Environmental Justice
East is West
Patuxent Riverkeeper
By Fred Tutman, Patuxent Riverkeeper
Paddling is for everyone.
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»Early in my tenure as Patuxent Riverkeeper, an
elected official asked me what I thought I could bring to the job as a “black” Patuxent Riverkeeper. My first reaction was a sarcastic retort that there was no such place as the “Black Patuxent” and that I would be the Riverkeeper for the whole Patuxent. But in the years since then I have had occasion to wonder if perhaps I was not a bit naïve about the role race plays in shaping environmental agendas. Some years ago a friend of mine produced a television documentary about the gulf between blacks and whites who live in the same communities, but who experience very different living conditions and opportunities. The project was called “East is East and West is West.” Well meaning people have asked me earnestly how we might get more people of color involved in the mainstream environmental movement. They observe that their efforts to engage the underserved have been unrequited or rebuffed. Some have the troubling sense that, in spite of best efforts to reach out to minorities, the environmental movement might consequently appear racist or insensitive. Because race is a divisive subject, many have been reluctant to discuss it openly. This sensitivity has made discussion about race almost taboo. But environmental injustice needs to be addressed openly and squarely if we are to meet the promise of a society that provides equality for all. Part of a Riverkeeper’s job is not just acting (advocating), but also listening. Frequently I hear both blacks and whites discussing environmental issues in different quadrants of my watershed, but these discussions are heavily influenced by race and social status. The irony is that water and air quality offer a much greater potential for consensus building than perhaps any other subject. People divided by vast gulfs in partisan politics may never agree on broader public policy, but the primacy of environ-
Waterkeeper Magazine Winter 2008
mental self-interest offers lots of rich opportunities for agreement. A survey of 350 African American respondents conducted in Maryland a couple of years ago found evidence that African Americans share many common values about the environment with their white counterparts. The survey, which was funded by Maryland Sea Grant, reviewed issues like recycling, attitudes toward the Chesapeake Bay and preservation. The survey reflected very high levels of support among African Americans for preservation on the basis of stewardship and connectivity to nature. But the study noted that in spite of our common values, we get very different information. This information disparity produces a different sense of significance and stewardship over the problems facing our environment. Just maybe the divisions between us are not actual differences in attitudes and philosophies, just perceived ones based on how we fit into society and how we are perceived. When traditional environmentalists and community members get together, they can have vastly different perspectives on the same problem, regardless of their shared values. For example, a woman who works for a Land Trust vented her frustration to me over being unable to get neighborhood buy-in from an inner city African-American community to convert a former industrial site into a park. As we further explored the topic of the “brownfield” park, we came to understand that it might be unappealing for the community to fix up an abandoned industrial site into a park when citizens just a few miles away in affluent suburban Columbia, Maryland, have prime “green space” reserved for their use and enjoyment. This kind of misunderstanding drives mistrust and frustration. But community members are the experts about their own neighborhoods. Community members are well aware of disparities and history that simply must be part of any environmental action or solution. It is the least empowered members who inherit the largest share of the costs of bad environment policies. To raise the level of environmental justice in our communities, we must raise the degree of social justice. The commonly held notion that minorities are disinclined to work on environmental issues is laughable to most people of color that I know. Many African Americans I encounter are passionwww.waterkeeper.org
