Margie Richard, the first African-American to win the Goldman Prize for environmental activism (in 2000), will be the keynote speaker at the third annual Environmental Justice Advocates Minnesota (EJAM) conference on October 22nd at the Minneapolis Urban League. This year's focus is environmental impacts on children's health.
"Society puts it's garbage where nobody considered 'the good people' live. Now and historically, that's where people of color live. It's called environmental racism," explains Minnesota State Rep. Keith Ellison (58B), an EJAM founder. "When we recognized that poor white people are also impacted, we expanded to call it environmental justice. Because of people's political disadvantage due to race or economics or both, they should not have to live in a toxic dump, with bad air and bad water."
Studies show 71% of African-Americans live in counties that do not meet federal air pollutions standards. One in three Black children have asthma and people of color have far higher respiratory diseases of all types.
"I grew up seeing the respiratory disease. Hearing people talk about the cancer in church.. We weren't getting anywhere just talking to each other," Richard remembers. "We needed to make a connection between government, industry, the African-American community, or whites, Indigenous people, whatever...Like David and the giant, we had to come face to face with Dutch Shell oil."
From the 1920s until now, Richard's hometown Norco, Louisiana, has been surrounded by petrochemical plants, refineries and plastics production escalating respiratory illnesses and earning the name "Cancer Alley". Since 1969, the retired middle-school teacher began challenging, Shell Oil, the tenth largest company in the world. Richard and her Louisiana neighbours got Shell to make 30% cuts in emissions, plus, pay development and relocation money for her community.
Ellison observes that the conference workshops will focus on local environmental problems impacting the health of people of color.
"Mercury caused by coal-fired energy plants gets in the fish. Native Americans and Asians are more likely to have mercury poisoning through consuming fish--since fish is part of their cultures," Ellison says, noting that poor African-Americans and others have supplemented their diets by fishing in Twin Citites lakes, many of which are now declared dangerous due to mercury. "They're sustenance anglers, not sports anglers. They're not fishing for fun---they're fishing for food!"
Mercury is especially dangerous for pregnant women and young children.
Lead is another problem that Ellison says has begun to be addressed by organizations like Sustainable Resources, Inc., Project 504 and local governments. The policy is universal screening for lead in children but, Ellison emphasizes that's not universally enforced. High levels in lead in African American children is responsible for brain injury and learning disabilities.
"Are all kids on MA getting tested for lead? Is every one-or-two-year-old child tested?," Ellison asks. "A nine-year-old kid who can't get concepts, gets frustrated and acts out in class, a teacher has to see that maybe that child's ability to learn may be impacted by environmental poison. This lead crisis is deeply impacting the academic gaps. This lead crisis is deeply impacting the juvenile cou
Insightnews.com