understand the vision of the community being impacted by our efforts.
- Racial healing circles can help overcome the linear thinking and ingrained assumptions of engineering.
- Both racial healing circles and the TRHT process offer huge opportunities to deepen inquiry and understanding.
This rich, generative experience ended with participants exploring possibilities for using our “power of convening” to apply lessons from the two days through strategic action, both in the Denver community and within the entire engineering community. Several possibilities emerged that workshop participants committed to develop over the coming months.
ECL is grateful to the sponsors of the workshop. Major sponsors included the National Society of Professional Engineers, ACEC Colorado and the ACEC Colorado Foundation, and Ulteig Engineers. Other sponsors included EFCG, Felsburg Holt & Ullevig, HDR, KL&A Engineers & Builders, Martin/Martin Consulting Engineers, and Muller Engineering Company.
ECL is founded on the idea of creating positive change in the engineering community. When we are successful at this, we elevate our value in society, and we positively impact the public’s perception of engineering. The issue of equitable communities in our society needs to be addressed, and the engineering community can make meaningful contributions. In the closing words of J. Goosby Smith, “low-hanging fruit is still fruit, so pick something.”
