Joining Our City Forest has opened my mind to many more questions I have about my own community. First, I would like to say that I identify as a young black woman trying to navigate a space very new to me. I have recently relocated to the Bay Area from Virginia to join Our City Forest as an AmeriCorps member. I grew up in rural central Virginia, with around 80 percent of the population being white. The house I grew up in was in the middle of the woods and my neighbors were mainly farmers. They raised cattle for dairy production and to sell as livestock. We even had turkeys enter my yard from these nearby fields - fields which had been passed down by generations on my father’s side of the family.
Growing up in my community, I was educated on the importance of how and why we need to keep our land clean. In middle school there were several agriculture classes you could take as an elective. In elementary school we had some of the local farmers give us a crash course on how to make homemade apple juice or have a small farmer’s market for children. While I recognize that everyone has a different upbringing, my childhood experience has shaped me to take an interest in the environment. As a minority in my hometown, I have had some time to reflect on the relationship between black and brown communities and the environment.
Orange County, Virginia
It is no secret that the communities most impacted by climate change are communities of color in the United States. Black and brown communities tend to reside in areas with higher pollution, circumstantial to the lower cost of living in these places. These areas tend to have fewer rural environments, such as outdoor parks, that provide us with many physical and mental health benefits. The end of slavery in the South in the late 1800’s caused many black Americans to move away from the South and from rural areas. This period is often referred to as The Great Migration. During the Great Migration, African Americans moved into industrial cities to find work and later helped fill labor jobs created by the events of World War I. After years of working the land as slaves, it is not difficult to imagine why African Americans fled from farmland and to urban areas. This exodus from rural regions has created a physical and mental block between African Americans and the environment because they associate open land with slavery and the Jim Crow era. With all that has expanded us as black people in the past century, we have also managed to lose our connection to the environment and the land.
“I want to rest again in southern fields, in grass and hay and clover/bloom; to lay my hand again upon the clay baked by a/southern sun, to touch the rain-soaked earth and smell/ the smell of soil.”
The 1900’s were also a source of the Segregation Era. The Segregation Era refers to the different zoning and sectioning off of neighborhoods and community spaces to ensure certain communities are not integrated, and creates a literal barrier between the black and brown communities and everyone else. The segregation of certain communities generated a slate of health issues because black and brown communities were sectioned off into areas with higher levels of air pollution, land pollution, noise pollution, and water pollution. Particularly in the hard times we live in today, black and brown communities have a higher chance to develop health issues than the majority of other communities.
A sign posted across from a federal housing project in Detroit, MI in 1942 (Harry S. Truman Library & Museum).
Interaction with nature has been proven to directly reduce mental health issues, such as anxiety and depression. In addition, nature, and specifically trees, provide many benefits to the climate by cleaning our air and water stores, reducing urban heat island effects, and providing protection from extreme weather events such as landslides, wildfires, and flooding.
To allow all communities to profit from these ecological benefits, and to re-connect black and brown communities to the environment, I believe a solution is to educate children in our school systems about the environment and its benefits. By incorporating environmental curriculum into our schools, we can work towards keeping the environment healthy and safe for everyone. In addition, I believe we should create programs that educate black and brown communities on the spaces they reside so that they can feel more connected to their surrounding environment, and from this connection develop a desire to protect the land. Some program ideas could be the creation of small projects that allow people to work in the environment, such as learning to plant a shrub, or how to care for various tree species, or the benefits of converting a lawn. The environment is always a continuous struggle because of opposing views on climate change and in turn the legislation that is implemented. Planting trees helps to alleviate climate change, despite occurring on a small scale, and is a benefit that lasts long-term. Our City Forest is an organization that aims to offer the benefits of trees and green spaces to all communities in the Bay Area. We dedicate a lot of time helping others to get involved and learn new environmental skills. A great place to start learning a couple of simple practices on how to take care of a plant is on the Our City Forest website.
In addition to sharing Our City Forest’s resources, I would like to share the names of a few people who belong to smaller communities in the Bay Area or San Francisco area that are helping to create environmental change. First we have Aniya Butler, who is a young, black, high school student and climate activist fighting for social justice. She fights for both of these causes because she knows that if the environment is in poor condition, it affects the overall health of the people in these communities. Second we have Ariana Rickard, who is a biologist and climate activist. She believes that people of color are not promoted in the environmental fields and advocates for change within this area. Lastly, Will Allen is the founder of Growing Power Incorporation. Growing Power is a non-profit organization and land trust that supports farmers to produce high-quality, safe, and affordable crops. He also takes charge on agriculture, food policy, and expanding the field of urban agriculture. These are a few names of people who inspire me to continue to fight to make our world better and safer. The current push for social justice and climate justice are connected to one another because they are both fighting for human rights; the right to drink fresh clean water, the right to breathe fresh air, and the right to live longer, healthier lives.
Sources:
Bell, Jasmine. “5 Things to Know About Communities of Color and Environmental Justice.” Center for American Progress, 8 May 2017, www.americanprogress.org/issues/race/news/2016/04/25/136361/5-things-to-know-about-communities-of-color-and-environmental-justice/.
Gardiner, Beth. “Unequal Impact: The Deep Links Between Racism and Climate Change.” Yale E360, Yale School of the Environment, 9 June 2020, e360.yale.edu/features/unequal-impact-the-deep-links-between-inequality-and-climate-change.
Hill Gordon, Sherita. “Coronavirus in African Americans and Other People of Color.” Johns Hopkins Medicine, Johns Hopkins Medicine, 20 Apr. 2020, www.hopkinsmedicine.org/health/conditions-and-diseases/coronavirus/covid19-racial-disparities.
Morris, J.D. “Climate Activism, Racial Justice Intersect in Bay Area Protests.” San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, 24 June 2020, www.sfchronicle.com/bayarea/article/Climate-activism-racial-justice-intersect-in-Bay-15361543.php.
Pace, David. “Minorities Suffer Most from Industrial Pollution.” NBCNews.com, NBCUniversal News Group, 14 Dec. 2005, www.nbcnews.com/id/wbna10452037.
Rickard, Ariana. “Open Forum: Environmental Movement Lacks People of Color.” San Francisco Chronicle, San Francisco Chronicle, 9 Sept. 2019, www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/openforum/article/Open-Forum-Environmental-movement-lacks-people-14423063.php.
“Celebrating Black Environmentalists during Black History Month.” Sfenvironment.org - Our Home. Our City. Our Planet, 5 Feb. 2020, sfenvironment.org/article/celebrating-black-environmentalists-during-black-history-month.
“10 Ways Your Class Can Help Save the Earth.” The Teachers Academy, 11 Dec. 2019, theteachersacademy.com/10-ways-your-class-can-help-save-the-earth/.