Racial Violence as an Environmental Injustice

Family and friends of Renisha McBride are mourning her untimely and unjust death. 54-year-old Theodore Wafer, a resident of the predominately white Dearborn Heights neighborhood where McBride sought assistance after an auto accident, murdered the 19-year-old teenager. Following her accident, which authorities say was alcohol induced, McBride vigorously knocked on the doors of residents seeking assistance. Wafer, thinking McBride to be an imminent threat – one that did not warrant a call to the police – answered her rapacious pleas by shooting her once in the head through a locked screen door. Though McBride had walked to numerous homes in the community, instead of getting assistance, she received death.

For those of us who reside in North Carolina, her murder is eerily familiar, reminiscent of the recent murder-by-cop of Jonathan Ferrell in Charlotte. Ferrell, like McBride, had an auto accident – all alone – late in the evening. Ferrell, like McBride, approached multiple homes and knocked on multiple doors seeking help. In his case, a fearful homeowner called the police to report an attempted burglary.  As two police officers arrived, likely relieved and annoyed, Ferrell approached the duo. Thinking they were facing a burglar, not a person in need of aid, the police officers tased and eventually shot Ferrell 10 times. Initially, the Charlotte Police Department announced the shooting was justified only to change their tune after an independent investigation proved one Officer Randall Kerrick negligent in the shooting. He has since been charged with voluntary manslaughter.

In the aftermath of Renisha McBride’s murder, discussion has turned to the potential for Wafer to invoke Michigan’s ‘Stand You Ground’ law, the controversial statute that supported George Zimmerman’s self-defense plea after he murdered a black youth in Sanford, Florida. Others are concerned with the racial implications of the case (McBride was black and Wafer is white). What has not been questioned, and what environmental justice activists must bring to the fore, is how perceived racial threat of blacks by whites –despite a lack of any cause for alarm – in particular environments (i.e. white suburbs) is a form of environmental racism – especially when it results in injury and death. The combination of an unwarranted threat and feelings of environmental (de)belonging are what some believe provoked Wafer to shoot to kill and a North Carolina homeowner to assume Jonathan Ferrell to be a robber. In both cases, the result was the same, McBride and Ferrell were killed in predominately white, de facto segregated, suburbs – communities were designed to be safe spaces, removed from inner-cities concentrated with ‘dangerous’ people of color.

Whether by cop or by citizens, these incidents continue to happen with saddening consistency. As advocates and activists for environmental justice, we must begin to promote a definition and understanding of environmental racism that includes acts of violence that occur in spaces where black bodies – not polluting industries – are viewed as threats, by white Americans indoctrinated by a system of racial hierarchy steeped in anti-black racism. Relegating environmental racism to the pollution of land, water, and air is too limiting and may serve to isolate us from hazards such as  violence  encountered in communities.

NCEJN extends its deepest sympathies and love to the friends and families of Renisha McBride, Jonathan Ferrell, Trayvon Martin, and the many, many others whose very existence in society has warranted removal – as if waste – by a structure of racism that has anti-blackness as its foundation.

Let us all call for an end to environmental racism and work towards a new frontier of environmental justice!

Coal Ash is polluting the fishery at Sutton Lake

Coal ash pollution is having a severe impact on the groundwater and the fishery at Sutton Lake near Wilmington, North Carolina (see articles below).  Selenium contamination has caused the deaths of thousands of young fish.  Fewer fish in the Lake have an impact on people who fish for food and people who fish for sport.  This is an environmental justice issue, as subsistence fisherman are more often people of color or low income people.  NCEJN is collaborating with the New Hanover County Chapter of the NAACP, the Cape Fear River Watch, and the Southern Environmental Law Center to raise awareness regarding coal ash contamination of Sutton Lake.  If you’re interested in learning more about what is happening at Sutton Lake, please contact NCEJN organizer, Naeema Muhammad, at saladin62@aol.com or (252) 314-0703; you may also contact Chandra Taylor with the Southern Environmental Law Center at (919) 967-1450.  Additional information on coal ash disposal in the southeast and Sutton Steam station is available at www.southeastcoalash.org.

October 8, 2013 – Editorial – Avert Flemington water crisis and contain pollution from Sutton plant ponds

October 5, 2013 – Sides split over Sutton Lake status

October 5, 2013 – Chemicals from coal ash leaching into groundwater near Flemington community

October 5, 2013 – No Clear Strategy on Ash Ponds

March 9, 2013 – Outdoors – Sutton Lake ramp back in business

Check out the events going on this month!

November events:

Smokestacks at Sutton Steam Station

Toxic Tour in Wilmington

When we see the sources of toxic pollution, in person,
we better understand the problem and work smarter to eradicate it.  On Saturday, November 9^th, the Cape Fear River Watch and the Cape Fear Group of the Sierra Club are teaming up for a boat trip on the Cape Fear River to the Sutton Coal Plant to educate interested community members about the dangers of coal ash and what they can do to get it cleaned up.  The boat leaves from downtown Wilmington behind 212 S. Water Street and costs $10.  If you are interested in attending, sign up here.  If community members would like to inquire about a fee waiver, contact Zachary Keith at zachary.keith@sierraclub.org.

Mapping collaboration in the Triangle

Over 25 years ago, The United Church of Christ’s Toxic Waste and Race report demonstrated in great detail the close link between where vulnerable communities live and where toxic facilities are located.  Those maps are still integral in defining the environmental injustice problem and working to remedy it.  This year, give your input to the first phase of NC wideOpen, a mapping and data access tool which will compile essential geographic data that can be used to achieve environmental justice.  If you are interested in participating in a hands on mapping and planning session with cartographer Tim Stallmann, along with other environmental leaders and community activists, use their doodle poll to state your preference for a  Tuesday, November 19th or Thursday, November 21^st date.

 23^rd Annual Black Farmers Conference in Columbia, South Carolina

On Friday and Saturday, November 8^th– 9^th, the National Black Farmers Association is having their 23^rd annual National Black Farmers Conference.  The event includes, but is not limited to, a Farm Bill Update as well as sessions on Farming and Fracking, USDA Programs, and  Agri-Science.

Environmental Justice and Sutton Lake Coal Ash Contamination Meeting – October 30th

Join the NCEJN this Wednesday, October 30^th at 5:30 pm to discuss Environmental Justice and Coal Ash Contamination at Sutton Lake.  We’ll meet with local advocates from the NAACP and Cape Fear Riverwatch at the offices of Cape Fear Riverwatch, 617 Surrey Street, Wilmington, North Carolina.

Event Flyer

Linking Struggles to Build the Movement – Report-back from the NCEJN Summit

The 15^th Annual NCEJN Summit was held this past weekend at the Historic Franklinton Center at Bricks in Whitakers. 136 people gathered, from 32 cities and towns in North Carolina, and 9 other states, representing 37 community organizations, 4 colleges/universities and 4 law clinics/firms, to share knowledge, strategize and honor the ongoing struggle against environmental injustices. Throughout the Summit we were reminded that struggles that may seem isolated or unrelated are often intimately connected to each other, and these connections offer an opportunity to join forces in building and growing a movement.

 

The theme for this year’s summit was “Dismantling Environmental Racism in a ‘Color Blind’ Society.” The term ‘color blind racism’ describes how racism in the United States has shifted since the Civil Rights era – rather than explicit and extremist forms of racism (‘Whites Only’), we are often faced with a subtle and more insidious form of racism that pretends to be ‘blind’ to ‘color’. That is, white privilege today is made even stronger by mainstream society’s insistence that race does not matter, in effect turning a blind eye to the very real ways that racism infiltrates all aspects of society.

 

In our ‘color blind’ society, racism is minimized by explaining racist violence, exposure to toxics, and health disparities as products of individual behavior or something that’s just ‘natural’.  The Summit truly challenged this destructive blindness. In each session, and with each speaker, from our invigorating keynote address by Fred Tutman, the Patuxent Riverkeeper to the training by Cynthia Brown on Building the Movement, we were reminded that racism is alive and well. Drawing connections between local and seemingly disconnected struggles, grassroots organizers, community members and allies called for us all to refuse to turn a blind eye to environmental racism. Connections were drawn between the military complex, power generation companies, fast-food chains, and livestock production. Each of these vast industries generates profit by dumping their waste by-products on poor communities of color, even as they depend on the bodies and labor of these communities to keep their industries running.

 

The fight against environmental racism is a long haul with no easy answers, yet grassroots communities have developed multiple strategies for resilience and resistance. Some use civil rights legislation to incorporate disproportionate burden into regulation policies. At the Government Listening Panel, representatives of multiple agencies were charged by Summit participants to do what they know is right – to visit communities that are impacted by their decisions, to engage in dialogue without hiding behind race-neutral policy language, and to proactively address racial injustices. Many communities have found innovative ways to collect their own evidence to prove pollution and health impacts, even when authorities deny their claims. It may be time for the movement to once again engage in direct action.

 

Youth at the Summit made connections between food justice issues and the economics of how hazards are unequally distributed; the youngest Summit participants used blocks to design cities that are more just. Making connections across struggles, the NCEJN acts as a ‘rhizome’, in the words of Planning Committee member Willie Wright, with shoots and roots that overlap to strengthen resistance against environmental racism. In closing, the participants formed a circle, and each person repeated after NCEJN organizer Naeema Muhammad: “I am a link in the chain, and the chain will not break here.” Let us build our chain of resistance so it will not be broken.

NCEJN Youth Summit Merges Environment, Education, and Action

This Saturday NCEJN will commemorate its 15th Environmental Justice Summit at the Franklinton Center at Bricks. Though known for its engaging community/government panels, academic paper presentations and awards nominations, the EJ Summit also includes a corresponding Youth Summit. During each Summit youth attendees engage in a variety of tasks designed to educate them on a number of environmental and justice oriented issues. The Youth Summit is also a space for youth to hone their skills as leaders in their communities. Last year’s summit welcomed adolescent and teenage youth of color from from across the state. This year NCEJN again welcomes youth from throughout the state as we encourage othem to “Take Note and Take Action” against environmental injustice. With the combined talent our youth and volunteer coordinators, NCEJN looks forward to another unique and fruitful summit.

9:00 – 9:10 am Welcome

9:10 – 9:30 Opening Circle: Introduce Yourselves – All Facilitators

TAKING NOTE

9:30 – 9:45 am Documenting the Day –All Facilitators

9:45 – 10:00 Taking Note of How I’m Doing- Pavithra Vasudevan (UNC)

10:00 – 10:45 NIMBY: Reading the Signs – Courtney Woods (UNC)

10:45 – 11:00 Break

11:00 – 11:45 Map My Hood: Community Mapping- Pavithra Vasudevan & Willie Wright ( UNC)

11:45 – 12:45 pm Lunch

TAKING ACTION

1:00 – 1:15 Seed Saving- Willie Wright

12:45 – 1:45 In the Garden- DIG Youth of SEEDS Educational Garden

1:45 – 2:30 Youth Power: DIG Youth & Santos Flores (UNCG & Tierra Negra)

2:30 – 2:45 Break

2:45 – 3:45 Artivism = Art + Activism

Movement and Music: Santos Flores

Photo and Film- Courtney Woods

4:00 – 4:15 Closing Circle

4:15 – 4:45 Report to the Adult Summit

Rally To End Environmental Racism

Image credit is given to NAACP North Carolina.

The North Carolina Environmental Justice Network will kick off our Annual Environmental Justice Summit on October 18, 2013 with a Rally To End Environmental Racism.  Meet us in Raleigh on the Halifax Mall where our State legislature does its business.  The rally will start at 9:00 AM on the Mall and we will march from the Mall over to North Carolina’s Department of Environment & Natural Resources (DENR) offices in the Archdale building at 512 N. Salisbury Street.  We want DENR and our State to know that we are fed up with the policies and permits coming out of Raleigh, that give industries the okay to pollute our communities’ air and water, decrease property values, and destroy the peoples’ health, all in the name of “economic development.” Whose economies are being developed?  The economies of communities that bear the burdens of pollution are not.

In a recent move that adds insult to injury, our state DENR recently turned down two federal grants that would have funded stream and wetland studies, and monitored water quality in areas where fracking is most likely to take place.  The funding would have come at a time when major budget cuts to the Department will take place.  Just this year, state lawmakers passed legislation that will result in a two million dollar cut to the Water Resources Division.

Please call the NCEJN office at (252) 826-3017 to let us know whether you plan to join us.

NCEJN Recognizes A Noteworthy Achievement for the Land Loss Prevention Project

Photo credit: Image from http://www.landloss.org.

The Land Loss Prevention Project (LLPP) is celebrating a very significant milestone this year – the 30th anniversary of its founding! LLPP was founded in 1982 by the North Carolina Association of Black Lawyers to curtail the widespread loss of African American owned land in North Carolina. LLPP was incorporated in the state of North Carolina in 1983. In 1993 the organization broadened its mission to provide legal support and assistance to all financially distressed and limited resource farmers and landowners in North Carolina. LLPP’s advocacy for financially distressed and limited resource farmers involves action in three separate arenas: litigation, public policy, and promoting sustainable agriculture and environment.

In the past four fiscal years, the staff at LLPP has secured over five million dollars in debt relief, home loan modifications, and awards for its clients. In 2011-2012 alone, LLPP gained nearly one million dollars in debt relief and awards for farmer clients and preserved almost half a million dollars in tax value for farmer-owned land that LLPP protected from loss. It is of further note that these accomplishments were achieved in spite of the current economic crisis in North Carolina. This year, North Carolina’s legislature eliminated approximately half of LLPP’s operating budget. Although those cuts have proven unduly burdensome, and the work is increasingly challenging in the midst of such obstacles, the steadfast support of its partners and the communities that LLPP serves continues to make the work possible and rewarding.

LLPP has also worked with communities and partners across the state of North Carolina to fight against environmental inequities. In partnership with NCEJN and other grassroots organizations, LLPP utilizes both legal and policy-oriented strategies to advocate with limited resource farmers and communities dealing with landfill siting and hazardous waste from industrial and agricultural operations. Environmental justice matters impact issues such as access to land, full use of the land, and the ability to develop or retain land. Whether an area is urban or rural, regulatory decisions related to the permitting of facilities (whether the siting, monitoring of releases, or the enforcement of penalties against violators) impact the ownership and use of land. In this way, environmental justice serves as a fulcrum for  economic development, land retention, and political participation. Environmental degradation also directly impacts an individual’s right to health and the landowners’ ability to use land without interference. Access to land that is not contaminated with toxins or in close proximity to a polluter is inextricably linked with an individual or community’s ability to sustain itself. As an economic consequence, environmental degradation devalues land, making it difficult to market, and preventing homeowners from realizing the value of their initial investment or even from moving out, as they cannot afford even replacement housing. Once contaminated, land is also more likely to be used for increased development, possibly as a site for more industrial facilities. This vicious cycle only contributes to an oppressive legacy of ill health, local public health crises, and property degradation that perpetually affects the communities that are desperately struggling to throw off the shackles of environmental racism with the assistance of organizations like NCEJN.

NCEJN is proud to offer its support to LLPP and its mission to help correct the environmental harms that have assailed so-called minority and economically challenged communities across North Carolina for the past thirty years. With your continued support for various partners and communities, LLPP continues to work to improve  public health and standards of living for effected communities in North Carolina. For more information about LLPP, please visit www.landloss.org.

NCEJN Congratulates the Concerned Citizens of West Badin Community

On Thursday, September 12th, 2013, community members in Badin, North Carolina met to form the Concerned Citizens of West Badin Community (“CCWBC”).  West Badin is an African-American community near Badin Lake in Stanly County.  Members of the newly formed group have been gathering informally to discuss ongoing issues related to pollution of the lake and the land nearby from the now shuttered Alcoa aluminum smelting facility in Badin.  The facility contaminated the lake with PCBs, putting the health of those who eat fish out of the lake at risk. Because of the heightened concentrations of PCBs in these fish, a consumption advisory was issued in February of 2009, and remains in effect as of today. So far, the state has only required that Alcoa cover up the PCB contaminated sediment in the lake bed.  There is still on-site contamination, and no certainty concerning if it will all be cleaned up.

Over the last year, NCEJN has advocated with and on behalf of the West Badin community regarding clean-up of Alcoa’s contamination. The NCEJN is excited to congratulate CCWBC on their formal organization and provide additional support as it advocates for the West Badin community. Taking a stand for community-wide healthy land and clean water is no small task.  The work of CCWBC is significant for all those residents and visitors who enjoy Badin Lake for fishing, boating and swimming.

Macy Hinson and Eric Jackson are the CCWBC co-chairs and the communications chairperson is Mae Teal, maeteal@yahoo.com. Concerned Citizens of West Badin Community meetings will be held every second Thursday of the month at 6:30pm. Read more about some of the Badin Lake/Alcoa-Clean up issues through the comments submitted to NC state agencies at Badin Lake Clean-Up.

Communications Chairperson Mae Teal, maeteal@yahoo.com, will send out communications for the meetings. Contact Mae to be added to the address list.

Ecuador to Begin Drilling in Yasuni National Park

Last month the Ecuadorian government abandoned its attempt to establish a trust to keep from drilling for oil in the Yasuni National Park. The trust sought the sizable sum of 3.6 billion dollars from oil-dependent international governments. As compensation, nations would have the satisfaction of knowing the nearly 4,000 square miles of forested land would remain a protected ecosystem. In essence, President Raphael Correa was asking the world to pay the country not to drill for oil in the Amazonian Rain Forest. The government mustered $13 million, a fraction of the desired amount. Last month President Correa, declared the international community “failed” Ecuador. However, it appears the Ecuadorian government’s plan was one made to fail. For decades, Ecuador has boasts a heavily oil-based economy, in spite of an unresolved legal suit against Chevron stemming from past contamination. Currently, Ecuador is the fifth largest producer in Latin America with most of its oil being sold to the United States. President Correa’s decision to drill in Yasuni National Park seems to be another case of a government expanding its economic interests at the expense of its populace and its ecology. All the while, environments, be they frack-fearing communities in Central North Carolina or those thousands of miles south in the most diverse ecosystem on the planet remain subject to the economic and ecological exploitations of nations dependent upon fossil fuels, of which the United States is a chief culprit. NCEJN remains dedicated to working against threats to the environment and vulnerable communities, be they local or global.

Fred Tutman to make keynote address at the NCEJN Summit

Tutman to speak at NCEJN’s 15th Annual Summit.

Fred Tutman, the Patuxent Riverkeeper, and the only African-American Riverkeeper, will give the keynote address at this year’s North Carolina Environmental Justice Summit.  The  15^th Annual Summit will take place on October 18^th and 19^th  at the Franklinton  Center at Bricks.  You can access registration documents on this site.  Find out more about Fred Tutman here.

Gary Grant, NCEJN & Peggy Shepard, WEACT in NYC – 2013

Gary Grant, NCEJN Executive Director and Peggy Shepard, WEACT for Environmental Justice Executive Director in New York City, August 2013

While in New York City on August 6-9, 2013 to attend and present at the Rural Sociological Society’s (RSS) annual meeting addressing the issues and the plight of Black, Native, Latino, and Women farmers and food security, Gary Grant, Executive Director of NCEJN, Willie J. Wright (NCEJN), and Dr. Spencer Wood (Kansas State University) met with Peggy Shephard and the WE ACT team on Wednesday August 7th, 2013 . The Harlem-based WE ACT addresses various forms of environmental injustice and degradation, from clean air to healthy indoor environments. The meeting helped NCEJN solidify our cross-regional relationship with our “city cousins” to the North and provided a space to share some struggles, strategies, and successes of communities in North Carolina and New York. As many know, here in North Carolina we are faced with the future proliferation of industrial hog lagoons (cess pools), landfills, and fracking operations which disproportionately affect poor communities and those of color. In New York, WE ACT is working to address issues of air, water, and indoor pollution and concerns of food safety and sovereignty. NCEJN hopes to work directly with WE ACT in the future in order to engage and influence each others’ communities.

SB328: NC landfill bill would send us back to dumping on the poor

http://www.newsobserver.com/2013/06/25/2988998/nc-landfill-bill-would-send-us.html

News & Observer

Published: June 25, 2013

Welcome to the new & improved NCEJN website!

The Home page is where you will find all of the NC Environmental Justice Network’s recent blog postings on upcoming events, important dates/notices, and all the need-to-know information on Environmental Justice issues in North Carolina.

Thank you for visiting our site! We look forward to hearing from you.

~NCEJN