Black History Month: 12 African Americans who are greening the nation

James Edward Mills Feb 22 2011 at 4:34 PM

In May of 2007 Van Jones wrote an interesting article for Grist.com. In it he cautioned that the environmental movement had grown to became the "playground of a white, affluent eco-elite." It's worth noting in this list that there are indeed people of color who also contribute to the protection of the natural environment. At the risk of having their good work go unacknowledged during Black History Month it's hardly racist to identify a group of African-Americans as such when the conservation movement

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as a whole continually fails to include the interests of minorities when seeking to protect and maintain green spaces near urban centers.

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rose Feb 12 2011 at 12:45 AM

The previous comments missed the point of the article, perhaps because they didn't actually read the article. Even in today's supposedly post-racial America it continues to be important that all people are reminded about the significant contributions of African-Americans.

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PasoParent Feb 11 2011 at 7:45 PM

SO tired of dividing the country into African Americans, Chinese Americans, Mexican Americans, whatever... If the headline said "12 White Americans who are greening the nation", people would cry racism. SUCH a double standard. It's 2011. Can we please get over what color your skin is--black, white, yellow, brown, purple... Who cares. We're all Americans, right?

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J Feb 12 2011 at 12:20 PM

I wonder if you would make that same comment if you were a minority in America. The reason this country is divided is due to the fact that there is still and probably always be inequality in this so-called "great" country. My ancestors were brought to this country against their will and now, textbooks companies want to leave out the struggles that my African ancestors, as well as other races, went through and what they overcame because they don't want to educate the children in how cruel the Europeans

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were to us and how this country was built by slaves. Until we, as a nation, included ALL races and cultures in textbooks as American History instead of separate African American history or Asian American history; and stop negatively stereotyping each other in our community and media, then we can get over our racial issues. Take the time and put yourself in someone elses shoes and take off your majority culture lenses. If you've never been discriminated against or been oppressed because of the color of your skin, you really can't understand the struggles of minorities in this country. Every positive image that we see of our race is celebrated and no one should take that away from us. Yes, we are all Americans, but you can't "get over" racism that is still here in America.

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Jez Feb 11 2011 at 9:27 PM

I agree - this is an unnecessarily provocative, in fact adolescent, headline. This "article" could not possibly have been written by a seasoned journalist.

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