If you watch the video, you'll notice two things: first, that Samantha was one of the 397 Black women to have ever been registered as a licensed architect in the US and second, this video was released early this year in February 2020. That's especially troubling, considering that architecture became a licensed profession in the United States back in 1857. Thus, the percentage of Black female architects is extremely low, making up only about roughly 0.3% as of 2019 (although some sources have reported a range from 0.1% to 0.5%); regardless of the exact number, it shows us that there is a major lack of Black female architectural designers in the industry. This could be the result of a number of things such as lack of access to educational resources and/or financial means to fund their education, institution and workplace discrimination, and sexism. But surely, the industry would greatly benefit from recognizing Black design excellence.

It goes without saying that Black women have a unique social position, constantly at the forefront of discrimination and sexual violence on the basis of race and gender. This particular intersection (that I am very familiar with as a fellow Black American woman) is a daily battle with covert racism like microaggressions/media harassment of BW and over racism such as hate speech and hate crimes. Black innovations are often scrutinized, stolen and repurposed either for social influence or monetary gain by someone else.

But luckily, people are finally doing something about it. Resources like the Black Females in Architecture or, BFA network, and more broadly The Directory of African American Architects (provided through The National Organization of Minority Architects aka NOMA) seeks to both support Black designers, bridge their expertise to the larger general public in hopes to increase Black architectural visibility and uplift the community as the pioneers of built communities.