A Critical Question with Tamika Butler

SPECIAL FEATURE

Tamika Butler

Principal and Founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting

The theme for the 2022 report is “Intersections + Identities: A Radical Rethinking of Our Transportation Experiences” - what is a current transportation issue that you find is most in need of a “radical rethinking”?

Something I always talk about is that in our planning world you can be an engineer, you can be a planner, you can also be a landscape architect. So I think it’s hard to just talk about our profession, but I think broadly in this industry, one of the things I personally feel is that folks do this work because we care. We want to do the right thing, we want to connect people, we want to bring people together, we want to create inviting spaces – some of us do that through engineering and some of us do it through design or planning. I think something we radically need to rethink is that equity is solely an external process or can only manifest externally. I think what we have to realize is just because in your heart you want to do equity, you might not be ready, like you may need to read. You may need to figure out why when you look around at your team everybody looks like you, everybody has very similar experiences to you. And in the consulting world, this is something you see all the time. We see RFP’s coming out that say, ”We want to do this, this, and this with equity, equity, equity,” and you’ll see these firms apply for these projects and you’re thinking you don’t even have women or person of color on your team. You have no projects where you’ve shown a history of doing equitable work. What is your skillset to be able to do this?” So, while I think it is important for us to focus on external-facing equity: how can our projects and outcomes be more equitable, I don’t think that should be at the expense of doing the internal work. And I think that’s something that comes up when I do equity trainings for people and organizations. Sometimes I get feedback such as, “We were hoping you would take us through a process to evaluate projects

in a more equitable way, but instead we’re talking about our personal experiences with racism, we’re reading and talking about the tenants of white supremacy culture in a workplace.” And so what I always tell people is, You have to rethink this idea that equity is just something you do out in the world. It’s something that’s a deeply personal journey and an organizational journey and a cultural journey, and if you can’t do that right, then you can be an organization that does your external equity work and recruits a bunch of folks of color to come work for you, but if you haven’t done the work internally, then what will those folks’ experiences be? You can do the external work to make sure your outreach and engagement process is more equitable, but if you haven’t done the work and the folks on your staff who are being sent out to these communities still don’t get it, then that’s not going to be a good experience for those communities. Personally, when I talk about equity I’m always centering race. That doesn’t mean you can’t have equity work for projects that centers on older adults or trans people or undocumented folks. It is more important that the community you are working with and where you are trying to bring about change has a shared vision of what equity looks like. You have to come to that definition of equity together. Beyond that, as the “experts” we have to learn how to step back, respect the wisdom of those we are there to help, and let them selfdetermine what equity means, looks like, and feels like for themselves.

Expanded Content

podcast

Continue the conversation with Tamika in our “Critical Conversations: The State of Transportation Planning in 2022” podcast series, available at planning.org/ podcast or wherever you get your podcasts.

➡ https://planning.org/podcast/

Cover photo: Tamika cycling in downtown Los Angeles (Courtesy of the author)

Tamika Butler

Tamika is the Principal and Founder of Tamika L. Butler Consulting, where she focuses on shining a light on inequality, inequity, and social justice-related issues. With a diverse background in law, community organizing, and nonprofit leadership, she is a national expert on issues related to public policy, the built environment, equity, anti-racism, diversity and inclusion, organizational behavior, and change management. She is also a doctoral student in Urban Planning at UCLA’s Institute for Transportation Studies in the Luskin School of Public Affairs.