Designing System Interventions for Racial Equity in Pittsburgh
Transition Design Approaches
Written by Team Resilience:
Hillary Carey, Alex Klein, Nandini Nair, Yuchuan ShanRacial Inequity in Pittsburgh, Transition Design Seminar 2020, CMU
Hillary Carey is quarantining in Oakland, California. She has now completed her first year of the PhD in Transition Design at CMU. She is focused on bringing anti-racism and anti-oppression theories into design practices.
Alex Klein is currently quarantining in Michigan, but calls NYC home. In May 2020 she will complete her Masters of Arts in Design at CMU. Her work focuses on the ecology and the built environment.
Nandini Nair is a third-culture kid hailing Aotearoa (New Zealand). She is interested in using design ad technology to work on complex problems to create a more equitable and sustainable world.
Yuchuan Shan is a geologist-turned designer, currently pursuing her masters in Design at CMU. She is passionate about designing for technologies that advance people’s understanding of the natural environments.
In our final post, we will outline a vision for a long-term future where racial equity has been achieved in Pittsburgh. From this vision, we backcast to the present day in order to identify a series of systems interventions that address the wicked problem of racial inequity in Pittsburgh. Through this process, we create near-term, mid-term, and long-term milestones that help us highlight a transition pathway towards the desired future.
A vision of Pittsburgh’s long-term future
A positive future for Pittsburgh is one where the color of your skin and the location of your childhood home does not determine the quality of your life and your potential to succeed. In 2095, Pittsburgh finally achieved the radical goal of racial equity across various systems — health, safety, education, work, housing, environment, infrastructure, technology, and civic engagement. In this future, black Pittsburghers have as good a chance as residents from other backgrounds, to flourish in all aspects of life.
This radical transition was enabled by a profound cultural shift in the beliefs and mindsets of Americans. American culture at large has moved away from one of dominance, elitism, and hierarchy — towards an ecological worldview of interdependence and interconnectedness. Diversity has become an established norm of society and its value is well understood for neighborhoods, schools, governments, and workplaces. Every child in Pittsburgh, regardless of race, has access to quality education and healthy lifestyles. Initiatives like Universal Basic Income and Universal Healthcare have shift mindsets from competition and scarcity to that of cooperation and abundance as residents’ basic sustenance needs are met.
There is increased trust and confidence in the city’s public infrastructure to support the lives of all residents in Pittsburgh. Overt racism, as well as microaggressions, are a thing of the past as Pittsburghers have adopted a more pluralistic understanding of the different ways of being in the world. Racist attitudes were seen as a disease that needed to be eradicated in order for Pittsburgh to become a stronger and healthier community.
Getting to this equitable future for Pittsburgh required a concerted effort to rebuild, restore and regenerate many of its systems, both infrastructural and cultural. This effort was spearheaded by what we imagine to be the ‘Pittsburgh Equity Project’, starting in 2020, fostering an ecology of strategically interconnected interventions to realize this vision of a better future for racial equity in Pittsburgh.
An Ecology of Interventions
With a racial justice mission at its core, the ‘Pittsburgh Equity Project’ acknowledges the long history of structural and societal inequities faced by Black Pittsburghers from the days of slavery until present times. It proposes a series of interventions for different levels of scales and timeframes that are connected with a common thread of ‘reparations and repair’. Author Ta-Nehisi Coates writes that ‘reparations’ is “the full acceptance of our collective biography and its consequences”. It is the acknowledgment that American prosperity has not been equitably distributed to people of color, especially black and indigenous Americans. From this shared understanding, we can start the hard work of ‘repair’, to fix our broken systems, rehabilitate our infrastructure, and reframe the discourse towards equitable futures.
Out of the many possible interventions for Pittsburgh to uplift the lives of its black residents, three interventions have been outlined below to guide the transition towards this future. Using Kossoff’s ‘Domains of Everyday Life’ (2011) model, these systems interventions have been situated at the city, neighborhood and household level to address the problem of racial inequity from different perspectives.
Intervention 1: Regenerative Pathways towards Equitable Education
A. City level — Adopt new model to allocate school budget and ensure equitable access to resources
African American students comprise more than half of the population in Pittsburgh public schools, however they have a lower high school graduation rate compared to other students and an even lower rate for college enrollment. Inequitable access to educational resources largely causes these disparities. Research has found that black students represent a disproportionate share of students enrolled in schools that do not offer calculus or gifted and talented programs. Therefore, ensuring all schools get an equitable share of resources should be the focus of the intervention. The school board needs to recognize the difference between equity and equality and carry out strategic plans to budget for schools with higher needs. The community organization A+ Schools has been working on a new model for Pittsburgh public schools to allocate budget so as to address educational inequality. In order for the model to benefit black students, it should consider additional funding for certain schools to develop necessary programs such as calculus and other college preparation curriculum.
B. A network of support from school and community— Provide personalized training and wraparound services
The best way to prevent at-risk students from dropping out and help them succeed in school is to identify their individual struggles and take actions quickly. This requires proper training of the staff and a monitoring system to keep track of school attendance and performance. When an at-risk student is identified, teachers should not rely on punishment or expulsion, but have conversations with the student to learn about the root cause within and/or outside of school for the behavior and address the student’s specific needs. In addition, all teachers should adopt culturally responsive teaching, a pedagogy that engages learners through acknowledging and celebrating their different cultural references. Educators have to be aware of the sociotechnical context within which the school operates, and strive to include course materials and activities that reflect the diverse backgrounds of the students. By making the learning experience contextual, teachers can more effectively foster awareness in cultural and racial diversity.
“Ongoing multicultural activities within the classroom setting engender a natural awareness of cultural history, values and contributions.”
— Kathleen Serverian-Wilmeth (*)
Many factors outside of school also have significant influence on black students’ performance. For example, students who grew up in poverty are more likely to be exposed to harmful chemicals like lead. Moreover, their families often cannot afford nutritious food or comprehensive health care. Therefore, students from poor neighborhoods are at higher risk for illness, putting them at disadvantage even before they enter school. Wraparound services can help address those often non-instructional factors that are crucial in determining a student’s achievement but usually neglected in the traditional policy framework. Pittsburgh public schools should work with the local community to make health care and counseling available to all students and schools in low-income neighborhoods should offer free nutrition programs. It is also important for wraparound services to build constructive relationship and support networks by connecting schools, families and community organizers. Families should have access to parent counseling so that parents know how to provide a better learning environment for their children at home. And parents should be able to engage in schools’ decision making process and help develop strategic plans that can best serve the students. It is only through the combination of academic support in the classroom and wraparound services in the community can students receive a well-rounded system of support.
At what level of scale is this intervention situated?
Both city and community levels. The city addresses equitable allocation of school budget while the community players including the schools, parents and community organizations work collectively to provide a network of support for students.
How does this project connect with and amplify the others?
Better education helps to increase the overall literacy rate and prepare the residents for civic engagement.
How does the intervention connect to both the long-term vision and the near-term milestones?
The intervention in education can equip people with a better knowledge of different cultures and races, and the structural barriers caused by racism that minority groups often have to face in their social life. People will only take actions to combat racism when they recognize its existence and impact.
Does it represent changes in material or non-material factors in the wicked problem?
Education can contribute to positive shifts in people’s beliefs and value systems through careful design of the policy and processes.
Has the intervention been conceived with Max-Neef’s theory of needs in mind? If so, what needs does it satisfy? Are they synergistic satisfiers?
Yes. This intervention is mainly concerned with people’s need for understanding and protection. People receive education in schools and only when students are more likely to succeed when they feel they are protected physically and mentally by their communities.
What are the main barriers to the implementation of the intervention(s)?
Funding would be the largest barrier. The schools need money to purchase necessary equipments and materials for quality education. To make personalized training possible, funding would also be required to hire more staff and provide teachers with proper training. The city government should carefully plan the educational budget and work with community organizations to secure additional funding.
How long could/should the intervention last? What is its lifespan?
Building a new model for allocation school budgets may be achieved within a few years, however ensuring its implementation should be an ongoing process and there should be plans to continuously adjust the model as the needs of schools change over time.
Intervention 2: Redefining Gentrification with Equity in Mind
Urban development gives shape to the cultural fabric of neighborhoods. Throughout Pittsburgh’s history, we discovered time and again policies and initiatives that resulted in segregated neighborhoods and displaced families. The intervention of urban planning was chosen to redefine the potential of gentrification, by showing how certain investment approaches can rehabilitate dis-invested areas. The built environment, if approached with the existing community’s interests in mind, has the potential to invigorate cultural identity of place, integrate diversity, and care for residents.
In 1994, when the last steel mill closed in Pittsburgh, the neighborhood surrounding it fell into decades of divestment and destitution. While close to other thriving neighborhoods and within city limits, the local school shut down, grocery stores left, the once thriving main street shuttered and roads were never repaired — an entire community’s culture was lost. The neighborhood is called Hazelwood and is home to primarily black families that, on average, live below the poverty line at just $15,000 annual household income. Public transportation has been cut extensively in the area, making it difficult to commute to jobs and supermarkets without a car, an expense that many cannot afford. More than 80% of residents rent their homes or apartments, which results in a catastrophic lack of home ownership.
In 2002, the Almono Partnership, composed of three non-profit foundations, bought 178 acres in Hazelwood on the Monongahela River. The site was formerly home to a steel mill. Their new plan imagined huge economic investment to the area and had a primary focus on improving the neighborhood.
Using the Hazelwood Green development plan as an example, intervention #2 is to support and extend community-centrist, local development. We value the potential for urban planning to be about small business, community-involvement, and growth — about ownership of place and about deep cultural identities that help diversity thrive.
At what level of scale will the intervention be situated?
The intervention lives within the neighborhood level, placing emphasis on the identity, needs and culture of a specific community.
How does this project connect with and amplify the others?
We see the Hazelwood Green plan bringing in investment that will rebuild public space, re-introduce safe learning environments and invigorate the community with resources like supermarkets and daycare providers. These components support education and foster community, interpersonal, relationships further amplifying our other two intervention points.
How does the intervention connect to both the long-term vision and the near-term milestones?
This intervention addresses near-term milestones first, with a vision for the long-term as space becomes utilized by the community. Particularly in regions that have experienced divestment over years, even decades, urban development plans provide an economic stimulus to rehabilitate. However, more often we see this surge benefit new inhabitants while locals are displaced. This trend has given gentrification a negative connotation. Focusing urban plans on the people who it impacts the most, allows for positive economic gains. For example, in Hazelwood, the community is in need of serious funding to rehabilitate their schools, grocery stores, city blocks and homes. Without funding, none of this will be possible, but investing in developments that benefit those most in need, results in a community with pathways to home ownership, options for education and access to healthy food.
Does it represent changes in material or non-material factors in the wicked problem?
This intervention deals exclusively with the material components, but when fully realized or built, the material components create the environment through which attitudes, beliefs and cultural aspects are shaped.
Has the intervention been conceived with Max-Neef’s theory of needs in mind? If so, what needs does it satisfy? Are they synergistic satisfiers?
Yes. This intervention is ultimately tied to a need for identity through ownership of home and place. Urban spaces offer a physical place for culture to play out in the public sphere and when we see ourselves in the community around us, in the spaces around us, we have a stronger sense of identity.
Is the intervention ‘synergistic’; meaning does it solve for more than one issue at a time?
Yes, this intervention tackles several issues at a time. Urban development plans have nodes in multiple aspects of the lived experience. For example in Hazelwood, there is opportunity for greater mixed-use and mixed-income housing options, as well as an emphasis on community through requiring the street level to maintain access to the public in the form of a shop, daycare or grocery store. Additionally, there is an emphasis on bringing in new businesses that can train and hire workers from the community, providing stable income and pathways to ownership. It is at once constructing the interactions on the street through the built environment, while also encouraging growth of individuals.
What are the main barriers to the implementation of the intervention(s)?
Urban plans focused on rebuilding existing communities require careful management, engagement with organizations that advocate on behalf of locals needs and values, as well as, clear post-occupancy success metrics to ensure that the build out fulfills the intended goal. For large development sites, it can be difficult to meaningfully engage with members of the community. In the case of Hazelwood Green, a portion of the population are illiterate and struggle to understand how development plans will impact them. Additionally, there are few resources for post-occupancy analysis and this poses a barrier to ensuring the project’s intended use by the community.
How long could/should the intervention last? What is its lifespan?
The lifespan of this intervention should be 30-years, one generation’s lifespan, to adopt, use and effectively build out over time. The slower approach to development is meant to give the community a chance to evolve with the site.
Intervention 3: Reframing the Discourse on Racism
This intervention works to address the racism-denial that currently pervades in the U.S. and unravels so much of the progress that is hard-won in the fight for racial equity. The work of this intervention will be to amplify current work in progress. A program in St. Louis could be duplicated for Pittsburgh: The We Stories effort “engages White families to change the conversation about and build momentum towards racial equity.” They work with young families to “view anti-racism as a parenting priority.” Our intervention would work toward a similar goal, extending this work up from preschool through high school, and with support for parents.
There are writers at the national scale, like the New York Times’s Nikole Hannah-Jones with her 1619 Project, as well as authors like Ijeoma Oluo. They are finding ways to discuss racism in a way that is hard, but accessible for white Americans. Additionally, Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility, reaches out to white Americans specifically, with insights into why it is so difficult to talk about and acknowledge racism. At the local level, the Racial Justice Summit has carefully and thoughtfully bridged tension and hope for Black and white residents of Pittsburgh. The Pittsburgh Free Thought Society has been hosting workshops to reflect on whiteness. Educators at Carnegie Mellon, like Dr. Linda Flowers and Dr. Nico Slate, have developed programs that bridge differences between Black high school students and CMU’s college students.
Building racial fluency in Pittsburgh’s non-Black population is essential to making progress on racial reparations because ignorance of racism erodes critical programs. For example, COVID-19 has put attention to the long-persistent health disparities, revealed through much higher death rates for African Americans. The CDC’s current data show death rates for Back Americans to be more than twice the rate of white or Asian Americans (92.3 vs. 45.2 deaths per 100,000 people) (CDC website, May 8, 2020). In response to this data, Allegheny County (containing the city of Pittsburgh) has declared racism to be a public health crisis. Nonetheless, in the faces of elevated risks of death for Black Pittsburgher, one city council member, Sam DeMarco, objects to the use of the term “racism,” stating,
“I do have a problem with the language. It seems that they’re calling out whites as a collective and claiming that whites are responsible for this … racial classification scheme and things like that. And I’m sorry, that language, I just can’t support it. To the folks on the right, we believe that white privilege is something that’s just something created by the left to try to create division.”
This Allegheny county leader, with the evidence of racial disparity in front of him, voted against this measure because he does not “believe” in racism (Jurado, The Root, 2020). This type of resistance to acknowledging that historic, structural, and interpersonal racism still exists and influences the lives of residents undermines efforts to make progress. Therefore, this intervention will start in elementary school and work to educate all residents, across different age groups and experiences with racism, about the historical and structural reinforcements to racism that have not yet been addressed in American education.
At what level of scale will the intervention be situated?
This intervention begins at the household and community levels, focused on educating school children, and offering support for parents to learn to talk more fluently about race and racism.
How does this project connect with and amplify the others?
Shifting the discourse around racism will support the public sentiment needed for the other interventions that put structures in place to reduce inequity in public education and urban planning
How does the intervention connect to both the long-term vision and the near-term milestones?
Fundamentally shifting the worldview and metaphors that Americans hold in their understanding of who is American and the superiority of Whiteness over others is imperative to the transition pathway from the state of things today to a better, healthier, more equitable Pittsburgh.
Does it represent changes in material or non-material factors in the wicked problem?
This intervention makes use of material artifacts: textbooks, teaching curricula, and other media to share stories and insights in order to ultimately shift beliefs and social norms around racism.
Has the intervention been conceived with Max-Neef’s theory of needs in mind? If so, what needs does it satisfy? Are they synergistic satisfiers?
Yes, this intervention fits within Max-Neef’s suggestion that education fulfills the need for understanding, but additionally and simultaneously engages our needs for protection, participation, creation, identity, and freedom. Additionally, this type of education that is aimed at helping Americans more clearly see the value of diversity, and repairing our history of injustice, will more deeply and honestly satisfy our need for identity (Max-Neef, 1992).
Is the intervention ‘synergistic’; meaning does it solve for more than one issue at a time?
Yes, bringing a more accurate understanding of racism, and it’s role in American history, economics, and formation will help Americans to gain a more accurate and fuller picture of our society, as well to build empathy and understanding for why repairs need to be made to the experiences of Black Americans. Building skill and comfort with talking about race and racism should help to build cross-cultural friendships and support desegregating Pittsburgh’s neighborhoods. Equitable policies should be better-informed by leaders who are more knowledgeable about racism, as well as gain more public support from residents who now understand the purpose of reducing the equity gap.
What are the main barriers to the implementation of the intervention(s)?
There will be strong resistance to “politicizing” public education with stories about racism. Unfortunately racism is viewed as a political, rather than humanistic issue, by many in our contemporary society, due to the suppression of the Black experience since our country’s founding. Acknowledging the dishonorable behavior of white Americans through so much of this country’s history will threaten many who benefit from it remaining invisible. Therefore it will be difficult work to shift curriculum in this direction. The recent work by Nikole Hannah-Jones in the New York Times with the 1619 Project has faced similar backlash from people who want to deny the validity of these stories about slavery and Jim Crow.
How long could/should the intervention last? What is its lifespan?
The work of changing the curriculum will take quite a few years. But the output of it: a more accurate representation of the role of slavery and discrimination incorporated into public education, should be an ongoing contribution to enlightened curriculum.
The Transition Pathway
Milestone 1–2025 — five years from today
Five years after Nikole Hannah-Jones won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her work on the 1619 series on slavery for the New York Times, schools are teaching a more honest and equitable account of racial discrimination in this country. This clear-eyed look at the way that the U.S. government has systematically and purposefully forced oppression on so many citizens has been powerful, and local governments are finding small ways to make repairs.
After a good hard look at the 2019 racial inequity report , Pittsburgh embraced a plan toward greater equity. The Hazelwood Green Project became a model for how investments in local businesses and business people can revive neighborhoods without pushing out the most vulnerable residents. To stave off the attrition of Pittsburgh’s Black residents, the state provided an economic stimulus to generate affordable housing and mixed income communities in previously divested communities.
Public schools are focusing on building equity across the city’s network of schools. Disparities in funding are slowly being reduced, and parents are beginning to see the value of all children having a good education, not just their own. As an acknowledgement of historic disenfranchisement, the city provides wraparound services to support students and parents in career success, working to remove barriers from transportation, childcare, education, and other potential challenges. For those who cannot find meaningful and well-paid work, the social safety net benefits have been expanded to support them on a path to greater wellness and community engagement. In this way, Pittsburgh is moving toward a thriving city for all its residents.
Milestone 2 — 2050 — thirty years from today
In 2050, urban infrastructures in Pittsburgh has seen great improvement thanks to development plans inspired by the Hazelwood Green Project, 30 years ago. The highway system no longer serves as the dividing boundaries between neighborhoods — but the connecting links. Reliable public transportation also helps to increase the mobility of the residents. The city adopted strategic plans to require all developments to offer opportunities for mixed income families to inhabit a space and incorporate street level to encourage community interaction. Local community organizations play a large role in the planning process as they help to align the design plans with the residents’ goals. Furthermore, there is a clear system for post-occupancy analysis of new development that continues to engage with the community and ensure that it is being used for its intent.
Thanks to the equitable school budget, public schools that used to be in poor neighborhoods established crucial curricula that better prepare students for college and career. In addition, each school has flexible funding to cover their students’ unique needs. Educators, parents, and community organizations work collectively to provide a healthy learning environment for each student. The vast majority of students are able to graduate in time with only a few exceptions.
In Pittsburgh and the rest of the US, more and more people have become aware of the structural racism that exists in nearly all systems. Most Americans came to recognize the importance of eradicating racism, the disease that had plagued the society, as the concept of being an “American” now encompasses different races and cultural backgrounds. There is a ladder of support for people to climb out of poverty and the wealth gap is decreasing. People are encouraged by the continued support the government provides for them and consequently have high political participation.
Milestone 3 — 2070 — fifty years from today
Fifty years after Nikole Hannah-Jones won the 2020 Pulitzer Prize for her work on the 1619 series on slavery for the New York Times, the United States of America is considered one of the most equitable countries in the world. Students receive personalized education and there is no longer a disparity in standards across Pittsburgh’s public and private school systems.
Neighborhoods are built to be adaptable and meet the evolving needs of community. All development projects emphasize positive impacts on people and place as the key metric for success. Most people own their homes or have access to a pathway to ownership because there are homes available at every income level. The city blocks generate natural, social, interactions and support thriving communities.
There is immense public support for reparations of slavery. Leadership in America encourages and supports deep reflections on racism. The middle class is seen as the key to a strong society and there is no longer a gap between upper and lower class. Pittsburgh has transformed from a once highly segregated city to a full integrated one.
References
Eber, L. (2008). Wraparound: A key component of school-wide systems of positive behavior supports. Retrieved from: https://nwi.pdx.edu/NWI-book/Chapters/Eber-5e.3-(school-wide-support-systems).pdf
Jurado, J. (2020) “Pennsylvania County Declares Racism a Public Health Crisis,” The Root, May 6, 2020. Retrieved from: https://www.theroot.com/pennsylvania-county-declares-racism-a-public-health-cri-1843291866
Kossoff, G. (2011). Holism and the reconstitution of everyday life: A framework for transition to a sustainable society. Grow small, think beautiful: Ideas for a sustainable world from Schumacher College, 122–42.
Max-Neef, M. A. (1992). Human scale development: conception, application and further reflections (№04; HC125, M3).
OECD (2008). Ten Steps to Equity in Education. Retrieved from: https://www.oecd.org/education/school/39989494.pdf
