Charges of Racial Insensitivity Beset Environmentalists
12/23/99
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Title: Charges of racial insensitivity beset environmentalists
Source: The Christian Science Monitor
Status: Copyright 1999, contact source for permission to reprint
Date: November 23, 1999
Byline: Todd Wilkinson

For American environmentalists committed to giving all creatures
great and small a voice, few things make green activists more
uncomfortable than charges that racism exists within their ranks.

Yet after two inflammatory incidents in the past month, those are
exactly the charges that some minorities have been leveled at the
movement.

Last week, Amos Eno, executive director of the National Fish and
Wildlife Foundation in Washington, stepped down after causing a furor
by repeating a slur in a speech last month about Manuel Lujan, a
Hispanic who served in the Bush administration.

Also recently, David Simon, a respected regional director of the
National Parks and Conservation Association in Washington, was
temporarily suspended for criticizing a Hispanic national parks
official. Mr. Simon described the official as "an [Equal Opportunity
Employment] experiment gone haywire."

The comments have added to the perception among some civil rights
activists that the Caucasian-dominated conservation movement has been
slow to integrate people of color, despite years of championing
environmental-justice issues involving industrial pollution.

Given the country's rapidly shifting demographics, a failure to
embrace ethnic groups who feel disenfranchised could have profound
repercussions for environmental causes in the future. To neglect that
reality - or, worse, to alienate minorities through actions viewed as
hostile or indifferent - could result in the movement losing its
effectiveness in the new America.

"Together, these recent episodes are evidence of a systemic pattern
of intolerance for minorities that exists in the environmental
movement, and it is an issue that few people are willing to talk
about," says Roger Rivera of the National Hispanic Environmental
Council in Virginia.

Both incidents caused an instant uproar and resulted in heartfelt
personal apologies from the conservationists. Yet Mr. Rivera and
others say environmental groups must go beyond words to promote
greater minority involvement. After all, the composition of many
groups is disproportionately white compared with the rest of the
population.

Not as green as it seems

"Let's admit it, this is one part of society that is not nearly as
green - and by that I mean accepting of the broad spectrum of
humanity - as it portrays itself to be," says Bill Redding, Midwest
regional representative for the Sierra Club and an African-American.

Some groups are indeed taking steps to diversify themselves. And
ironically, the very groups that Rivera and others have attacked
because their representatives made offensive statements have been at
the forefront of embracing racial diversity and minorities' agendas.

Under Mr. Eno's tutelage, the National Fish and Wildlife Foundation
earmarked millions of dollars to Hispanic conservation causes,
including protecting songbirds in Central America and migratory
waterfowl in Mexico.

Similarly, the National Parks and Conservation Association has tried
ociation has tried
to expand minority involvement in national parks, spurred by Iantha
Gantt-Wright, an African-American staff member. For his part, Simon
has tried to protect cultural sites important to native Americans and
Hispanics in the Southwest. Still, race is a prickly issue.

"No one segment of society should have propriety over how the natural
treasures of our nation are stewarded," says Mr. Redding. "Race isn't
supposed to matter, but it does."

Race entered into a discussion two years ago when the Sierra Club
considered advocating the restriction of immigration on environmental
grounds. Although the initiative was soundly rejected, the tenor of
the debate led a number of civil-rights groups to say initiative
proponents came across as racists.

And again in Florida, some measures to restore the Everglades have
been turned back by African-American and Hispanic sugar-cane workers,
who say insensitivity to the impact of conservation on their jobs
demonstrates a cultural ignorance. It is exacerbated, observers say,
by the fact that environmentalists have done a poor job of building a
minority constituency.

Clearly, many minority conservationists feel that not enough is being
done. Yet federal officials say the task of recruiting minorities is
hard - even with aggressive outreach programs.

Progress on the horizon

Moreover, progress is being made, say others. "The environmental
movement is broadening its base and broadening its mission," says
Timothy Wirth, a former US senator who oversees the United Nations
Foundation. "By that, I mean it is including in its focus issues
relating to race and racial justice, which are integral to a lot of
environmental problems."

From fighting toxic dumps that are sited in minority areas to banning
pesticides that could be harmful to migrant farm workers, minority
communities are finding that environmentalism can play a positive
role, he says.

As for an urgency to bring more minorities under the tent of the
environmental movement, Mr. Wirth says that will evolve naturally as
global warming, overcrowding, and clean-air issues touch everyone.

"Environmental issues will be overwhelming by ... the year 2050, when
there is a different face to America. Everybody will be engaged with
a greater sense of urgency...." Error: Unable to read footer file.