Quick Post!!!

www.transience.com.au/el/elgameo.html

^^ The above is a game I found on stumble upon a few days ago, it reminded me of the border patrol game we were discussing earlier in class....I think it speaks for itself. And by that I mean it speaks against immigration in a negative and dehumanizing manner.


and this!
www.youtube.com/watch%253Fv%253DL9jdIm7grCY
^^ Video of a home that costs NOTHING to operate because everything is maintained by natural methods, all raw, materials, etc. The people built this home themselves, and it makes you think twice about how our own lives are operated.

Love,

Mercedes

What is Environmental Racism?

I was browsing youtube for interesting videos to post so that way we have more variety of media in our blog. I found this video to be really straightforward and informative to those out there that are not familiar with the topic of our blog. This probably should have gone in at the beginning, but better late than never.Hope this helps!

Teresa Mares

Today in class we had a great guest lecturer, Teresa Mares. Her presentation was about Urban Agriculture and Food Justice. Towards the middle of the presentation, Teresa started talking about Urban Agriculture in our own city, Seattle. They include organizations like the Seattle Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Communities, (I mentioned this in an earlier blog), Cultivating Communities, Seattle Youth Garden Works (no longer exists), Lettuce Link, and Seattle Tilth. Teresa later delves deeper into Marra Farm, which has been cultivated since the early 1900s. This farm is located in South Seattle, in the South Park area. This is near the Duwamish River which is a Superfund site. South Park is also seen as a food desert because there are limited access to fresh fruits and vegetables. So as Teresa says, many questions have been raised over the farm producing organic produce yet it is located within such a toxic area. The farm consists of three gardens: Lettuce Link Giving Garden, Mien Community Garden, and a P-Patch Garden. The Lettuce Link garden produces 13,000-14,000 lbs of produce a year! The Mien Community garden is amazing as Teresa describes and is cultivated by refugees from Laos.

I feel like this lecture really connected with our blogs since most of our early blog posts were about community gardens. South Park residents probably have been facing environmental racism, so I think having this farm there is great as I think some of the community members has a share in the farm. Teresa also mentioned that Marra Farm is transitioning into being a City of Seattle Park. Personally, I don't think this is a good idea. Although there can be benefits for the whole community since it can be a great place for gathering and such, but I feel like there are more disadvantages than advantages. I'm not sure if the park is going to be around the farm or how that is going to work. But I feel like there might be a certain invasion of privacy. The farmers have all been there for a while and now all of a sudden, there will be people all over the place. I hope that this doesn't lead to theft or destruction of property. But hopefully I am wrong and the park does turn into something beneficial for all involved. Teresa also mentioned that there is concern since having this park could increase costs and eventually could push the farmers out. I also hope this doesn't happen because many have been reaping the benefits from the farm and if this is lost, then that will be a sad day. Most of the farmers at Marra Farm are probably lower income people of color. Their gardens are vital to them. We do not need this to turn into something like the South Central Farm in LA.

Marra Farm



Learn more about Marra Farm: http://www.solid-ground.org/Programs/Nutrition/Marra/Pages/default.aspx


-Hien Ngo

Random Rant About Arizona

This post of mine is similar to our group commentary that we all commented on last weekend. But I was on facebook this morning, just cruising through my newsfeed, and I saw a classmate of mine had posted a status which said:
"Los Angeles just tried to make their Arizona boycott official. Unfortunately, Arizona supplies 25 percent of LA's energy. It's going to be really entertaining when the elected officials of LA have to justify boycotting something totally legal when a large portion of the people will subsequently lose their power.." and her post before that had said "Attention to some of the idiots living in Washington state: Boycotting Arizona isn't going to change anything. Why don't you people find something more important to do with your lives; maybe something productive and potentially beneficial to society." I read into her comments posted on her status, and it got into a pretty serious debate. Mostly because the poster was claiming that this bill was not in any way racist, was in complete accordance with the constitution blahlblahblah bullshit. She of course, had a TON of angry comments, and there was a lot of pointless back and forth. I'm not one to get involved on facebook debates, because honestly they go no where and people will always have their opinions. But if I were to reply it would say something like this:

Are you completely ignorant? How do you not see that the bill specifically will target minority populations.
Everyone else who posted comments to this status correctly point out that the bill IS racist in nature. No, it doesn't explicitly say "hey please stop everyone who looks hispanic and deport them" it gives the authority for government officials to arrest persons that seem to be suspicious. WHO DO YOU THINK THEY WILL ASSUME IS THE ILLEGAL ONE? A MEXICAN OR A WHITE PERSON. No one is going to assume a random white guy is an illegal immigrant, they're going to assume the minority, not the majority. And that my ignorant facebook friend, is racial profiling.
Granted, the people have to be committing an illegal activity, but that would mean that someone could end up being arrested for j-walking or loitering in public. But still, what if you just stepped outside for a minute, didn't grab your wallet, walked across the street and got arrested, even if you had valid proof of residency? Is that ethical? Is that worth all of the paperwork and wasting of the police officers time? Definitely not.
PS.
Seeing as Seattle just added to the boycott list and it (along with others) won't allow any official government-related trips to Arizona, impacting Arizona's own local economies I would say yeah there is a point to it.
You're saying that Arizona has it's own rights to make a bill, Washington and all the other parts of the US have the same right to boycott something they find degrading and unjust. Just like Arizona felt they needed to deal with their immigration problem, the rest of the country is doing the same.
Oh wait except for Rhode Island which is attempting to pass similar legislation.

In other news, in case people aren't aware on what I was referring to in the Seattle:


Keep it classy kids!
-Mercedes

An Interview with Robert Bullard

I was looking for something to post about and i came upon a website that features a an interview with Robert Bullard and 'Earth First! Journal' coloumnist Errol Schweizer. Schweizer main theme in the article is to understand what the 'environmental justice movenment' really is and how Bullard came about the idea. Something Bullard said really got to me, he says that, "There's been a lot of conflict and misunderstanding about what the role of some of the green groups are as it relates to environmental justice and particularly working in communities of color. And what we're saying is that its just one environment. You're talking about planet earth, where we live, and if in fact we are going to have a global movement for environmental justice, we have to understand what environment is and what the agendas are. A lot of grassroots groups and communities of color are saying that we have to work in our communities and take care of educating and empowering our people before we can talk about having other people do stuff for us. I think to a large extent a lot of grassroots groups have come head-on with a lot of the larger groups that have not understood exactly what environmental justice is." I really think that what he says here is very true and very powerful because our environment is corrupt and were the ones that are doing the corrupting. People always think that 'colored' people are the ones that ruin the environment but we don't realize that the gradens, the fields of food, and the communities they build are what keeps the world at peace (or whatever peace there is left). I feel that we don't do enough and that instead we worry too much about our own small problems instead of realzing that in order to fix our own, first we have to fix the problems that surround us. It's not engough what people can do for us, it's not always take take take and then give, we need to give a little even it's by growing our own vegetables and then sharing it with our neighbors, friends, and family. "That's one small step for man, one giant leap for mankind." -Neil Armstrong

Here is the website for full interview: http://www.ejnet.org/ej/bullard.html

SB 1070

SB 1070 is a law that passed in Arizona in April 2010 but doesn't go into effect until July 2010. It makes it a misdemeanor crime to be in AZ without legal documents and allows law enforcement to enforce this by asking for legal documents from those they suspect as being undocumented immigrants.

UPDATE: The bill was redrafted to state that the suspected undocumented immigrant must be suspected of other illegal activity in order to be able to request legal documents from the individual. That was due to extreme political pressure due to racial profiling. Despite this, much of America (60%) has been in support of this bill. It also changes incarceration limits for first time offenders from 6 months to 20 days.

source: http://www.rasmussenreports.com/public_content/politics/current_events/immigration/nationally_60_favor_letting_local_police_stop_and_verify_immigration_status



When I heard about this I was extremely shocked that in the 21st century, a bill such as the one above could be passed into law.This law specifically targets people of Latin American origin.What about other illegal immigrants, how come they aren't being targeted? Racial harassment and profiling should never be made legal. Although proponents of this law say that unemployment, decreased wages, crime, etc are caused by immigrants, this is not the case. I feel that valuable police time will be put towards trying to find illegal immigrants. When I was in middle school, there was an altercation between my neighbors and when the police came, one of my neighbors asked him if there's anything he can do. His response was that there aren't enough police officers to worry about little problems between neighbors while there are murders and bigger problems going on. So in this case, I feel like the same can be said, law enforcement should be focusing their time and effort onto more important problems. There are so many other pressing issues out there, why aren't there bills or laws about that? Proponents of this law say that may say that these undocumented immigrants are the root of crime, but as stated in class, "Out-of-status persons are more likely to be victims of unreported violent crimes than perpetrators."

-Hien Ngo


I first heard about the bill SB 1070 in our Environmental Justice class and was astonished and went home and researched more about it. After revealing the truth of what Arizona is really doing i was hurt and felt betrayed, even if i am not part of this and didn't or couldn't have done anything to stop them from passing the bill i wanted with all my heart to see this bill taken down. I told all my friends and family memembers, anyone that would hear me out to go and look up the bill and see if we can do anything, i mean it's not fair what they are doing and i totally believe that this is 100% racist to that community and the world in general. I want to make sure that even if someone is caught as an illegal immigrant that they are able to take action to get legal documents, not just be deported back to their land of orgin or not be given the right to speak. We are slowly taken down the human race and it's actions like the SB 1070 that make it look like it's alright to pass this kind of law and get away with it, but it is in fact very wrong and unjustified. What happened to the Bill of Rights and The Constitution, don't people read or listen to what they have to say. All citezens should be treated equal, it doesn't specifically mention that only U.S. citizens should be treated equal. What happened to integrity, to honor and respect for one another... i don't know, i feel like it's all gone now.

-Alaa Al-Harab

When I had first heard of this law through the news, I thought to myself, "Some Americans may be bigoted and worried about illegal immigration, but no one is going to ACTUALLY take it that far..." However, as our class began to discuss it more often and I did my own research about it, I was shocked to find out that the law has a lot of support and has already more or less been passed. I was appalled. How is it that people can seriously think that the law has no flaws and that it actually violates many of our rights. Sure, illegal immigrants aren't guaranteed the same rights, but they are striving to gain them. In addition, what about the Latinos/as that are already in Arizona, legally? Police have been given the ability to racially profile legally. How is this allowed when the Latinos/as that are citizens have a Bill of Rights just as any other American? I am an American, will the police in Arizona ask me for my papers? If not, why not? I was born a U.S. Citizen but I am of Asian decent. I could be an illegal immigrant. Why am I not being pursued after? It is because SB1070 only targets one group: Latinos/as. It is blatantly racist. In recent news, HB2281 has now been passed in Arizona and bans the funding of "ethnic studies". Its basis is that the teaching of it will divide people. Nothing like good ol' white dominated Anglocentric studies to unite an increasing diverse population, right? Wrong. After the passing of these two laws, I have to wonder, "what is it about Arizona that they are so adamant in passing laws that violate rights?" Their neighbor New Mexico is prone to all the same problems, but why are they not following in the footsteps of Arizona? Hopefully, through more research and protest, I will be able to find the true reasons why Arizona has passed such laws and to stop them from harming others.

-Dustin Vu

I first heard about the bill in my American Politics class, before it was even signed into law. I remember clearly thinking something along the lines of, "There’s no way that this will ever get signed into law, it targets too many people, overrides the rights that a state is granted in the Constitution, and is a direct violation of a persons own liberty and rights.” Imagine my shock when I found out a week later that it had been in fact signed into law by the Arizona governor. I was even more shocked to find that the bill had a high percentage of supporters. Granted, immigration/border control is without a doubt one of the most arduous problems that the U.S. is attempting to face today, because no matter what legislation is passed, people will never be able to see eye to eye.
For my Poli Sci 202 class, we are required to spend a minimum of two days working for the Public Opinion Polls on campus. This entails calling registered voters houses and asking them their opinions on contemporary issues, local and national politics, etc. I was shocked to find so many people were in strong favor of the bill. The questions do not specify if they are in favor of institutionalized discrimination based solely on race, but in my mind that was exactly what people were agreeing for. Until the provisions of racial profiling were removed, the bill was nicknamed the “Juan-Crow” bill, as it was reminiscent of Jim-Crow law days.
I do understand that immigration is a huge problem, but there are other solutions besides building a huge wall or making all illegal persons felons. I am an avid supporter of a proposition which would grant illegal persons some rights if they fulfill civic duties such as paying taxes, etc. The guest worker program is another solution that I am in support of, but it definitely has a long way to go. In all reality, America functions on cheap labor provided by illegal immigrants. This is not to say that I am in support of persons coming to the U.S. illegally, but I do understand the push and pull factors which make this decision. Perhaps the problems with illegal immigration do not lie in the protections/borders themselves more so than in the laws which limit legal immigration.

-Mercedes E. Luna

N'awlins

New Orleans, Louisiana is a great example for potential and past environmental racism. New Orleans is often hit by hurricanes and therefore has set evacuation plans in case a hurricane hits. Transportation is considered a necessity in evacuation, however 24% of African American families in the United States do not have cars versus a mere 7% of white families. In the south where 54% of African Americans in the United States live, it seems an unfair standard to create an evacuation plan that requires a car. This is environmental racism because the evacuation plan assumes everyone has a car when this is clearly not the case. The majority of those people who do not have cars are African American, Latino American, or Asian American. In 1997, there was a strong effort to relieve this policy of its unfairness towards minorities. The Federal Emergency Management Agency created Project Impact, which provided funding for communities to satisfy their need for better evacuation plans. This policy was ended by the Bush administration in 2001, causing the problem to reemerge.

In 2005, when these evacuation plans were needed in New Orleans during hurricane Katrina, most people without cars were unable to evacuate. Since one third of African Americans living in New Orleans did not have cars, they were much less likely to evacuate than whites. According to James Elliott, African Americans were 1.5 times more likely to remain in the city of New Orleans during hurricane Katrina than whites. In addition, New Orleans did not have enough buses or bus drivers to successfully evacuate the population without cars. This exposed major weaknesses in evacuation and especially shined a spotlight on environmental racism in the south.

I personally have many family members in the south of Louisiana, spanning from Lafayette to New Orleans. Whenever I drive down to visit my aunts, uncles, cousins, and grandma, I always notice the evacuation route signs and think to myself: "Wow, these were really well planned. All the major throughways are utilized and a lot of planning must have been used to pick out the best routes." Not once have I thought, "what about all the people without cars?" There is a 20-something mile bridge that spans the Atchafalaya River Basin along I-10. Without a car, there really is no other way to get across. but I had never thought about this. Because of my background, I had never thought to put myself in the shoes of a family without a car in the event of a hurricane. In addition, my family in New Orleans lived in the areas above sea level, so I never really had to worry about them during Katrina. Nonetheless, improvements have been made in order to avoid the aftermath of Katrina. More preemptive actions have been taken in subsequent hurricane seasons and more emphasis has been placed on finding transportation for those in need. However, the true test isn't until another hurricane hits the region.

-Dustin

The Danny Woo Garden-Mercedes

The goal of the garden was simple, design and construct for the Asian elderly living in Seattle a place to plant the foods they missed from their native countries, and, most importantly, to provide social connections, recreation and exercise for the aging immigrant residents. (InterIm CDA). But back in 1975, resources to fulfill this dream were scarce. Activists and organizations asked Danny Woo, a community landowner and leader at the time, to build a garden on his Seattle property in the International District. “Uncle” Bob Santos, leader of InterIm CDA at the time proposed a new initiative. By combining a city-owned park with Danny Woo’s property, there would be enough land for the elders to harvest their produce, yet without being overcrowded. InterIm CDA, a nonprofit organization could only afford on $1 a year for rent. Despite this very low amount of money, Danny Woo agreed, and thus the Danny Woo Gardens was constructed

The garden was built on generosity and kindness, and continues to thrive today on the generosity of a community, full of volunteers and willing benefactors. InterIM CDA holds numerous benefit social events throughout the year all to benefit their projects, with the goal of benefitting an entire community. One of these longstanding events is the Sumer Pig Roast.

Let me take you back to history through my eyes now. I’m 18, going on 19 this year and my family has deep roots in Seattle, I am a fourth generation Seatillite, born and raised. And let me tell you, there is nothing like Seattle in the summertime. Those 8 out of 12 months filled with cold, rain, sleet, hail, sun breaks, heavy downpour, spontaneous storms, and generally unpredictable weather that people complain about are worth it for the summers spent in the city. Seattle becomes alive with the sun, and there are countless events that take place all around the Puget Sound. My favorite week of the whole summer is the second week of July. Not only is it my birthday weekend, but it is also the time of year when the annual InterIm Pig Roast happens, as well as numerous other Asian-culture events. The Pig Roast is an annual event that I have been attending since I was just a year old, and my father had been attending every year since it’s creation in the 70’s. I haven’t missed a single pig roast, save for the year I was born.

This longstanding event of the Pig Roast involves roasting a pig on a spit roast for over 30 hours, constantly being rotated and checked for even cooking. Those who participate in the roasting of the pig all agree that there’s a specific art and science to roasting a pig, one has to make sure that it is evenly cooked, that it’s not cooking too fast, etc. After the pig has been roasted to perfection, it is cut and served along with other donated dishes as a community potluck for all to attend. This annual event feeds hundreds of people, and is a chance for everyone to reconnect with the community, view the hard work that the elderly put into the gardens, and carry on a tradition.

Over the years, the Danny Woo garden has seen many additions, new retaining walls, planting of large fruit trees, and are currently in the process of building a chicken coop for both the elderly and the young to tend to. I even adopted a chicken to donate to the coop. Any ideas on names? :)

Community Gardens

Environmental racism. What does this mean to you?

One definition is: Environmental racism relates to an enforcement of a policy, practice, or regulation that negatively affects the environment of low-income and radically- homogeneous communities at a disparate rate than affluent communities.

When I think about this it brings me back to the movie we saw a few weeks ago, The Garden. This was a documentary about the South Central Farmers in Los Angeles, a group of farmers coming together, fighting to keep their 14-acre community garden. This community formed a special bond as they grew vegetables, plants, and fruits to help support their families. The movie portrays the plight of the farmers as they fight to keep from being evicted, but as all things must come to an end, sadly this was one of them, torn apart and ripped down to the last piece of grass... left only was a pile of torn greens and a whole bunch of wasted dirt land.

As I watched the film, there are many heartwrenching moments that almost brought me to tears, as basically one man, the man who owns the land, the one who has the power to sell or even give the land to the farmers, outright denies them this property. Even when the farmers raise enough money to buy the land from him, he still refuses. The injustice and corruption in the documentary made me livid.

Does this injustice still exist? As we look around in our community, we will see gardens such as the Danny Woo International District garden, the P-Patch Community Gardens, the UFarm at the University of Washington, but are all these gardens serving the same purpose? And do they all benefit low-income residents?

The P-Patch Community Gardens

There are so far a total of 68 of these gardens provided for residents in Seattle. The gardens are provided by the Department of Neighborhoods P-Patch Program together with the P-Patch Trust with an emphasis on immigrant and low-income populations and youth. 23 acres of land serve more than 3800 urban gardeners.

The P-Patch Program works to improve their communities food security, defined as, "when all community members obtain a safe, culturally acceptable, nutritionally adequate diet through a sustainable food system that maximizes community self-reliance and social justice."

This is probably the same concept the South Central Farmers believed in, but their community garden was destroyed. Luckily, in Seattle, the P-Patch Community Gardens are still thriving and hopefully, they will never face the same injustice as the South Central Farmers.

The Danny Woo Garden

This garden is in Chinatown/International District. This is a place where families get together to build communities that learn from one another and build strong connections so the garden can succeed. There are volunteers, gardeners, activists, organizations, etc. that help to keep the garden alive and green year round. Due to its success the garden has thrived since its first days in 1975 when a member of the Woo family leased the land to InterIm Cda. The heritage is from the Eastern part of the continent: Chinese, Japanese, Korean, Vietnamese, Filipino, and Pacific Islander.

In the garden people like to grow vegetables, flowers, fruits, plants, etc. Since tourists and visitors love to look at nature's beauty, they often come and walk down the many trails that display the many crops. There are also picnic benches and public art for people to take advantage of whenever they want to take the family for a nice day out. The elderly and more experienced gardeners grow vegetables that they would have grown if they were still back in their home country (watercress, daikon, and bok choy), while the younger kids stick to planting sweet fruits (strawberries and plums).

The UFarm

The farm at U.W. was started with the goal of, "educating the U.W. community about the global impacts of our food choices." It also, "serves as a tool to connect the U.W. community with where and how food is grown." Isn't this awesome? Now, at our very own fingertips, as students, we can be involved! Here is a great opportunity to learn how to farm!

Although the farm at UW isn't necessarily facing any environmental racism, I still think it is a great tool for students to learn more about farming, which will allow us to perhaps connect more with what the South Central Farmers were doing.

Now, it's not all doom and gloom, I have something to look forward to, ever since I heard about the UFarm, the Danny Woo garden, and the P-Patch Community, all in Seattle, YES SEATTLE, I have high hopes for more and bigger gardens to open up within the communities, not just ours, but maybe ones in other states , let's all go GREEN!

-Hien & Alaa

Sources:
http://www.interimicda.org/index.php?/sustainable_communities/danny_woo_garden/

http://students.washington.edu/uwfarm/
http://www.cityofseattle.net/neighborhoods/ppatch/communityfoodsecurity.htm