IBARW: Ecominded POC

[unusualmusic_lj_archive]

Because until last year, the only environmentalists I'd ever seen featured in magazines and in newspapers were white and middle class. (No, I didn't come into contact with the issue of mountaintop removal til last year.) And focused on either saving Africans from themselves, or stopping Native Americans from carrying out their traditions to pay for effects rapacious white greed:endangered animals. Because issues that affect POC, especially if they are poor, are not what usually comes to mind when one is discussing the mainstream environmental movement. Because saving the forest/national parks/seashores are important, and so is saving the cities in which the vast majority of the Americans live, including POC. In fact, a whole new discipline of environmentalism, environmental justice, had to be created to address these issues. Because race and class are integral parts of my environmentalism. Because poor POC's are being, and will continue to be, the ones who will disproportionately affected by environmental catastrophe. Because although I knew they were out there, I found it astonishingly hard to locate them, because I didn't know how to find them. After all, their issues did not come under teh traditional rubric of the mainstream environmental issues. Because I felt so terribly alone and weird.

So here is a list of Inspiring, Eco-Minded POC. Because no. We are not alone. And yes, our issues matter. Even though finding the tag "environmental justice" on Grist Magazine, for example, requires specific and targeted search.