May 2007 | Choice Feedback
So Much for the Polar Bears
Mr. Van Jones writes in his article, “Eco-Apartheid” (April 2007), “This country can save the polar bears and black kids, too.” I can’t believe the president of a human rights organization could write such degrading words. This statement is representative of so many privileged citizens who choose to focus their energies on the environment rather than seriously examine and confront our country’s institutional racism that gives many minorities a higher chance of landing in jail than graduating from high school. “Black kids” don’t need saving. “Black kids” need the resources that their white, wealthier counterparts are receiving.
Mr. Jones also writes of a need for “a politics of hope” for America’s urban and rural poor. Let’s talk about what really needs to happen: Millions of Americans need access to better housing, healthcare, education and livable wages. If the environmental movement understands that more minorities need to be involved, who’s going to address these basic needs so that more minorities can fight alongside them?
I wish I could fight every battle that I see, but I can’t. When choosing between fighting for polar bears and “black kids,” my own species comes first.
— Jessica Maiorca, Chicago, IL
Sandstorms and Stereotypes
Upon reading the feature in your most recent issue entitled “Sandstorms and Tall Tales,” I was struck by the propagation of deeply embedded stereotypes of American Indians. Hollywood films and other media have done well at eliminating images of the “bloodthirsty savage” from their content, but the image of the “noble, mystical creature in tune with nature” remains. Alastair Bland’s family anecdote, while surely personally inspired, could have been presented in a way that did not represent his dinner guest as someone who lived in the forest and survived on fish and was friendly with bears. In addition, the note that “as a modern city dweller, the Native American is largely a fictional figure” also promotes a vicious misconception. The author lives in San Francisco, which has a large urban American Indian population.
Some of the themes of the “in tune with nature Indian” were also visited in your main article on the whiteness of the Green movement.
Conscious Choice would better serve its liberal-minded environmentally-conscious readership by dismantling stereotypes and offering opportunities for more realistic portrayals of American Indians and their contributions to the movement.
— E. Wolowitz, via email
![[Send]](http://consciouschoice.com/sendlink/send.gif){kind=small}
Recommend this page to a friend
Top Ten pages recommended to friends:
