LETTER FROM THE EDITOR
Bonjour Les Amis! As we approach the end of another glorious year, one must sit back and take account of all of the wonderful achievements that we as minority designers have made individually. However, it is crucial that we do not allow ourselves to be lulled into a sense of complacency when there are many strides that must be taken to advance within our fields collectively. For example, interior design education has failed to address the issues surrounding cultural diversity among its practitioners who serve a very multifarious population. Long dominated by Eurocentric ideas, it has continued to reinforce generalizations that devalue the role of nonWestern social, cultural, aesthetics, and other creative traditions that shape the built environments we inhabit. As a designer and educator, it is my wish to draw attention to an understudied area of cultural diversity in design pedagogy as a whole.
we promote. Our agenda is simple- promote and celebrate the minority design professional as a means to drive diversity in the industry’s workforce. We believe that the design industry will never truly flourish until its community embraces diversity as a whole. The proof of our argument weighs heavily on the consequences of there being no meaningfully diversity among most of the top A&E firms and fashion houses. As a result, society not only suffers the loss of social and cultural capital but also economic opportunities globally. Therefore our focus is to provide inspirational stories to aid in the development to the minority design professional as a means to help them reach their full potential. Until next year‌shalom y’all.
Tameka Pierre-Louis, Allied Member ASID Editor-In-Chief of Le Rapport Minoritaire