Why Black? The Manifesto.

You hear people ask the question whenever they see something ethnically focused. Why is there a Miss Black America or the NAACP or a Black Student Union? Well, historically there were or black-focused and black-organized variations of white institutions and organizations b/c Blacks didn't have access, or Blacks didn't have enough political/social/economic power to be heard. To change that they created their own social organizations, their own political action groups, their own entertainment collectives. Even if the necessity & influence of these ethnicity specific entities is dwindling they continue to work on several different levels.

The way I see it is even as we are exposed more and more to each other we have become more stratified, more desperate and more isolated from each other. Middle class doesn't understand lower class who doesn't understand upper class. Urban doesn't understand rural and rural doesn't understand suburban or exurban. And hardly anybody understands nature or self-control.

So, why Black? Because an eco-friendly, socially conscious mentality is a part of our collective history and social order that has been removed, or we've forgotten, or even co-opted. (This argument is not exclusively Afrocentric but because of our intimate history with the soil of this country we are in a special situation). All agrarian societies understand and the newly transplanted Africans understood that the earth sustains everything. They were eco-friendly by necessity. They knew you had to take care of your environment b/c that was the only way to make sure it continued to provide. There was no wasting, you used everything...why else do southerns love chitterlings or pigs feet or turnip greens? They were the foods wasted by those who had means (slave owners, land owners, etc.). How many southerners or black people do you know who still eat and love chitterlings or pigs feet or turnip greens? These food products were and are part of our tradition! This is but a small example of the eco-friendly life our fore bearers lived. What about passing clothes down to younger siblings or neighbors, what about rotating crops in the field, what about growing your own food? These are all things my grandparents did and these are all things that people in the "green" world would now consider aspects of a "green" lifestyle.

Social responsibility should go without saying in the black community! We are all beneficiaries of a socially responsible movement called the Civil Rights Movement. The idea is to treat everyone and do everything with honesty and respect. Act is if you are responsible for everything you do and say.

I understand that these are simple concepts but difficult practices. That's ok because every little bit helps.

So. I am asking readers to pay attention to what they use, how much they use and where it comes from. I am asking readers to demand the highest quality as well as products produced under the best, most equal and most honest conditions. I am asking readers to join in working to a cleaner now and future. I am asking that we all try a little harder toward a better self, family, community, and world. I am asking for help. I don't know everything, what I know I will share and I hope readers will do the same.

I hope you will enjoy learning about and implementing this stuff as I do.