From the Ground up focused on explaining Environmental Racism and its history with and effect on the Environmental Justice Movement. As I read it, I couldn't help but think of the drive to the Reid Center to volunteer with I Have a Dream on Thursdays. It is right behind Mission Hospital and right down the road from the River Arts District. Yet, there isn't anything around the center to let you know it was near such rich areas of town. Inside the building, there are broken chairs, old tables, flaky paint and ceilings, and a beaten up gym floor. From the age of the building and no apparent repairs in the last 20 years, I would venture to guess that the paint is lead-based, and the insulation is made of asbestos. These problems are not faced by students in other community centers in town. There are regulations in place to protect children from these dangers. The regulators just overlook places like the Reid Center because there seems to be no point in condemning one of the only safe places for children in the neighborhood to go to within their families' budget constraints. So it seems that clean, safe environments are also reserved for those with money and status.
While there are numerous stories of other cities with far worse problems than those found at the Reid Center in Asheville; there are probably much worse stories here in Asheville, I am considering the global effect of the rich dumping their trash on the poor. In the film Manufactured Landscapes, we saw how China is collecting all of our harmful waste and recycling it. People spend all day long walking through landfills full of harmful materials to try and find something salvageable. How is it that we can so easily "sell" our trash to a poorer country? I guess it goes back to the question of whether it is the waste facilities that chose the impoverished areas or the impoverished people who are exchanging health problems for a cheaper cost of living. While this seams like a valid option in capitalism, where does the exploitation end. When the impoverished are so desperate that they are willing to sacrifice their health along with the health of others, where does it end? It seems that when America started trying to take care of its environmental racism problems, it started exporting the harmful waste to other countries who were even poorer than our poor and who didn't complain as long as they were getting paid.
While this seems to be an overwhelming problem, developing countries have found a solution. They are moving into "squatter cities" as mentioned in Stewart Brand's TED talk. These slum are a step up from the extreme poverty faced in rural areas even though they encounter greater environmental hazards. In the end, people fighting for their lives from day to day do not really have the time to focus on consequences years or even months in the future. They are flourishing while they have the chance. Hopefully the increase in education and opportunities for those moving to the squatter cities will facilitate a solution for using or getting rid of all the waste that has accumulated.
