For this blog, we (Brooke who identifies as Black and rita who identifies as Asian American) reflected and dialogued on our own experiences as targets of oppression. Whereas our experiences are different, inclusive and expansive of our racial identities, reflections on the need for staying with vulnerability arose for both of us. This blog is a synthesis of this series of conversations.

Image description: a bright pink lotus flower floating on dark blue water with a green lily pad on the right side.

First, from Brooke:

Let’s start with an understatement: 2020 has been a hard year. Besides the coronavirus pandemic that has upended life as we know it and a brutal election cycle that feels like it will never end, another destructive pandemic — racism — has continued to drive wave after wave of harms for Black folks in particular.

This is neither news nor new in any other sense. The ravages of structural racism that affects our experience of COVID-19, electoral politics, and just about everything else have been afflicting our communities for centuries. Still, through all the twists and turns, as a Black person, the wave of mainstream visibility police brutality received after George Floyd’s murder stands out for me as especially emotionally challenging. Even as we saw more and more images of ourselves being murdered in plain sight with impunity, we also watched white folks and non-Black people of color grapple with what it means to genuinely care about our lives, sometimes for the first time.

I want to reflect on this experience in particular as we approach 2021 because there are lessons to be learned…

Read full post on Medium website at this link.

Improving transportation options in a historically underinvested neighborhood facing an imminent wave of gentrification.

Reflex Design Collective facilitates creative processes that lift up the brilliance of front line innovators who navigate through lived experiences of oppression every day. We call this process Equity Design. This is a story about Equity Design in action.

The Landscape: Black San Francisco, Displacement, Environmental Justice, and a home to Immigrants

Last spring, San Francisco County Transportation Authority (SFCTA) brought on Reflex Design Collective as a consultant to improve transportation in a historic but rapidly gentrifying area of San Francisco. San Francisco district 10, which includes Bayview-Hunters Point, Potrero Hill, Dogpatch, and Visitacion Valley, is full of vibrant, resilient communities. It’s also difficult to get around in. There are few public transportation options and traffic congestion is common. Parking is highly limited and there is little infrastructure for bikers. It’s not uncommon to see cars parked on sidewalks or experience 20 minute delays at Muni stops. We heard stories of unreliable bus routes, especially near the public housing — one resident shared that she is often left waiting on the bus in the middle of her route for half an hour while the driver goes on break.

Read the full post on Medium.

The entire world knows about Martin Luther King Jr. He had the opportunity to develop the burgeoning grassroots Civil Rights movement into a national phenomenon, where he fought stagnantly against the issues of racial inequality for the world to see.

Less people, on the other hand, know about Bayard Rustin. A black gay man, he served as the genius organizer behind much of MLK’s civil rights movement. He helped to teach Martin Luther King about nonviolent protest, and organized its implementation into civil disobedience acts while organizing the Southern Christian Leadership Conference. Without Rustin, the world-famous march on Washington wouldn’t have ever happened. However, as a black, gay socialist, his sexuality was criticized as an ‘immoral influence’ by strong conservative influences in the civil rights movement.

I don’t mean to biography Mr. Bayard for no reason; many other manuscripts illustrate Bayard’s genius much better than I ever could. Instead, I offer his narrative to present a different lens: was he an innovator? From issues including but not limited to: civil rights, foreign policy, LGBT rights, refugee aid, his work required a deep understanding of the issues with the world. He offered his life towards figuring out how he could remake it. It would be interesting to hear how scholars of innovation might say about his ability to understand and remake the world.

Read our full post on Medium.

Reflex Design Collective, a cadre of alumni and current Berkeley graduate students, had the chance to support the Social Justice Symposium. We found a lot of communities with varying experiences; some with their work deeply involved in various community issues, some with a large amount of user experience and design thinking backgrounds, and some with a little of both.

Read our full post on Medium.