Yesterday, April 22 was Earth Day, an observance born out of the various social movements of the 1960s and 1970s. While most folk were glued to CNN watching the results of the Pennsylvania primary (or the reality tv show du jour), my political/primary fatigue allowed me to marinate on what it means to be green. Excuse the rhyme.
I've thought of myself as a fledging environmentalist since I was a little kid. Growing up in Brooklyn, going to school in Harlem and driving to my parents home in Queens I've seen the terrible effects of not-so-benign neglect on the part of our local government in regards to pollution. The streets were ALWAYS littered with old bags of 25 cent chips, chicken wings, and gum (so many of my sneakers were ruined by stepping on a freshly spat out wad of WinterFresh). Why didn't we seem to care that our homes resembled a garbage can? And why has the environmentalist movement failed to inspire folks in the hood? I'm not really sure. Perhaps people are turned off by the crunchy kids in hemp ponchos that try to get you to donate money to Greenpeace on the street.
However issues of sustainability effect us the most. Children in the inner-city are disproportionately effected by asthma due in large part to highly polluted air and the presence of other allergens. Bus depots, landfills, and factories that pump out sludge are usually in our backyards. America's poorest neighborhoods are also its most polluted.
Or to kick it on the celestial tip - the God that created the heavens and the earths is mad at YOU for throwing your Popeyes chicken boxes out the car window. We are to be stewards of the earth.
So get hip to environmentalism, and make black green.
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