Youth Perspective on Environmental Justice and Racism
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imagine growing up and on your way to
school it smelled like rotten eggs
where gray hay filled the sky and that
was the norm
where your dad would remind you
referring to the river down the street
imagine that your dad worked for 45
years for a company
where five of his black co-workers died
before the age of 50 due to cancer
imagine that river that your dad told
you to not get in
was receiving federal funding not
because it poses a risk
to the communities of color that’s
around it but rather because it poses a
risk
to lake michigan’s wildlife
imagine that same company that’s
polluting that water
is also responsible for releasing
eighteen
thousand pounds of lead a year a hundred
and seventy three
thousand pounds of benzene a year
coronium pcbs
and other harmful toxic substances to
the communities of color
that surround it can you imagine that
because i have to remember that and when
i go back home to visit my folks
i relive that you think as someone
who has been a victim of environmental
racism
their entire childhood that’s the reason
i’m an environmentalist
today but i really have to thank my
parents
and the way that they raised me you see
my dad he had a quarter acre of a plot
of land
behind his friend’s house and i’m not a
hundred percent sure if he owned it or
if he just kind of
made it his own but we would spend so
many summer days
planting a garden we were a family of
twelve i have nine other siblings
so for us planting our garden
was a way to nourish ourselves
that garden was so special that garden
was the reason
that i learned the life cycles of a frog
when my brother john and my sister
trocio
happy birthday john would we we would
catch tadpoles
in the little ditch next door
that garden is where i learned the
foundation of science education
it was where i learned photosynthesis
and that plants need
not only water but fertilizer and
protection against the substances
like cold weather and light
that garden is the reason that i decided
to go
study biology for my undergrad where my
dad would always joke with me and say
what are you gonna do learn to watch
birds
the garden is the reason why i came to
colorado a couple years ago
after witnessing the beautiful mountains
and all the short grass prairies that
garden is the reason that i’m here today
it’s also the reason i became a science
educator you see
as a science educator and working for
school district i noticed that
science education lacks concepts of
environmental justice and environmental
racism
so as i’m studying
for my dissertation i started to look up
how children and how youth are
experiencing nature
the way that i did knowing that they’re
victims
of environmental racism so as i was
researching
i came across an article that article
told me that 11 denver schools
that make up about 8 000 students
that are predominantly students of color
are situated in a red zone
and a red zone is that they are 500 or
less
feet away from a major highway that sees
on average
30 000 cars a day
not only did i find out about those
schools i also found out that one of
those schools in particular
is it is a in a community that is
low-income and predominantly latinx
that community is the most polluted zip
code in the united states
that school has asbestos and students
are
still required to go and learn
that school used to be situated on a
superfund site
and there are still 144 properties
in that community that have not been
tested for
lead or arsenic in the soil
so when we think about closing this
achievement gap for our youth of color
i ask how are we closing this real
environmental gap knowing that our
children
are playing in the dirt that could be
harmful
that could have lead that could have
arsenic in it
so this summer i partnered with an
incredible organization called
environmental learning for kids
elk and we decided to
develop a curriculum an environmental
justice curriculum for their youth of
color
because what i wanted to know was how
are these youth
engaging in nature knowing that they’re
in
polluted zip codes knowing that they are
close to
highways knowing that there are
super fun sites nearby
so as i was
going through the summer i was excited
to learn like oh i’m
they’re going to tell me what they did
this summer or how they’re engaging with
nature
and as many of you know when you have
something in mind it might not always
work out that way
and that’s what happened this summer i
didn’t
really learn what positive experiences
they were
having in nature rather i learned four
key
concepts that have changed the
foundation
of my environmental movement
and i’ll share those with you and the
acronym that i use is i see
i see because as they were talking i’m
like oh yeah i see
i see so the first i
stands for inclusion youth want to be
included we cannot have conversations
of environmental justice climate change
climate action sustainability without
the voices of youth
they might not be able to vote for
policies to hold big corporations
responsible for what they’re doing
but they want to be at the table last
week we had a meeting with our
councilwoman
and year sure enough youth showed up
and expressed to her what they feel
about climate change
the first c comunidad
this one was probably the biggest eye
opener
as we were talking about these
experiences in nature
one student told me you know
my community doesn’t even have trees
but i can go across i-25
into a predominantly white affluent
community and you
better bet that there are trees that
line the street
this student advocated for trees
in his community he wanted his siblings
to have access
to beautiful greenery he wanted his
playgrounds
to be to have grass and to be
up to date he wanted his community
to have positive experiences in nature
not only did he do that but when we
asked
who’s going to take care of those trees
you know what he said
he said what about our community members
who don’t have jobs
or the elderly these students
care about their community i asked in my
post interview
if you had the opportunity to move would
you majority of them said
no they love their community why do they
have to leave their community
why aren’t we advocating to make their
communities better and holding
big corporations responsible for the
environmental justices
that they face and that leads me to the
second eye
innovation youth are
brilliant they are creating tick-tock
challenges
that they’re doing you know talking to
their peers about climate change in fun
ways
they’re utilizing youth friendly
platforms like instagram and i say youth
friendly because
my 10 year old niece told me yeah
crystal you are
too old to be on tick tock
i’m still on tick tock but
black millennials for flint they have an
and they’re hosting webinars to engage
with their peers
because they’re not learning about it in
school
the last c is change
youth want change this is their planet
the future of this planet
is theirs they want change
we have to take drastic action we have
to
start caring we have to include youth
there are so many more youth activists
like marny copenh
or known as little miss flint or greta
toomberg
they’re in our schools they’re in our
communities
they’re in our families
so the next time
you’re at a meeting about climate change
ask
we’re the youth the next time you’re lo
you’re electing your local school board
member
or policy maker ask
how are youth going to learn about
climate change and environmental justice
in school the next time
someone talks about sustainability and
innovation ask
do you know about zorchie who is an
eight-year-old mexican girl in rural
mexico
who because of lack of electricity
she developed solar-powered water heater
out of recycled materials
the next time someone says
oh climate change is just a one-sided
issue ask them
do you know that republicans young
republicans now
are starting to call on their senior
republicans to take action about climate
change
youth are serious
the next time someone says oh 2020 has
been such a crazy year
ask them do you know that it’s going to
get worse
do you know that our youth this planet
we are leaving to them
and so wildfires hurricanes are going to
be the norm
the next time you’re invited to speak
at an amazing event like ted cherry
creek
ask can i bring my youth
you