What’s a black girl from the Nation’s Capital (aka: the Chocolate City) care about compact fluorescent light bulbs, reforestation in the Brazilian rainforest, or endangered wolf packs in Colorado? Had you met me ten years ago, I would’ve told you “not a damn thing!” But today, I stand proudly as an advocate for renewable energy, toxin-free personal care products, and organic food for the masses.
How could this unexpected metamorphosis happen?
Growing up, I always loved taking long nature walks with my dad in the vast woods behind our house, running through the sprinkler on a hot summer afternoon, making mud pies after a good rain, blowing dandelion seeds in the wind, and snapping fresh green beans with my mom from my grandfather’s garden. But I never thought about being an “environmentalist.”
Not because environmentalists are bad people. In fact, some of my “best friends” are environmentalists. Just kidding. In truth, the environmentalist movement has accomplished many great feats, from planet-friendly legislation to helping to spur a counter-culture where “gorgeous” and “green” are now synonymous. But as a young teenager, then in college and finally law school, whenever the issue of environmentalism came up, I always had a negative reaction. A reaction I tend to have about all “isms.” Why? In my view, they are all are based on some form or another of separation consciousness, an insidious “us versus them,” a human-designed zero-sum game that keeps the “good cops” and the “bad cops” on different sides of the railroad tracks. Like racism, sexism, nationalism, and classism, isms have the power to segregate people instead of uniting them—even if in theory, the ism happens to be for a justifiably good so-called “cause.”
Historically, the environmentalism movement—unlike many more populist movements—has appealed to people who have the luxury of getting beyond just surviving to contemplate the world at large and their relationship to it. Given the past and present struggles of the African-American community—and other segments of the world population that have traditionally been disenfranchised by the institutionalized isms of mainstream culture—it’s no surprise that the environmentalist movement has not been of much interest to people of color. Disturbing, yes, but think—when was the last time you saw or even heard about an all-Black rally for Save the Whales?
PREVIOUS PAGE
