BlackBrownGreen: An anti-racist environmental website
Wed, 2008-03-12 06:38
#1
Maysie
BlackBrownGreen: An anti-racist environmental website
Wed, 2008-03-12 06:38
#2
Maysie
Heard about this great website in this article at Shamelessmag.com:
quote:
Wouldn’t things go much faster if we all recognised how ultimately linked all of our causes - like feminism, queer rights, indigenous rights, racial equity, anti-poverty efforts, ability activism - are linked, and then work together? Instead, what seems to happen more often than not is a competition to see who has it worse. I tell you, it’s enough to tire a girl out.One thing in particular that’s always stuck in my craw is the green movement’s tendency towards racism (or at least racial obliviousness) and classism. While feminism and environmentalism have managed to make the happy marriage of ecofeminism, anti-racism movements and environmental movements haven’t always gotten along.
That’s why I was thrilled to find out about BlackBrownGreen.com, “a web portal of resources and information that integrate people of color and our needs and issues with the movement for environmental sustainability.” As they say most eloquently:
[i]We hope to spread the understanding that all things are connected and that we are stronger when working together than we are when we are tearing each other apart.[/i]
From BlackBrownGreen.com:
quote:
People of color are deeply impacted by environmental issues from large scale policies to the effects of individual over-consumption and waste. Yet there remains a disconnect between pursuing social justice and environmental sustainability. I’ve often said during my anti-racism work, “if you don’t lower your consumption, people of color suffer.”
[url=http://www.shamelessmag.com/blog/2008/01/introducing-blackbrowngreen-a-w... on Shameless magazine's site[/url]
[url=http://blackbrowngreen.com/pages/intro.html]blackbrowngreen.com[/url]
[ 12 March 2008: Message edited by: bigcitygal ]
Wed, 2008-03-12 08:14
#3
This needs a repeating:
quote:
Wouldn’t things go much faster if we all recognised how ultimately linked all of our causes - like feminism, queer rights, indigenous rights, racial equity, anti-poverty efforts, ability activism - are linked, and then work together?
Wed, 2008-03-12 08:59
#4
M. Spector
I'd have been happier if it was called blackbrowngreenred.
Wed, 2008-03-12 09:26
#5
Thanks BCG.
This is an interesting bit from blackbrowngreen's section on permaculture:
"Permaculture has come to mean more than just food sufficiency in the household. Self-reliance in food is meaningless unless people have access to land, information, and financial resources. So in recent years it has come to encompass appropriate legal and financial strategies, including strategies for land access, business structures, and regional self financing."
I'd like to have those sentences explained in a little more detail. Seems a little simplistic, doesn't it? I mean, as a Canadian farmer and a rural person, I can't even understand how the various ministries of agriculture and rural affairs are helping me, let alone try to figure out how non-racist permacultural principles can be applied in any large scale fashion.
Seems to me that there are an awful lot of urban folks out there who simply are not capable of understanding how agriculture works. So when I read things like this - and I do think it's a fine project - my knee jerk reaction is to think of bunch of urbanites sitting around coming up with solutions to problems that they have no dirt level experience with.
I do think there could, and should, be a lot more interaction between our large urban POC cultures and local food producers. I don't think a lot of rural farmers are aware of the various food markets. In food practices alone we could begin to break down some entrenched barriers. But I'm not sure jumping straight to permaculture is going to work.
[ 12 March 2008: Message edited by: Farmpunk ]
Wed, 2008-03-12 10:26
#6
Frustrated Mess
You need to get out more.
Wed, 2008-03-12 11:25
#7
You asking me for a date?
Wed, 2008-03-12 11:26
#8
Whoops, shit, bad typo\sentence about to be corrected in first post. Apologies for for the poor initial edit.
Wed, 2008-03-12 11:31
#9
Frustrated Mess
quote:
You asking me for a date?
Maybe ... Whatcha wearing?
Wed, 2008-03-12 11:37
#10
It varies depending on where I think the date will end up.
And I actually think I need to "go out" a little less. At least that's what my rapidly depleteing brain cells are suggesting.
Thu, 2008-03-13 06:06
#11
M. Spector
A new report shows how indigenous and minority communities throughout the world are suffering the most from the effects of climate change.
quote:
The close relationship of many indigenous peoples and some minorities to their environments makes them especially sensitive to the impacts of climate change – and also to the cultivation of biofuels, which are being presented as part of the ‘solution’ to global warming
[i]Climate Change and Minorities[/i] is the first chapter in [url=http://www.minorityrights.org/?lid=6138]State of the World’s Minorities 2008[/url] published by the NGO [i]Minority Rights Group International[/i].
The report is 101 pages long, and can be downloaded in .pdf format [url=http://www.minorityrights.org/download.php?id=459]HERE[/url] (2.7 MB).
I learned about this [url=http://climateandcapitalism.com/?p=362]HERE[/url].