Harambee

Issue date: 12/8/08 Section: Opinion

This November marked the 7th anniversary of the SF Green Festival. This annual event features over 100 speakers and 400 exhibits educating and inspiring us all to be more 'green', 'sustainable' and 'to reduce our eco-footprint'.

The Green Festival is one of hundreds of mainstream environmental conferences and events that occur regularly throughout the world. However, this green movement AKA environmental movement continues to be isolated from the marginalized communities that are most impacted by environmental degradation.

Picture a billboard that depicts polar bears stranded on the melting ice. Then picture poor African children of New Orleans 9th ward stranded on a roof top surrounded by rising flood waters. Both are images of environmental crises and desperation. Both are also the result of global warming or climate change. But one of the images weighs more heavily on the hearts and minds of main stream America - it is not the African children. Why are African and indigenous peoples most impacted by environmental hazards but least acknowledged in the environmental movement?

Many of us in the African community know little of the beginnings of the modern environmental movement even though we have made significant contribution to its development. For example, Rachel Carson is best known for her ground breaking book, "Silent Spring", where she made a big outcry against the use of the pesticide, DDT. She cautioned us to be aware of the interconnectedness of everything and warned us that the deadly pesticide was not just going into the soil, but it was in the entire ecosystem and was killing wildlife.

Yet during that time, Cesar Chavez was yelling for us to be aware of these same pesticides that were killing Brown indigenous people in the fields of California. These two powerful voices had similar messages for two different audiences. Carson spoke about ecology to mainstream America and Chavez gave voice to immigrant farmers and called for social justice.

In fact the environmental (green) movement has two distinguishing trends; one based in the struggle for civil rights and social justice and the other representing polar bears and hybrid cars. The former is called Environmental Justice (EJ). This movement rose up to fight toxic violence AKA environmental racism. EJ was sparked by an incident in Warren County, North Carolina. This rural African community rose up in 1982 to protest a proposed disposal site for PCB's (cancer causing chemicals). Eventually the community organized a huge demonstration that led to 500 arrests. This was the first time in history that many people were arrested for protesting an environmental issue.

This led to a 1987 study commissioned by the United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice (CRJ) entitled, "Toxic Waste & Race". The study found that the highest concentrations of toxic wastes in America are located in minority communities and that race is "the single most important factor in the location of abandoned toxic waste site". Environmental racism is yet another symptom of a violent system of capitalism that continues to ravage mother earth and exploit powerless communities of color. The National Council of Churches Racial Justice Working Group defines environmental racism as, "the disproportionate environmental risks that are borne by poor communities and communities of color".

Twenty-one years since the CRJ report the EJ and Green movements are well established. The Green Festival is held in five major cities across America. There have been two National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summits and a plethora of EJ groups growing up all over the world. So one might ask the question, "How can the EJ movement become more relevant to marginalized communities of color"?

Heeding Malcolm who said, 'history best rewards our research', we will find that environmental beliefs are not new or foreign to Black and Brown folk. Our indigenous brothers and sisters of the Americas were the original environmentalists in the western hemisphere. They understood the fundamental principles of leaving a small eco-footprint on mother earth. Africans that were enslaved brought to the Americas deep ecological knowledge of planting and cultivating crops. It is a well known historical fact that African women were the first farmers of the world.

There are numerous examples of the African contribution to environmental history. The incorrect reference to George Washington Carver as the 'peanut' man trivializes our cultural-ecological knowledge and the historical contributions to the science of land restoration and crop rotation. Dr. Carver understood that healthy soil needed nitrogen and that growing peanuts replenish this vital nutrient. The Black Panther Party knew about the importance of creating sustainable communities. David Hilliard worked on educating folk in Southern California about the value of converting their homes to solar energy.

Knowledge is power and communities of color have the right to know. Knowledge that the asthma crisis facing urban centers in America is the result of environmental racism because of racist city planning and zoning laws, will empower communities to demand a green agenda that includes the health Black and Brown children. The EJ movement is doing this work but the full spectrum of it is not featured at Green Festivals.

As the keynote speaker, Rev. Lennox Yearwood (president of the Hip Hop Caucus) admonished all of us at the opening of Green Festival, that "we had the responsibility to give the tools to the people and trust that they can lead this movement". Bringing Yearwood and others was the festivals organizers attempt to attract a younger more diverse audience. So we were also graced by the presence of Jahi, Chuck D and Mutabaruka. However it was clear that they too were unfamiliar with the full history of the EJ movement and all its nuances.

For example, Marvin Gaye accurately and precisely described the situation in 1971 with his "Mercy, Mercy Me, (The Ecology)" song.

Woo ah, mercy mercy me
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Where did all the blue skies go?
Poison is the wind that blows from the north and south and east

Woo mercy, mercy me, mercy father
Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no
Oil wasted on the ocean and upon our seas, fish full of mercury
Ah oh mercy, mercy me Ah things ain't what they used to be, no no

Radiation under ground and in the sky
Animals and birds who live nearby are dying
Oh mercy, mercy me Ah things ain't what they used to be
What about this overcrowded land

How much more abuse from man can she stand?
Oh, na na... My sweet Lord...
No My Lord... My sweet Lord

What was it that Marvin knew then that we have forgotten? How can we reconnect with our ancestral wisdom of respecting mother earth? If these questions become relevant to communities of color, especially the youth, we on our way to building a sustainable Black, Brown and Green movement.

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