Location: TBD
This event is open for the University of Maryland community only.
"Unwriting History: Navigating Intersectionality and the (Un)intended Consequences of Traditional Planning Models in “Majority-Minority” Communities"
Jordan Exantus, AICP LEED AP
Unwriting History” invites emerging planners to choose courage, humility, and partnership—reframing planning from managing growth to restoring balance, protecting community integrity, and expanding opportunities for those historically excluded. It probes how privilege, class, and power shape outcomes in “majority-minority” communities, showing how decontextualized models can reproduce inequity and harm. Drawing on work in New York City, Red Lake Nation, Memphis, and the DMV region, it examines intersectionality across race, class, national origin, and culture, and how blind spots or “progressive” policies untethered from lived realities can drive displacement, erasure, or political misalignment. Grounded in principles of restorative justice, cultural competence, and community deference, the session asks students to interrogate cultural agglomeration; displacement versus gentrification; the commodification of community; capitalism’s reshaping of social networks; and the distinct challenges of planning in sovereign Indigenous nations. Students leave with practical competencies: authentic engagement, balanced participation, empathetic responses to anger, respect for local protocols, recognition of the limits of “neutral” language, and tools for community-driven solutions that elevate community-authored visions, shift power, and support long-term stewardship.