Comments fouchnickens has made

  • Well, you know what they say about assumptions...

    To JadeHoward:I initially responded to your comments because they were simplistic in their presentation, and I'm glad that you clarified some of your statements.

    But I'm intrigued by the tone of your statements. What information are you using to come to the conclusion that my comments are somehow removed from the challenges of environmental awareness within the black community? Does the opinion of a person who decides to understand a problem on a systemic level hold less value than a person who decides to understand that same problem on a local level?

    Then there is the concept of "insider/outsider" that pops up in various permutations in your comments. It may not have been clear to you that I also have professional and volunteer experience in farmers markets, community garden development, and environmental justice. The professional studies on nutritional knowledge supplemented the results of a survey that I too had conducted for an organization I worked with.

    Again, I have to pose the question of validity: Are my comments not valid because I decide to focus on the issue and not my personal background? If I tell you that I also live in a low-income community, does that make my comments more palatable? How about the fact that my experience with the black community goes far beyond living next to and interacting with "them," as I am one of "them?"

    To caniscandida: I don't actually care if predominantly white environmental organizations increase their ranks with people of color. On Where are low-income and minority greens in the media? posted 2 years, 6 months ago 21 Responses

  • As Marvin Gaye said, "what's goin' on?"

    Gee, I guess that multi-university report released in April 2007 on the environmental health disparities of people of color in California  escaped the notice of a whole lot of political wonks. Which is quite amazing, since it concluded that 81% of residents who live near toxic or hazardous waste facilities are minorities -- the highest concentration nationwide of minorities living near such facilities.

    Download the report here: Toxic Wastes and Race at Twenty

    As to the supposed lack of people of color in environmental movements in the United States, that is simply untrue. Most activist groups for people of color don't separate environmental justice from social justice since the cause of these injustices is the same. The last time a group of black people made a real fuss about the social and environmental conditions they lived under, the FBI made sure that future generations of African Americans would think twice about raising their voices against the system. But not wanting to leave a leadership vacuum, the nice white folks in politics and media made sure to name Jesse Jackson and Al Sharpton as "the head negroes in charge."  

    It is the continued racist assumption that people of color don't "know any better" or just need to be "shown the way" that peppers the ideology of even the most well-meaning white people which is a huge turn-off to even the most highly integrated person of color. Take, for example this statement posted above by jadehoward:

    "In my suburban town, for example, most black residents choose to shop at a discount grocery store rather than our excellent local farmers market, because they wrongly assume that the market is more expensive. Many of them exist on nothing but cheap, processed foods, usually because they can't afford anything better or they don't have time to make something more wholesome.

    Working class people don't buy organic bananas or fresh wild salmon or small batch cheeses. Most have no idea why they should."

    There have been several conclusive studies by various nutrition researchers that completely debunk this commonly held, yet completely erroneous belief. In the most recent study, the researchers were astounded by the level of nutrition knowledge among the respondants (single, low-income mothers of African American descent). The primary issue that determined the food buying strategies of these women was getting more bang for their meager buck.

    I had a similar, anecdotal experience during a medical missionary trip to the Caribbean. The women knew what foods were better to feed their families, but with no way to guarantee that the fresh food they purchased would not spoil quickly, canned foods were more attractive. The harsh rules of survival dictate that calories become the objective, not mineral nutrients.

    Let's look at the real issues for a moment, shall we? Lower-class people do not purchase fresh foods because of the rate of spoilage. In past generations, their grandparents would plant a subsistence plot as a low-cost means to add fresh produce to their diets. However, this is not possible in many lower-income communities without soil remediation, thanks to small business toxic waste dumping. Anyone who has had to deal with soil remediation and EPA enforcement in an inner-city or low-income community knows that it is often a difficult fight, spanning years -- if not decades.

    But let's put the victory gardens aside for a moment and discuss the local farmers market. It is only within the last few years that food stamps could be used at farmers markets -- that fact may have escaped many meaningful middle-class people's notice. Yet the USDA has had an uphill battle getting more farmers markets to accept this form of payment. For the working poor, food stamps make the difference between sustanence and starvation.

    Then there's the disconnect between what the farmer grows for the upper-to-middle class white shareholders and the different culinary tastes of people of color. The organization I worked for that sponsored farmers markets in low-income communities initially did not take into consideration that people from the Southern US, the Caribbean or Southeast Asia are not going to be interested in buying fresh produce that they do not use in their ethnic cuisines unless they are provided with cooking demonstrations and recipes. When the organization started growing okra, long beans, black-eyed peas, collards, and salad greens that catered to the customer base (watercress instead of mesclun), people started coming to the market with their food stamps. A smart farmers market organization could also offer classes on canning and sell canning supplies at cost as it is an easy method of storage that has been lost to most classes and races of people.

    The white environmental movement won't be able to expand its base among people of color unless it evolves beyond its parochially narrow focus and confront the institutionalized racism that continues to plague American society. Blunt, I know -- but true.
    On Where are low-income and minority greens in the media? posted 2 years, 6 months ago 21 Responses