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How Environmental Justice Works
Published October 15, 2009 @ 09:03AM PT
Through MIT, I've had the opportunity to provide research and writing for a range of social justice clients, including grassroots groups fighting for environmental justice and green economic development. I've written occasionally about EJ here, but I've never really taken the time to define it. Embracing this frame is imperative as stimulus funds flow and talk of "green jobs" and "green development" abound.
Today, in honor of Blog Action Day 2009, in which Change.org hosts over 8k blogs from 135 countries worldwide to blog about Climate Change to raise awareness of this pressing global problem, I want to provide some important information on environmental justice, racism and equity to inform your climate change activism. To be effective climate change activists, we cannot forget the unequal and unfair impacts borne by low-income communities, often communities of color, often in the US South, on reservations and borderlands, from environmental degradation. Read on to learn more about these critical frames and see how one group in San Diego, the Environmental Health Coalition, is succeeding in pursuing environmental equity for low-income Latin@ communities there.
Desperation Reigns In Detroit
Published October 10, 2009 @ 09:27AM PT
You may have heard by now of the crush of Detroiters who descended on Cobo Hall this week to apply for homelessness prevention assistance. 50,000 - 60,000 residents have received applications for 3,400 packages of up to $3,000 to cover utility bills and fees associated with keeping one's home or moving into a new one.
The Detroit Free Press Editorial team beat me to the Katrina metaphors, and even threw in "tsunami" for good measure to describe Detroit's economic disaster.
But seriously: I know no flood waters have ravaged Detroit, nor have unseasonal weather conditions killed anticipated crop loads, but how can we not classify Detroit's 30% unemployment, 30% poverty rate, and upwards of 80,000 vacant homes as a national disaster? Are we so despairing ourselves, or so immune to economic conditions, that we've become inured to the increasingly regular photos of hoards of desperate Americans crowding our convention centers for whatever meager, emergency assistance we throw at them? If I could turn this into a photo essay I would: Those prior two links are of African-Americans lining up for free healthcare in South Los Angeles, and Detroiters at Cobo Hall waiting for aid applications. Those Depression-Era bread lines are NOT a thing of the past.
(Photo of Katrina survivors outside the Convention Center in NOLA by Wyn Henderson for FEMA)
No Work for Welfare in CA
Published October 07, 2009 @ 06:00AM PT
Cue the hyperventilating about dependency and free riders: California, in an effort to save money, has suspended work requirements for some of its public assistance recipients for the next 17 months. Never mind that its welfare-to-work program will become even more stringent in 2011, and that it cannot even afford to subsidize the critical child care needed for recipients to work in the first place. Layabouts will be getting rich off your tax dollars, without earning a dime! Shiftless miscreants.
Oh, what's that now? What are we seeing in Fresno, one of the first places to implement the new, less expensive policy? "Belying stereotypes, only about 10 percent of those who could be exempted from the work requirements — and supporting aid like child care — chose to do so in the first month." Turns out, people like receiving job prep and trying to play an active role in society! Let's try to remember that when we crank up the wailing about welfare queens despite the fact that "opting out" will become "mandatory" in the future due to CA's insane budget realities.
Help Hard to Get in 'Burbs
Published October 06, 2009 @ 07:31AM PT
The NYT ran two contrasting articles on the NY suburbs this weekend, highlighting the preservation and development plans for Long Island and the difficulty in accessing social services suburbanites have during the recession. They're worth reading together; L.I. public officials are promising to preserve the cherished single family homes and open spaces of the region, while hard-hit households struggle to find and get to the few shelters, soup kitchens and emergency service providers in the suburbs. Is this just a discrepancy that improved public transportation could resolve?
Nominate a Changemaker Today!
Published October 04, 2009 @ 01:01PM PT
Change.org has launched a new competition, Changemakers, "to identify the leading activists, elected officials, authors, bloggers, actors and thought leaders who have the greatest capacity to spark change on issues of importance."
Changemakers will be invited to write on one of the many social change issues we cover here at Change.org to mobilize the countless readers and activists we have here to take action. You can vote on those you'd like to see here at Change.org, and also nominate your own.
I voted for: Ben Jealous, Cleve Jones, Cory Booker, Gloria White Hammond, Jim Wallis, John Lewis, Majora Carter (above photo), Sister Helen Prejean, and Zainab Salbi.
I nominated Geoffrey Canada of Harlem Children's Zone, Cheri Honkala of the Poor People's Economic Human Rights Campaign and the Kensington Welfare Rights Union, and Bertha Lewis of ACORN.
I also think I will nominate Angela Glover Blackwell of PolicyLink and James Perry of the Greater New Orleans Fair Housing Center and a leading candidate for Mayor of New Orleans.
Vote Today and Nominate your Favorite Anti-Poverty Activists and Leaders!
Photo of Dr. Majora Carter, MacArthur Genius and Founder of Sustainable South Bronx, by mospeaks
Rural Child Poverty Widespread
Published October 03, 2009 @ 11:15AM PT
Thanks to Diane, we get a glimpse here of rural poverty in the U.S., a topic typically overshadowed by a national focus on urban poverty. Not surprising, given 80% of the country is classified as metropolitan, meaning there's a significant density of people and homes in the majority of the nation. But rural poverty is just as troubling and worrisome as poverty in the cities and suburbs, particularly given how many children are poor in rural America.
The Economic Research Service provides some #s from the recession's impact on rural America: Unemployment rose more sharply in metro regions, though it's about 9% nationwide. In rural communities, minorities and teens have the highest unemployment rates. Almost 1 in 4 kids in rural areas are poor, especially in communities with high minority populations. And well more than half of all rural counties have high child poverty rates where at least 1 in 5 children are poor. Child poverty is highest in well-known chronically poor areas: the Mississippi Delta, on Native American reservations, and along the border with Mexico.
Childhood poverty in rural America is a chronic problem; one that activists, advocates and policymakers are still trying to understand. It appears to be a perennial lack of educational and job opportunities, particularly for rural African-Americans, who have lived for generations with resources bypassing their communities and no particular means to get out. This is a topic I know very little about, but I do know this: the recession is by no means over, and if there was ever a time to refocus our priorities on these chronically poor, chronically forgotten communities, it's now.
Boston Hyatt-Worker Dispute Continues
Published October 02, 2009 @ 11:07AM PT
Last week we joined and covered the boycott initiated by MA Governor Deval Patrick against Hyatt Hotels, for what he saw as the "unceremonious" termination of housekeeping staff and their replacement with "outsourced" low-wage workers from a temporary staffing agency based in Georgia. In part through Change.org member activism, Hyatt offered the laid off workers new jobs at their higher wages with benefits into 2010. In a bold, and I think very cool, move, the majority of the workers rejected the offer, demanding their old jobs back. With the help of UNITE HERE, which has also joined the boycott, the workers are generating publicity and protesting Hyatt's actions - the case offers a great window into why it's so important to support service worker unionization.
