Human Flow

“It is important to recognize that the world is shrinking and people from different religions, different cultures are going to have to learn to live with each other”

The quote above is from the documentary, Human Flow, and I think perfectly captures the attitude that we need as architects and engaged global citizens, to address social and spacial justice. We are living in a time period in which people are being displaced from their homes, their countries at a rate we haven’t seen since World War II. It isn’t something new, this has been happening for years, and people (Americans) are just becoming mildly aware without actually having any empathy or opinion because it doesn’t really affect them. 

Ask my mom in rural Michigan what the European Refugee Crisis is and she’ll probably shrug, then continue to tell me “oh, you know the grocery store just put in a gas station, and Bob Smith just got arrested for a DUI the other night” (love her but demonstrates our closed-mindedness). After watching the trailer again, I scrolled down to the comments section, which really highlights our ignorance, our disrespect for basic human rights, our overall lack of empathy, and how race – a made up construct,  is what is keeping us from considering these refugees as human beings. See what National Geographic has to say about race:

Historically, when humans have drawn lines of identity—separating Us from Them—they’ve often relied on skin color as a proxy for race. But the 21st-century understanding of human genetics tells us that the whole idea of race is a human invention.

Modern science confirms “that the visible differences between peoples are accidents of history”—the result of mutations, migrations, natural selection, the isolation of some populations, and interbreeding among others, writes science journalist Elizabeth Kolbert. They are not racial differences because the very concept of race—to quote DNA-sequencing pioneer Craig Venter—“has no genetic or scientific basis.”

 

The film addresses 23 country’s crisis' over the course of a year, visiting borders that have become irrelevant, fluid almost. It drones over camp after camp, along long roads being traveled, people being herded like cattle. So this leads me to the question, “how can architecture help this crisis, one of the largest in global history to date?” But maybe more importantly is the question, “what will it take for American’s to actually care about this issue when we are so comfortable in our warm houses, with running water, food every day, and a very sheltered view of the world in which we share?”

 

Check out the Human Flow trailer below:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DVZGyTdk_BY

Check out the Nat Geo Article below:

https://www.nationalgeographic.com/magazine/2018/04/race-twins-black-white-biggs/