It's no surprise how cyclical and connected race, poverty, zip code,
and education are in predicting a person's quality of life. This reading reminded me of a plan for an oil drilling site in South LA that has been terminated due to protest from environmental and neighborhood activists and the city's new enacted rules for oil drilling. The drilling site would have affected many people of color that are living in the apartments nearby. If anyone's interested, here's the article.
It's easy to feel hopeless on topics related to justice. Environmental justice is related to food justice as much as it is to social justice. One thing that helps me feel hopeful is knowing that because everything is interconnected, if we can improve one area, it will also have a cyclical affect and improve other areas. Eventually, we can break the cycle of poverty, poor living conditions, low education level, and poor quality of life that are particularly associated with the black and Hispanic community.
It continues to sadden me how little attention is given to environmental justice when we know the debilitating of poor food and social justice. At the same time I feel inspired to do something about it because we know how beneficial bridging the disparities will be, and we can contribute to the conversation and policy making.
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