Friday, November 09, 2007
Majora Carter
A friend just forwarded this to me and I found it so inspiring I thought I'd share it:
In an emotionally charged talk, Majora Carter explains her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx. This MacArthur-winning activist shows how minority neighborhoods have suffered most from flawed urban policy, and energetically shares her grassroots efforts to "green the ghetto." Click http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/53.
In an emotionally charged talk, Majora Carter explains her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx. This MacArthur-winning activist shows how minority neighborhoods have suffered most from flawed urban policy, and energetically shares her grassroots efforts to "green the ghetto." Click http://www.ted.com/index.php/talks/view/id/53.
Labels: philosophy, politics
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I love her speech writing style, she set everything up perfectly, each point building to the next.
Not to mention what she says is true. The elite have to do almost nothing at all for the poor of the country. And this is just one of the ways the center keeps the marginalized voices silent.
Not to mention what she says is true. The elite have to do almost nothing at all for the poor of the country. And this is just one of the ways the center keeps the marginalized voices silent.
Even when I left NYC in 1968, the urban blight in South Bronx was horrendous. Kudos to this fine young wonan!
Building prisons is not different. Our politicians try to find the poorest neighborhood, with the poorest schools, usually near the border of a county line, and erect a prison for the dregs of society to be housed. When you're too poor to fight, you let it happen. Kudos to Majora Carter for showing others how to get involved, how to fight back. I can only imagine what industrial garbage is dumped in our inner cities.
Ivan: Indeed it can, and I think what made Majora Carter's approach work is that she didn't just stop at saying "STOP! This is wrong." She said that, and then she said, "Here are some better options," and she still insists that her community have a seat at the table.
Eric: Yeah, she's incredibly articute eh? What makes it fly is connecting those personal stories to broader issues and contexts, I think.
TC: yeah, seems to have a long history. hopefully the days that kind of planning, or lack of planning, are numbered.
JR: interesting example. interesting also that those dregs of society often consist of the disenfranchised members of communities excluded from the process in the first place. makes a neat little circle.
Eric: Yeah, she's incredibly articute eh? What makes it fly is connecting those personal stories to broader issues and contexts, I think.
TC: yeah, seems to have a long history. hopefully the days that kind of planning, or lack of planning, are numbered.
JR: interesting example. interesting also that those dregs of society often consist of the disenfranchised members of communities excluded from the process in the first place. makes a neat little circle.
Inspirational lady.
There is a small community here that is threatened with a domestic waste incinerator, a poor industrial area unseen by most. Local politics should know better but it doesn't seem so.
There is a small community here that is threatened with a domestic waste incinerator, a poor industrial area unseen by most. Local politics should know better but it doesn't seem so.
Kissa: here in NS they're putting a dump in a mostly black, low income community called guysborough. it's the latest in a long history of environmental slaps in the face to black nova scotians.
The news here mostly focus in the neglect of black america, so it's interesting to hear about something similar in the scotia.
I was watching Long Way Down last night - about Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travelling through Africa on Bikes.
People with next to nothing would still give them something for nothing.
And yet, it's always the poor getting dumped on.
I was watching Long Way Down last night - about Ewan McGregor and Charley Boorman travelling through Africa on Bikes.
People with next to nothing would still give them something for nothing.
And yet, it's always the poor getting dumped on.
Toast: Woody Guthrie wrote about that too in 'Bound for Glory'. As a hobo he learned early that it's a waste of time to ask for anything from rich people. Poor people were always the most generous toward him and his friends.
It is the pathos of her story that make her points points hit home. That's the hallmark of a great speaker, to draw people in with a true and convincing story from one's personal experience, or at least, a story from one close to the speaker. Beautiful.
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