American Planning Association is a membership organization comprised of professional as well as non-professional planners in the United States of America.

• As an organization it has persistently avoided advancing its nonwhite members to positions of authority and visibility and leadership.
• As an organization it has turned a blind eye to the consistent and persistent disinvestment of nonwhite communities across the country through policies advanced by their members.
• As an organization it has done little to welcome and support planners of color through their career; either through education, hiring or contracting.
• The environment at its conferences are unwelcoming and hostile to planners of color.

The Association has done little to address this issue. While we now have an Interest group to address this issue, as a small segment of the 40,000 person (or more?) membership, it will be slow to bring equity to the attention of APA membership and leaders. The plight of neighborhoods with people of color demands that the Association accelerate and prioritizes this work. Now, more than ever before, the results of century-long planning process are coming to bear. National events are bringing light to this problem. Communities of color are finally speaking up about their marginalization, discrimination and lack of access to opportunities, at a time when the country's collective wealth has been exponentially higher than ever before.

By joining me in the boycott, you will demonstrate your support to press the American Planning Association leadership to prioritize this work. We are asking the American Planning Association to set up a leadership group within the organization, led by planners of color to systematically study and propose solutions to their cohorts within 18 months. We need a detailed plan from the Association to describe how it will deliberately end inequity within the organization, and its state chapters.