LESS TALK | MORE ACTION: Conscious Shi�s in Architectural Educa�on 128 Racism persists in the work we do as architects, architec- ture students, and architectural educators. In this paper, we combine sociological theories of colorblind racism and white hegemony with an analysis of architectural design processes. We draw from wri�ngs, poetry, imagery, and renderings as media that aid in making architecture’s racial discrimina- �on visible. We propose ways of thinking about colorblind racism in design that we hope will aid design prac��oners, students, and teachers in countering hegemonic racist ide- ologies that are present in our work. We consider ways that in our prac�ces and our teaching, we conceptualize space as colorblind, we render those spaces as white, hegemonic, and norma�ve, and we disengage when those spaces sustain racism. We argue that our failure to see the racializa�on of the spaces we imagine is an expression of colorblind racism. INTRODUCTION “Well, plans and sec�ons as drawings are inherently racist.” The idea, perhaps more radical sounding than actually pro- voca�ve, was shared by a par�cipant in our workshop on racism and design at the Associa�on of Collegiate Schools of Architecture (ACSA) fall 2019 conference. The phrase sounded more conten�ous than the reac�on it provoked because most folks in the room seemed to understand the premise of the comment. If debated, we imagine differences of opinion would emerge. Most in the room appeared to recognize that ra�onal, measured forms of recording, communica�ng, and delineat- ing space were among the many tools that enabled and were enabled by colonialism. In the US, modern racism joined the history of colonial violence since the slave revolts and sub- sequent racial forma�ons in the US. The ra�onal regula�on and segrega�on of spaces and the bodies that occupy them implicate plans and sec�ons in our racist history. This was the understanding that was presumed evoked by the par�cipant in our workshop. The reac�on--or lack thereof--to their statement reminds us of the dis�nc�on between racist ac�ons that are obvious enough to denounce and those racist ac�ons that are hidden in ways that we are blind to. This dis�nc�on between forms of racism underscores how racist ideologies are hegemonic and how they show up in architecture. Racist ideologies serve those in power and are perpetuated through people’s thoughts and ac�ons. At the workshop, we were reminded that in architecture, the hegemony of racist ideologies is pres- ent even in our drawing conven�ons. (That this is obvious to a few and hard to grasp for most speaks to the power of hege- monic ideologies.) In this paper, as in our conference session, we hope to make visible the hegemonic ways that racism persists in the work we do as architects, architecture students, and architectural educators. We combine sociological theories of colorblind racism and white hegemony with an analysis of architectural design processes. We draw from wri�ngs, poetry, imagery, and renderings as media that aid in making architecture’s racial discrimina�on visible. We propose ways of thinking about colorblind racism in space that we hope will aid design prac- ��oners, students, and teachers in countering hegemonic racist ideologies that are present in our work. To achieve this, our paper is structured as a series of vigne�es that express the range of ways racism is perpetuated and inflicted through architecture. COLORBLIND RACISM We intend this first image not as a picture of the infrastruc- ture of segrega�on that it depicts, but as a reminder of the range of trades involved in that infrastructure’s realiza�on. A number of people par�cipated in imagining, loca�ng, Forming An�-Racist and Counter-Hegemonic Spaces SHAWHIN ROUDBARI University of Colorado Boulder ANA COLÓN QUIÑONES University of Colorado Boulder ANN MARIE DANG University of Colorado Boulder Figure 1. Segrega�on. (Source: h�ps://gaze�e.com/editorial-cu- boulder-s-separate-but-equal-segregated-dorm/ar�cle_b809840d- 59e9-544c-830e-f1e230a4adaf.html)