CheckTheWeather

- Matthew J Miller

Note: I am an environmental justice advocate so this is certainly not a break from the environmental movement. It is my realization that I have a responsibility to do some cultural brokering. I intend to offer alternative and relevant perspectives, not to divide. Consider this an acknowledgment of the socioeconomic, racial, political, psychological, and even spiritual challenges that need to be hurdled and taken head on in striving to “green” communities, oppressed and liberated alike. Since this piece is slightly creative, take the personal pronouns as me speaking from a group perspective informed and inspired by personal accounts and my ethnic studies.

I get it: the world is crumbling. Boo-hoo. Did you think my world was in tact before? Oh yes, this is going to be one of those cups of tea. I hope you like it hot.

You hide the sociology of me, the darker brother and sister, in the shadow of a tree. You choose not to address my stinging history, feigning a post-this and that society. But we both know it. I had no civil rights and now they’re here…well, mostly. But am I liberated? Of course not.

More than that, I am being told to curb my freedoms. Reduce. Reuse. Recycle. How about “Repair”? Will greening my materialistic life make me any better off than I was? Will it deliver justice? Or will it merely clear the conscious of a country as worried about its carbon-crowned capitalism as it was about racism, segregation, and discrimination?

HOW. CAN. YOU. COLOR. ME. GREEN. WHEN. YOU. CANNOT. EVEN. SEE. THAT. I’M. BLACK?

How can you tell me to cook healthier food when there aren’t any grocery stores? How can you preach at me about water’s preciosity when I’m dehydrated from no AC? Why do I need to conserve energy when the lights can’t seem to go a month without getting cut off anyway? Who is going to pick up my diversified, neatly sorted piles of waste when the garbage man barely even comes? Why would I want a city with more green, walking space and less cars – so I can breathe the smoggy air from the backyard plant facility? How can I help save the sea creatures when I’m drowning in ignorance of ecosystems? How can the Earth be weeding us off when we’re in God’s plan? How can you talk about the triple bottom line when you haven’t even looked at the Toxic Triangle of environmental racism in Richmond, Hunter’s Point, and Oakland? How can I sustain life when all I see is social ills?

Public Service Announcement: When you talk about sustaining anything, make it clear to see why it should matter to those suffering just as much as the soil, the skies, and the seas. When you talk about choosing the better option, think about the person who is not free, choicelessly on the fringes of society. When you gather proof that I am damaging the whole world these days, know that the destruction to my world came first, way back in the day of Plymouth Bay.

My people rally behind liberty and justice, not just personal responsibility. I guarantee you this: the disadvantaged will become the movement’s disadvantage if the connection is not made on how environmentalists will remedy the lives of those with the most need. Van Jones says, “We need a green collar economy” but people forget the latter part of that statement: “…strong enough to lift people out of poverty.” But even the man who has figured this out was villainized, almost coloring my meager hopes as green as jade. But never mind that.

Take my share of the burden of cleaning up the Earth, you say? I say let’s take the heavy environmental burdens off oppressed groups while we’re at it. Sustainability talks about this triple bottom line of “people, planet, and profit” and that’s great. Just know that I will NOT be the last person accounted for in our humankind.

I promise I’m not in the business of staying angry, but I must get under your skin to get a point across: we all care about the system after the self. The first step to a big solution is admitting there is a composite of problems.

My suggestion: invite justice in the picture and you’ll see the bottom line truly rise where you…we… need it to rise. Give me a sheet of the blueprint too. Let’s hold hands. Let’s remake King’s Poor People’s Campaign and train the jobless in the art of natural preservation. Let’s both figure out what our schools should be teaching our kids about the earth. Let’s go into the kitchen together and crank out a healthy feast for our families. Let’s get our churches to e-mail our senators about the toxics on our beach. Let me know when the city is voting so I can help with cheaper energy and I’ll let you know when the next gospel artist is coming to my church or a concert so we can pitch a message of stewardship; let’s engage in exchanges of culture with citizenship. Let’s link arms.

I’m not asking for controversy. I’m saying let’s be a true transparent team, not each other’s tools.

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Tags: Climate Justice, Climate Justice Now!, Green Jobs, Stanford

March 8th, 2010 | Tags: Climate Justice, Climate Justice Now!, Green Jobs, Stanford
Climate Justice, Real Talk Real People, Young Leader on the Grind | 14 Comments »