Chapter 3 Class 3 (2/1/12)

Chapter 3 was extremely boring and dry. It discussed several studies whom had used the same information with the possibility of different methodology and how they ended at differing results. The chapter shares the siting process and shows a lot of support for it being a racist siting process, but explains that proving racism is grueling due to its abstract nature.

In class we had a great discussion touching on many subjects such as opportunity, equity, class, and distribution of wealth. Ty and yourself had a pretty heated debate over Hawaiians and Native Americans and the treatment that "we" have shown them and how they react because of it. We have taken vast quantities of resources from these people, including land, and we set up rules, regulations, laws, and policies that benefit us and basically ignore them. There is a disproportionate distribution of wealth and those without it have little opportunity available to them to change that. Banks give loans to people with money because they are out to make a profit and they want to make safe investments. People in lower classes are basically trapped there and defined by it, much like those in India's caste system.

Class 2 Chapter 2 (1/25/12)

There are a multitude of similarities within the stories of Kettleman City, Buttonwillow, and Chester. All their struggles began by meeting disregard and ridicule before confrontation. The citizens of Chester realized like the others that the law is structured in a way that is not always "right" as you would like to think. The most important changes occurred at the local levels and I feel this is the important lesson to take from it; true change begins from the bottom up, its much harder to go from the top down.

During class we reviewed the first week's discussion a bit going over what sustainability meant and moving onward to the socially constructed forms of oppression, mainly racism, sexism, and classism. It is much easier to control a population when the population does not see itself as a whole and these forms of oppression serve to stratify and divide the population. A vast majority of people are blind to the big picture and they are in bliss in their ignorance. Obama had just given his State of the Union speech and addressed some key issues including the war, energy, the income inequality and the income gap, and of course the state of the economy. We watched DemocracyNow! for a bit which mostly recapped the SotU and there was a small segment on Ralph Nader as well. During the class we also touched on the military-industrial complex which accounts for a huge portion of our GDP so flat-out stopping our international conflicts isn't that simple. It seems that our country is structured for war and like previous Justice Movements have shown us, top down change is hard to come by.

Class 1 Chapter 1 (1/19/12?)

Our first class was a pretty good icebreaker for the course and for the class as a group. It was a day of international protest on internet censorship and it spread awareness on SOPA/PIPA (see video at bottom for information) and partially in solidarity with the protest class was ended early. During the class we discussed what "sustainability" meant to us and we came up with some pretty good concepts such as: triple bottom line+politics, cradle-2-cradle, alternative/renewable energy, accountability, appropriateness, repair/reduce/reuse/recycle, and more. We then dove further into a PIPA/SOPA/ACTA discussion which was fairly informational.

In the preface, introduction, and Chapter 1 of From the Ground Up, we learnt about Kettleman City and their fight against Chemical Waste Management who wanted to expand their dump site in Kettleman City's whereabouts. We learnt how the vast majority of environmental hazards are near communities dominated by minorities or colored and low-income families. The book discussed the "tributaries" that contributed to the Environmental Justice Movement which included leaders from the Civil Rights Movements, the Labor Movement, and of course academia. The movements built off each others' strengths and their efforts are replicated today in the Occupy Movement in taking a multifaceted approach with both public demonstrations and legal action. These tributaries led to national reform through structural changes in policy.

Slow and steady wins the race?

So I’m still behind but instead of keeping pushing it back and the pile getting taller, I decided to go straight to chapter 4 so I can participate more and have a better idea of what’s going on then I’ll go back and do blog posts 1-3.

In Chapter 4 I was expecting another outright victory and bringing up Kettleman City strengthened that thought, but the farther I got into the chapter, the bleaker their outcome seemed.  I felt sympathy for Montoya in that his idea of America was crushed in a single blow when he learned that the USA is corrupt just like Mexico, but in more discrete and legal ways. I Googled “buttonwillow laidlaw” after reading the chapter and was pleased to see that the struggle is at least still on-going and the people have not been defeated. These chapters teach you valuable lessons in how you need to think if you are ever involved in an environmental injustice struggle as they pointed out that concentrating on the Spanish language issue probably alienated most other citizens and that is what could have cost them an initial victory.

Last week in class (2/8/12) we had a pretty good discussion. We had started out by discussing chapter 3 and Tucker raised a good point in asking ‘how do [we] measure racism” which to me seems like something that would have to be measured qualitatively since racism is acting on the feelings of others. It isn’t just racism though because we are institutionalized to fear that which is different which leads me to something else we talked about and that was the appeal ruling of Prop 8 in California and that statement just jogged my memory that Washington has legalized gay marriage. It's so irrelevant to you whether others get married, I think this whole situation is a joke, just another political issue to vie for votes on. I saw this picture yesterday and thought it was pretty interesting: