Spoken Word Piece: Untitled

As I walk thru the valley of the shadow of death, I take a step back to realize the social injustice brought out by the increase police presence of the plea by Mayor Antonio Villaragiosa of a 1,000 more police to target black and brown youth. Spearheaded by the police, the split between black and brown, I spit this pleas so you can scrutinize my every word, memorize my every line, that my plea is real.Increase police presence orchestrates the fear for the green in the eye and the “nine” close by to protect from the entity hired to protect and serve. As I spit this pleas of a 1,000 less police, as I mosh with BRU behind me, I exercise my right to express to impress those ears, how you interpret it is on you. I put my voice behind a 1,000 less police and a 1,000 more buses. If you don’t understand, don’t bother to ask. 1,000 more teachers protects the minds corrupted in the unjustified latter of nothin more in this world. A 1,000 more parks protects the targeted black and brown youth with a place to go and a spot to kick it. As I mosh with the BRU behind me, we gon’ charge, we gon’ stomp, we gon’ march thru the swamp, we gon’ step to those doors, we gon’ make our demands ” 1,000 Less Police,  1,000 more buses, 1,000 more teachers, 1,000 more parks. All you’ll see is a sea of people, some black some brown even white, no matter the color; all that matters is we’re together to demonstrate the same cause to show what a 1,000 more police looks like, by millions of black and brown youth locked up in record numbers, deaths of Devin Brown and Suzie Pena, and the beating of Rodney King. As I provide just enough spark that we need to proceed to carry on with the demands; Respectively, I disagree with a 1,000 more police

Who’s to blame for the masses of minorities receiving cuts in education

Who’s to blame for the masses of minorities receiving cuts in transportation

Who’s to blame for the masses of minorities receiving cuts in needed resources

Resources that makes communities self-sustaining are being cut

WHY?

To close a 47 billion dollar deficit brought on by the “governator” who needs to be terminated

1/4 of the budget cut into 24 million dollars, sad that education and transportation has to be cut

so that means no more learning and mobility

is it the “governator’s” plan to eliminate “Cali-Forn-ya’s” population of minorities?

is it SchwarzeNegger’s plan to disenfranchise, disable, degrade the working minorities?

Or is he just trying to cover his overspending, I guess he never had a “Piggy” bank growing up

47th in Educational spending and 1st in Correctional spending

California had to be on top one way or another

Mr. Mayor wants to close his deficit as well, but wants more police

more police to harass, embarrass, degrade, criminalize young minorities

suffering still at so many levels, when will it ever end

everlasting fight of Environmental Justice because

Who’s to blame for the masses of minorities receiving cuts in education

Who’s to blame for the masses of minorities receiving cuts in transportation

Who’s to blame for the masses of minorities receiving cuts in needed resources

Last week we chatted with West Philadelphia students participating in a technology program. I think the conference was quite interesting.  Although it took some time getting connected with the students, the highlight of the conference was the bonding experience with the fellow GreenRelay participants. Other than the great laughs, I look forward to teaching the students somethings about Los Angeles and learning some things about West Philadelphia. It should be an interesting thing this summer to work with folks surrounding Environmental Justice. I look forward to working with them.

This week  the greenRELAY core group met for a video conference with students in West Philadelphia’s University High School.  At least we planned on doing a video conference until we had some technical difficulties.  We we were going to speak with them a little about our goal in this program which is environmental justice.  We we’re hoping to not only reach out to people through our website but in person as well.  We planned on talking with them about what they thought about the environment and what it actually was.  The environment is more than just the trees and the plants, it is the people that you live near, it is the home you live in, the air you breathe.  We also planned on talking with them a little about what they thought about their environment and if they haven’t thought about it to start to.  We can’t do anything to improve our environment if we don’t know or haven’t thought anything about it.  We as people need to do more ourselves to better the environment whether it be something as small as using an appliance that is “energy star approved” or contacting your local congressperson about some of your concerns any small bit of effort can help.

Unfortunately we did not get to discuss much with the students in Philadelphia to learn about their environment, what they thought about it, and what they might be able to do improve it.  Although I never really thought about things much before other than deforestation, global warming and the other things you hear on the news through greenRELAY I have begun to about other aspects of the environment.  Some people are involved in the Bus Riders Union and I they are lobbying for more buses and less police.  I never realized the problem of public transportation because I never relied on it.  Recently I have used public transportation to get different places and I never realized the problems associated with it.  The main problem is the number of buses.  A city such as New York with a great subway system has a larger fleet of buses than MTA does in Los Angeles.  This is troubling because our train system is much more limited than New York’s.  Something else troubling I have learned through information from the Bus Riders Union is the cost of light rail projects.  They seem like a good idea but with the as small as it is compared to buses it should not be getting all the funding for new projects.  I agree entirely with the Bus Riders Union when they want to take money from light rail projects and give it to buy more buses.   I’m not against light rail projects, I’m just against them being given higher priority over expansion of the bus fleet.

Hello, my name is Cesar Chavez. I live in K-town (Korea Town), Los Angeles, CA. This summer I decided to do the greenREELAY program. It is a program that talks about environmental justice. This past week I’ve learned many things at greenREELAY. I’ve learned new ways to reduce global warming. I’m surprised to know that there are so many religious groups involved in the fight to reduce global warming. Before doing the program I had an idea of what environmental justice meant to me. Now I know that the people most affected by global warming are minorities. To me environmental justice means having a world where we can breath fresh air and uses resources from earth. I also believe that everyone should have and equal opportunity to all those resources. I enjoyed the past week and I’m looking forward to the future.

Whats up, my name is Monte Marable. I live in Los Angeles, CA.  During this whole week we learned about how people are oppressed whether it is by fear or intimidation, we learned about the fear itself along with how we can channel that fear and use it to change how people are treated in this world. We learned about how we can improve the social welfare state, whether it is by banding together and taking a stand against environmental racism, and corporate greed, or being individuals and taking a stand against our own lifestyles and changing them for  a better world.

Environmental justice means to me that no matter what your race, sex, gender, sexuality, immigration status, or class is that you are entitled to live in an environment where you have the ability to breathe in clean air, eat healthy food, and live in a society where your natural rights are NOT taken away by not being one that is ” privileged”. Meaning one that is usually white and upper class. By having environmental and social justice we are destroying the structural cycle of oppression that occurs today.

Oppression is based on “targets” and “agents”. Targets are the minorities and the working class, while the agents generally have privilege and are the whites and upper class. I  learned that there are three types of oppression: vertical, horizontal, and internalized. Vertical oppression is target vs. agent, horizonal is agent vs. agent or target vs. target, and internalized, Anson, says is one of the worst because you are against yourself.

I learned that society is structured so that minoriteis live in poverty and toxic waste are placed in these areas.

This is a little piece of what I have learned this week!

HEY STUDENTS AT WEST PHiLLY… WELL MY NAME iS BiBiANA. WELL GREEN RELAY IS ABOUT ENViRONMENTAL JUSTiCE. I CAME IN THE PROGRAM KNOWiNG NOTHiNG ABOUT ENViRONMENTAL JUSTiCE. AN EXAMPLE OF ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTiCE iS THAT EVERYBODY SHOULD HAVE THE PRiVALAGE TO HAVE CLEAN AIR NOT ONLY THE PEOPLE iN POWER SHOULD HAVE THE PRiVALAGE TO HAVE CLEAN AiR. I GOT OUT OF THE PROGRAM LEARNiNG MORE THAT WHAT i WAS EXPECTiNG. SOMETHiNG iNTERESTiNG I LEARNED iN THE PROGRAM GREENRELAY iS THAT YOU CAN RECYCLE ABOUT 50% OF THE TRASH YOU THROW AWAY. AROUND WHERE I LiVE (KOREA TOWN) THERE ARE ALOT OF TRASH THROWN iN THE STREETS. ONCE iN A WHiLE WE WOULD DO A COMMUNITY CLEAN UP DAY THAT THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT ORGANiZES.

Hi I am Travis Cabral. And for the past week i have been part of the GreenRELAY. This have been a real good learning experience. I’ve learned things from the past week about very good topics. Our world today is very corrupt and needs alot of help. Environmental Justice plays a BIG role in the world. I’ve done alot of first time things this week. Going to the Union Station for the MTA Board Meeting was a great thing to do. I actually got to sit in the meeting and hear how the Board Members made the decisions on some life changing topics. People brought to the attention how the bus drivers was mistreating the disable on the bus. I’ve never been to something that how so much power to change lives. When being part of the GreenRELAY you can attend many things like this. It was much better than i thought i would be. We’ve learned about Oppression this week. This is also a great way to meet new people. Attending the GreenRELAY have made me realize so much things that the world is going through. Just because you are not going through it yourself dont mean that you cant Help the world get through the problems its going through.

Before participating in the greenRELAY training, I limited my understanding of Environmental Justice to the unjust concentration of polluting industries in predominantly minority communities and the consequently disproportionate burden we carry, including limited access to fresh and healthy foods and affordable health care, constant exposure to air and noise pollution, and higher asthma, obesity and diabetes rates. I became particularly aware of EJ in LA when I started interning for Communities for a Better Environment in Huntington Park, which is a predominantly Hispanic city about 30 minutes east of my neighborhood. The high numbers of 18 wheeler trucks, train tracks, factories, potholes, and potent smells are conspicuously absent from the Westside of LA, which is also conspicuously richer and Whiter.

Until the greenRELAY training, which has focused on making its participants more aware of different types of oppression and how it is manifest in ways that harm our environment and our health, I focused mostly on systemic instances of Environmental Injustices. I noticed the big, bad, ugly industries over which I, and most people like me, have next to zero control: oil refineries, meat rendering factories, international trade at the port of Los Angeles, and industries as such have always stood out to me as unjust polluters who blatantly support racist development and politics. I had never learned about the difference between horizontal and vertical oppression, so I tended to focus on the vertical, where powerful groups like the wealthy mistreat more vulnerable groups like the poor.

I didn’t recognize how environmentally unjust I have been because of my practice of horizontal oppression, in which I have helped maintain racist ideologies against my own people. I grew up in a well-off Black neighborhood, but I drove many miles everyday of my life to attend private schools in White neighborhoods. There are malls, grocery stores and other ammenities near my home in the adjacent Black lower-middle to lower class Crenshaw district, but I have always driven west into Whiter neighborhoods to shop for clothes and to go to Trader Joe’s (I love TJs). I certainly never realized that my prejudice required that I pollute even more by driving excessively in a car that gets awful gas mileage and by refusing to take mass transit because of the stigma attached to it. My understanding of Environmental Justice has expanded to include a broader set of circumstances that pollute both the Earth and the mind, and I am now more aware of EJ on an individual scale.