[Elsie Owusu] alleged that the election [for Riba’s vice-president of practice and profession] was rigged in favour of a rival candidate, and in a complaint to Riba’s president, Jane Duncan, she claimed it was “tantamount to institutionalised racism in my view”. [...]
“The banter, discrimination and treating black people worse than other staff goes through architecture like a stick of rock. It’s absolutely disgraceful and it starts at the top with Riba."
— theguardian.com
In response to Owusu's allegation, RIBA has initiated a formal investigation, and states that a report will be filed in time for discussion at the next national council meeting in March of 2016.
According to the Guardian, the allegations include not only accusations that the election of the Vice President of Practice and Profession was rigged in favor of Owusu's competing candidate, who is not black, but also references "sexist" banter by council members.
Also as quoted in the Guardian, Owusu invokes the Equality Act of 2010 in her claim that being passed over in the election constitutes institutional racism:
And this is an example: when there are two people up for a job, one an elected member, the other not, to use the weight of the institution from the president’s chair to support a white person over a black person, when we are both equally qualified, to me is the institution using its power to support behaviour that is tantamount to racism.
More details on the allegations can be found here.
129 Comments
Well it's just obvious: if a black woman loses an election, the only explanation can be racism and sexism. You go, girl!
kill whitey!
ok so I actually read this article..
I can't believe I'm saying this, but seriously at some point you have to take responsibility for yourself and stop blaming shit!
banter....christ sake, this is what we MEN do when we actually love someone....
I admit, we men should work on 'sensitivity'.
did you know telling my bruh "you're a fucking douche bag" is literally an expression of love.
I say
come dancing with the kinks
I say forget this nonsense, electoral professional shit is bullshit anyway and
GET ON WITH IT!
Of course it surprised me little that FRaC was the first respondent to this article. After all, white people have done nothing wrong anywhere, and are never fearful of their quickly arriving irrelevance.
but Beta, why is this bad behavior?
this is America, land of the Free, home of the brave
this behavior distinguishes us from the rest!
get with it! racism and sexism are fundamental principles!
Trump for Pres!
as a sober aside, getting out the MacAllan....why should a Black Woman of such strength give a FUCK what us Whitey's think?
don't play the system
fuck the system
don't fight the system, invent a new system
but don't blame the system if you can't play the system...does that make sense?
incase rambles unclear: don't join fraternities, cause their disbandment or let them fizzle out. and try not to encourage them by giving them free media press.
Yeah she should start a new organization that eventually becomes a vampire squid extracting fees in a quid pro quo system, that claims to speak for all of its "type".
Idk is there some space between pro diversity and not using the convo ending "institutional racism" checkmate? RIBAs like, damn we gotta hire a diversity consultant now
now in this context -
"Our struggle is not against actual corrupt individuals, but against those in power in general, against their authority, against the global order and the ideological mystification which sustains it." - Slavoj Zizek's modern update of Ephesians 6:12
Pretty immature responses from FRaC and Olaf. Why do they automatically assume that the accusations are unfounded? Have they not encountered the "boys club" culture in architectural circle? Or is it that they enjoy, even possibly reinforce the "boys club" culture, with crass jokes and sloppy innuendo.
but don't blame the system if you can't play the system...does that make sense?
It only makes sense if you WANT everything in society to be a zero sum game. If "playing the system", in other words deception, betrayal, and using others for your own self-serving benefit, is the norm, then it's better in the long run, for everyone, to change the system than to continue it. Which is why it is very brave to stand up and point out how rigged the game already is.
Of course the game is rigged, but I have yet to see a proposal that doesn't make the situation worse. I find the whole culture of white-male panel shaming to be regressive, and would love to see more substantial ideas other than "white man bad!" "Black woman good!" Which is a naive view of humanity.
The drive for purity and fairness is the number one cause of violence and conflict.
davvid don't be such a sensitive sally! rember Igoniito the Miami Dolphin football player,plays for the Bills now, no one knows what happened to the other guy........I think i more than clearly explained the basic principles of the boys club.......what is "instituional" anything? a 'system'. see Zizek qoute above..... Donna presents one option, to change the system. Olaf noted you should just start a new system or actually play the system......Condaleeza Rice got a club jacket (Augusta) one of the first 2 females,did it have anything to do with her being on the College Football committee or being a Replublican or was it because the was a black woman?. Nate noted why make another useless "institution" and who cares about this one to begin with........nate is the wisest on this subject matter.
Olaf, just stop being a dipshit for a little while. Take a break from it. Try punctuation. Try being reasonable.
welcome to the boys club davvid.
Exactly. Its when idiocy is tolerated because you don't want to be accused of being "a sensitive sally". There is way too much of this bro-y bullshit in environments that are supposed to be professional.
I think we have to look here at how BIG's office works, were females are more in charge and it is a much better place to work. This shows a white male can be a champion not only for better architecture and for the environment but also for women.
^I'm sure that's how BIG will be spinning it.... if I have to hear Bjarke's sinister superficial self promoting musings on diversity, I just can't....
Nate, BIG is going to help us all to address this issue because it really is part of society that we need to change. I have heard him talk about this problem and if you heard him talk you would understand that he has answers to the ills of architectural society, which since we are all inhabitants of space, means culture in general. The problem is not everyone is listening, but enough people hear BIG to help us make sure that the built environment is heading in the right direction.
Help us understand = coin another meaningless book title. Remember hedonist sustainability? That Fox News building is sooooo green washed
Nate because you don't understand what we do only shows you are not keeping up with the trends. BIG is the future - most projects ever.
Look I get it... BIG loves pyramids. Cool. Doesn't mean it's more efficient or green if you throw in a few roof gardens that nobody uses: it's probably not a repeatable formula, just another branch of magazine cover postmodernism--with an especially loathsome marketing that superficially absorbs every trend, succeeding only in a superficial new media without substantial criticism or ethics.
Just because something is trendy or marketable doesn't make it the end all be all. Slavery was also popular... Not to compare apples and oranges.
Just to bring it back, just beware of the "future trend" or using diversity as a marketing cover for dubious work...
blows my mind how BIG became the issue........i googled Ms Owusu and what i learned may indicate she is still playing the 'system' at great risk to her reputation and minorities that may want to follow her.. she better be right or this will play right into boys club "discrimination"........apparently she was first awarded Role Model by RIBA, her firm congratulated her via firm site, she asked for partnership and didnt get it, left firm, awarded a position at RIBA but didnt get the VP vote due to some manuever within the RIBA beauracry, went to an event and was appalled and also now taking her old firm to court......if claims can not be substantiad then what FRaC said would be true and man will that suck for the next young black woman aspiring to be an architect at her caliber (resume is impressive) learned all this googing on phone (i may be wrong, but that what i gleamed)
I do wonder if the same wave of white-male misery that Trump seems to be riding is affecting the commentary here on Archinect. I'm assuming that some of you feel alienated and dumbfounded by the continued success of firms like BIG or Zaha Hadid Architects. Perhaps you've developed a strong belief that these firms are not worthy of their status, have not sufficiently paid their dues, or are some intrinsically unqualified or deficient in some way. Even though in reality they're responsible for tiny fraction of what actually gets built in the US, they get a disproportionately large amount of the criticism.
I have yet to see criticism of BIG. So David I think you are way off base.
'white-male misery' the FUCK!?!
Zaha's a genius although she has steadily lost her way and for that I blame computers + the blob wave of the late 90's. And David Adjaye is one of my favo(u)rite architects of all time. Of all time!
I HAVE MANY BLACK FRIENDS!
ARP1 is another BIG marketing mole, big surprise.
I love (most of) Zaha and Adjayes work and don't like BIGs, and am pro diversity, but where does that fall in Davvid's view? I think nuance isnt welcome in this view or the Trump view. Interestingly, Trump Tower has some roof gardens, and is pixelated and is full of s***--think BIG and Trump are two sides of the same coin!
Nate, you can hate what you don't understand, but don't expect us to follow.
For the record, the issue is more complex than calling white people "racist" or the eventual BIG musings on diversity (while designing FOX news)
Go to bed Bjarke you have a symposium with Tinder tomorrow
Nate, You may like Zaha and FRaC may have black friends, but don't pretend as though the negative comments on this site are nuanced and substantive. As someone who doesn't feel the need to bash Ingels every time he is mentioned, I've asked questions to people about why they feel so strongly against his work, and I honestly cannot find much rationale to it. And yes, the same flurry of negative and unserious comments happen nearly every time Frank Gehry and Zaha Hadid are mentioned. Yet these firms are experiencing tremendous success.
maybe she's just an asshole. Some people are just assholes.
Davvid, I never said I had black friends. I have them, but i know how guilty whites love to conspicuously talk about their black BFFs, anyway....
If you want to read a BIG fan fiction, read any design publication. There's plenty of it. Lots of stuff about minecraft and Legos and being Rems protege (I.e one conversation) and "changing the game" type stuff.
davvid, Nate Hornblower has never made a nuanced statement on this site. I don't believe he understands what nuance is.
Lots of commenters here are *only*interested in the negative, bashing comments. It's a release valve for them. IMO it indicates a deep sense of self-doubt.
So may problems we face - in society, in architecture - are incredibly complex. Architects are supposed to be good at wicked problems, but from much of the commentary on this site you'd think we're not!
I'm sure Donna would love if all comments were negative and simple, it would help her to sleep at night without having to think
That comment is even more senseless than usual, Nate.
This article is so Donna
http://www.nytimes.com/2015/12/06/opinion/sunday/born-to-be-conned.html
Wanted to add this for people so eager to group uninformed hate with skepticism.
"In a sense, all victims of cons are the same: people swept up in a narrative that, to them, couldn’t be more compelling."
in all seriousness, Institutional racism is very difficult to pin point...to deny that it is not a real problem is ridiculous. I think this particular case may be overblown, but that does not mean that her points are unvalid.
Nate, I'm not going to pursue this very far, because you're just an anon and have never posted anything of value on the 'nect in my memory, but:
1. How old are you?
2. How many parts of the world have you visited/lived in?
3. How often do you interact with humans of wildly different education level and income bracket than yourself, both those with far more and with far less?
jla-x and that is the dilemma. claiming an entire "institution" as racist or sexist often makes the vocal "victim" look foolish, because for every 'wrong' which are often 'exceptions' there are equally right 'exceptions' unless of course the institution is say the KKK or something.............the storyline is predictable here - 1) they will indeed find discrimination by individuals and terminate them etc....2) they will find minimal to nothing to the claims and next time someone of similar background applies the integrity of that individual will come into question because of likeness to the previous person who took advantage of the 'system' for personal gains (this is essentially stereotyping).................for those who think the 'system' is 'rigged' you should list the points within the system that cause the rigging. you can't blame an individual, because then you are talking about someone's personality and not the institution......in other words in 'systems' that are 'rigged' what logic, proposition, and/or pattern of thought cause the game to be 'rigged'? (i.e. cite a policy otherwise you should just call the person(s) out who are racist or sexist) i realize a counter arguement to asking for a 'policy', may be - its too complicated and you cannot exclude individual behavior from the 'institution'. this counter doesn't help anyone regardless of what side of the coin you are, it keeps the water muddy and allows both sides to express their personality over the 'system'. i find it hard to believe that RIBA as a system has policies that give advantage to one person over another,its an architectural professional organization for christ sake............if an event by the institute was appaling based on certain individual behavior and the 'mob' just played along, what does that have to do with the "institution" - nothing. get it?........Donna you suggest that perhaps the 'system' requires unethical behavior to win, I might agree if this was the Mob or Wall Street but this is RIBA. or architecture in general, not an institution that most Alpha white males who might be racist or sexist care about.
Olaf, I told a story on TC about a group of my male colleagues ignoring a suggestion I made FOUR TIMES, then when one of the guys made the exact same suggestion they all jumped in and tried it.
This isn't *institutionalized* as nothing in our workplace handbook says that males should always ignore ideas presented by females when the female population makes up 20% or less of the team. But it is very much the structure of the system in which we work and exist as a society because when it comes to ideas about things like construction and cars males immediately assume that females can't offer valid ideas.
I'm saying that it's brave and hard to call out those instances of things being done the way they've always been, whether those situations are intentionally discriminatory or just common practice. In my case I didn't tell anyone except TC about my frustration at work because it's not really worth making myself look - in the eyes of my coworkers - like a bitch for pointing out that they did something totally ignorant. It's not that big a deal in itself, but it's part of the death-by-a-thousand-cuts that many have to face every day.
Which reminds me, Nate Hornblower: please ignore my last post to you. It's not worth my time. I posted that pre-coffee, I should have known better than to engage.
i am a philosiphical guy, and this a gross misuse of the term "institutionalized". it complicates matters and makes it unclear. if someone offends you, you call them out by Name, as you are doing with Nate. its not effective to blame the system, unless of course it clearly states "female ideas need male support to be agreed upon."
Wow, what did I say that was "offensive"? Talk about projecting...Notice that Donna doesn't have a problem with the racist comments like the first two but does with those that critique arch organizations or her personal heroes. And yet, I agree with what Jia-x said, racism exists sexism exists, obvi. But Donna doesn't really offer a fair alternative, other than a much maligned system where oppression is some kind of commodity, and crybullies are heard over all with no skeptics. Yes, architects can help solve the problem (or will it be a PR diversity-washing?). Who knows!
Interestingly if you do travel to other countries and meet other people, you can see how anti-intellectualism and anti-skepticism is the friend of dictators and regimes. People like Donna are a dime a dozen in Russia, etc. In our current culture of hyperpostmodernism, where the narrative of the thing has overruled the appearance of the thing (that replaced the experience of the thing) there is much to be skeptical about. Though most people in other countries admire [Americans, though this is a British issue] a lot more than Donna Sink does.
big suprise that you haven't read my positive comments, those are in the threads with actual decent architecture and not linkbait political issues that you spend time in.
Olaf, an Owusu quote in the Guardian refers specifically to the origin of the term from the case of the killing of Stephen Lawrence. The term was coined by Sir William Macpherson, who investigated the killing. He defines it as "the collective failure of an organization to provide an appropriate and professional service to people because of their colour, culture or ethnic origin." So it seems to me that while institutionalized racism is defined by a collective failure of an institution, it doesn't necessarily require every cell of an organization to be racist.
thank you davvid. i also recommend reading her bit on becoming a role model,but you do understand this all for nought if significant substantial evidence can not prove members of RIBA or itself as having an institutional issue......prisoners are "institutionalized" i will accept that, but a professional organization of free citizens? (also note, Nate she is ahead of an alternate institution, i love how practically no one followsup on media and shit Olaf might say, ha)
Sorry, edited to add: I didn't respond to the first two comments because I have institutional (heh) memory on this site: I don't bother with FRaC's comments, because he's pointless to talk with. Olaf is awesome and based on knowing him I know what he means by smartass comments. You, Nate, have solidified your position in my Archinect reading in the same camp as FRaC: skip over. Nate, you don't know anything about me. Please stop talking to or about me now. I'm done with you.
I'll point out that gwharton and I disagree vehemently on politics but s/he often says things I agree with, too, and s/he does a good job explaining them.
Uh, what?
Anyway, please don't talk to ME since you STARTED the name-calling. Didn't realize that this site has an unelected enforcer. Maybe I can be one someday? Then I can patronize all of these silly Archinectors who just love to vent, don't we? BLAH BLAH BLAH
It must burn some people that architects aren't uniformly the stereotypes they project them all to be, it doesn't fit their narrative.
All, can we get back to the discussion at hand, about how architects like BIG are addressing the global problems such as this one? So much ego here...
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