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.

Definitions

I am still setting up things and part of that is organizing and defining what my intentions and desires are. So let me define some of the basic concepts for this blog.

Black - people of African descent, which most Anthropologists will say that includes everybody on the planet. I have a BA in Anthropology so I will use this all inclusive definition BUT I will focus on issues more closely associated with the standard definition of African-American, we who have African slave ancestors.

Green - environmentally conscious and active. Being Green is the active part of caring for the environment & natural world.

Social Responsibility - making a commitment to the promotion of equality of humanity. You buy products that were made under humane conditions, you support businesses and organizations which show respect for their employees, customers and vendors and who also work to promote social and ecological responsibility, and you work to improve companies and organizations that don't work that way.

Eco-Friendly - you are respectful of and towards the natural world. You limit the amount of resources you use and pollution you generate. You promote this attitude to individuals and companies you encounter.

Socially Responsible Investing - see "social responsibility" and add money...you invest in companies who act responsibly and respectfully towards employees, customers, vendors, colleagues, competitors and nature

Why?

I was a kid who grew up outside. I was a Boy Scout for almost 10 years. I went camping or hiking or canoeing or backpacking once a month during those years. I loved animals and trees and bugs and rain. I also had a love/hate relationship with snakes, which still continues to this day. My Dad hunted some, fished some, gardened some but no matter what he was doing he spent most of his free time outside. I read the encyclopedia (World Book 1973) when I was a kid and I thought one day I might be a veterinarian. I am earth-bound, my feng shui reading says so. I get excited at the first sight of forests or valleys or mountains. I have been known to cry at the sight of sunset on a lake (I don't get up early enough for sunrises). When I got a car I drove a lot and I looked around while I drove. I imagine I probably looked like a little old man lost in some unfamiliar neighborhood. I would stop to admire a hillside or a lookout or pull over and take pictures of a cow pasture. I fly more often now but I still take pictures from the window of the airplane. I was fortunate enough to go to a college with a 10'000 acre campus, most of which was, and is, undeveloped land. I was on the championship canoe team, I wandered the perimeter trails and the flower gardens, I studied outside, and I even I remember going for bike rides at sunrise (after an all-nighter) watching the deer appear from the fog. You see where I'm going with this? There is very little that makes me as happy, that makes me feel like I am a part of something, that there is a point to everything as the natural world.

I am completely geeking out on Planet Earth. You must watch (hopefully on High Def!)

During the 90s I lived in Baton Rouge, LA. One of the first jobs I had down there was as a canvasser at Citizen Action. I went door-to-door talking to people about the politics of our ecological situations. We offered to contact legislators and we solicited donations with an effort to lobby legislators on environmental issues. Overall it was a bust, I didn't last long but the time I spent studying these issues cemented my belief that there really is environmental classism/racism. Depending on where you live they can be one in the same but they are not necessarily the same thing; depending on where you live those who get the brunt can be white or black or brown. We went to more poor, predominantly white areas than poor, predominantly minority areas. Some of the people we canvassed - mostly working poor - lived in the most appalling and hazardous environments I could've imagined. I truly began to recognize that something was unfair and that there was a pattern. The people who worked in the shittiest jobs at the chemical/oil companies in LA lived closest and were polluted more severely and more frequently than everybody else. Poor people consistently lived closer to landfills, incinerators and treatment plants and surely you can recognize the possible hazards associated with that.

Now as an adult and a homeowner I am trying to make sure I leave as small footprint on the earth as I can. In doing so I have run into problems with lack of information, lack of interest within my minority and larger communities. I understand that I was ahead of the curve on these issues and was not able to do some things the way I would have liked and I have had to settle for a "lesser evil". In 2004-2005 I tried to remodel green but couldn't find contractors who understood what I was asking. I have now begun this blog in an attempt to rectify as much of this as I can. I want to do my part to make it easier for the next person to work and live in an environmentally friendly, socially responsible way. I want to promote these ideals to minority communities b/c we too are people of the earth. This land we call home, the United States of America is rich with blood and sweat of minority peoples. If anyone can claim this land it is we who are here b/c those before us died (by force or by choice) so that we could reap the benefits. I firmly believe that we can take small steps toward an eco-friendly, socially conscious life and that those small steps will make a great impact on our communities and our persons.

This is an ideal of being responsible for what we do today because we are looking forward to make everyone a beneficiary of the bounty we have, and I promise you, we all have a bounty we just might not recognize it.

I hope this didn't come off as preachy, it was not intended as such. Most of what we will do here is practical info, interesting news and information. This will be fun.

Welcome to Green & Black!

My goal with this site is to create a resource for an eco-friendly lifestyle and community. I will focus on issues and solutions for all sorts of issues but I will emphasize those that relate mostly to African-Americans, both urban & rural, low & high ends of the economic scale.

Comments are needed and welcomed. I want to know which are the issues of concern for you.