From: Student Pugwash USA <uspugwash@igc.apc.org>
Newsgroups: alt.org.pugwash
Date: 14 Dec 92 11:45 PST
Subject: Re: *Tough Questions: Fall 92 News
Nf-ID: #R:cdp:1758700030:cdp:1758700034:000:7009
Nf-From: cdp.UUCP!uspugwash    Dec 14 11:45:00 1992


Tough Questions - Conference Issue 1992

REACHING, TEACHING, AND UNDERSTANDING :
SPUSA INVITES DIALOGUE ON MULTI-CULTURAL PARTICIPATION
By Morris Reid

     Just five decades ago, most black Americans could not work, 
live, shop, eat, seek entertainment, or travel where they chose.  
Even a quarter century ago, 100 years after the Emancipation 
Proclamation of 1863, most blacks were effectively denied the right 
to vote.  A large majority of blacks lived in poverty, and very few 
black children had the opportunity to receive a basic education.  
Indeed, black children were forced to attend inferior and separate 
schools in jurisdictions that had not accepted the 1954 decision of 
the Supreme Court, declaring segregated schools unconstitutional.

     While the situation today is very different, the great gulf 
that existed between black and white Americans in 1939 has only been 
narrowed; it has not closed.  One out of three blacks still lives in 
a household with an income below the poverty line.  Even more blacks 
live in areas where ineffective schools, high rates of dependence on 
public assistance, severe problems of crime and drug use, and low and 
declining employment prevail.  Race relations, as they affect the 
lives of inhabitants of these areas, differ considerably from race 
relations involving middle-class blacks.  Lower status blacks are 
effectively restricted in their access to desegregated schools, 
neighborhoods, and other institutions or public facilities.  
Furthermore, their interactions with whites, as low-skilled employees, 
public agency clients or marginally performing pupils, frequently 
emphasize this subordinate status.

FROM EMANCIPATION INTO THE MARVELOUS "GREEN LIGHT"

     With the exception of anti-toxic campaigns and selected 
environmental initiatives, there has been little communication or 
collaboration in the United States between organizations working for 
social change in Science, Technology and Society issues and Non-
European minority groups.  Critical problems such as population 
control, limiting human intervention in the ecosystem, or rebuilding 
our cities in balance with nature have been discussed almost entirely 
from a European, and often elitist, perspective.

     Recent environmental campaigns have taught us to appreciate and 
respect the biodiversity of our planet and to recognize the 
fundamental inter-dependency of human and non-human life with respect 
to various planetary processes.  However, despite a conscious effort 
to highlight crises in underdeveloped countries, the environmental 
movement has tended to be racially exclusive, expressing the point of 
view of middle- to upper-class European ethnic groups in developed 
countries.

     If the sustainability movement hopes to have credibility as the 
voice of a grassroots planetary movement, this pattern of exclusivity 
will have to change.  Traditionally under-represented  groups can play 
an important role in this shift of strategy and consciousness.  
Environmental protection must be understood as intimately connected to 
efforts to expose and eradicate injustice.  Solutions must offer 
practical goals which can be accomplished in the short run as we 
explore paths toward a more sustainable future.  Most importantly, 
individuals and organizations simply cannot afford to maintain the 
view that they are not involved with or unconcerned about who benefits 
and who loses from restrictions on economic growth.

     The American inner city was once a wilderness.  Today, islands, 
estuaries and forests that once existed in these privileged locations 
have been replaced by asphalt, concrete, barbed-wire fences, boarded-
up stores, crack houses, landfills and pollution.  After generations 
of isolation and manipulation, the people who live in these places 
rarely remember what it once was, or speculate on what it might 
become.  The debate on sustainability must  reach into these areas in 
order that we may collectively envision the city, and the world, of 
the future.

REACHING, TEACHING, AND UNDERSTANDING
     Just how important is it that those involved in sustainability 
issues include and involve the African American and other under-
represented communities?  Consider the fact that population growth 
among the Latin, Asian and African American communities is nearly 
twice that of white Americans.  Consider the findings of the 
Workforce 2000 study which projects increasing numbers of women and 
minorities in the workforce by the year 2000.  Reaching, teaching 
and understanding are crucial components to any effort to envision or 
actualize a sustainable future.

     What is Reaching, Teaching, and Understanding?  Reaching, 
Teaching, and Understanding is a long term commitment initiated 
through Student Pugwash USA to foster dialogue on increased multi-
cultural participation in the debate on critical global issues and, 
specifically, to increase minority participation in all aspects of 
SPUSA activities and programs.  However, this is not just an attempt 
to increase the number or percentage of minorities participating in 
SPUSA, but rather an earnest effort to fill a void that now exists 
between the minority community and the sustainability movement.

     Clearly, there must be more race sensitive planning by many of 
the larger environmental organizations, like the Sierra Club or the 
National Wildlife Federation.  As we approach the 21st century, race 
sensitive planning must take on a more progressive and visible role, 
which I fundamentally believe could address and eradicate the void 
that now exists by:

-- promoting greater understanding of the productive assets of 
society, including land, water and natural resources
-- Strengthening collaboration with groups seeking to redirect 
public investment and economic development away from wasteful 
exploitation of nature and gaining access to information resources 
which enhance the potential of community survival
-- Strengthening social and political organization and creating 
new opportunities for leadership within the community.

     In order to meet responsibilities for citizenship, blacks and 
other minorities must have opportunities and learn to play a greater 
role in formulating environmental policies which, after all, affect 
all members of the community.  We must find new ways to bridge the 
gap between the sustainability movement and the African American and 
other under-represented communities.

******************************************************************
RReaching, Teaching, and Understanding: Multi-Cultural Participation 
in the New Environmental OrderS has been  initiated by Eric Whitaker 
and Morris L. Reid through Student Pugwash USA to address multi-
cultural recruitment and participation in Science, Technology, and 
Society issues.  For further information or involvement, contact 
Eric Whitaker at (312) 324-6665 or Morris L. Reid at (216) 794-1232 
or write us at Student Pugwash USA.