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This post is a condensed version of an article in the August issue of The Solutions Journal
[caption id="attachment_80873" align="alignright" width="350" caption="Interview with Majora Carter"]
[/caption]
Born and raised in the South Bronx, Majora Carter is best known for leading the effort to create the South Bronx Greenway: eleven miles of bike and pedestrian paths that connect the rivers and neighborhoods to the rest of the city. In 2001, when few people were talking about sustainability in poor neighborhoods, she pioneered one of the nation’s first urban green-collar job training and placement systems.
Currently, Carter runs her own consulting firm, hosts the Peabody Award-winning special public radio series “The Promised Land,” and serves on the boards of The Wilderness Society and the U.S. Green Building Council. Her work has earned numerous honors, including Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, Essence Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African Americans, and a New York Post Liberty Medal for Lifetime Achievement.
Tell us about your environmental work in the South Bronx.
MC: I was able to show people how to tap into greater economic potential for themselves through environmental restoration work. Many had never held a job, or were formerly incarcerated and thus were a psychological drain on the environment because they felt like they weren’t worth anything. Getting them some training in the hard skills of estuary restoration, erosion control, green roofing, and urban forestry helped the environment. But the soft skills of how to be a team player, look busy when the boss is around, and get to work on time are what kept them in the jobs and put pride in their step. Pride was displayed publicly every time they came home from work. This is a crucial element, pride, in any environment. It shapes your demands and expectations going forward. And my experience has shown that jobs are the best and most cost-effective way to achieve that.
How do poor communities bear the brunt of pollution more than affluent communities?
MC: Let me put it this way: If we had located all of our power, transport, waste, chemical, and agribusiness infrastructure near wealthy communities as easily as we have near poor ones, we would have had a clean and green economy decades ago. What we have, instead, is concentrations of these above-mentioned facilities near where poor people live. The public health fallout is evidence of the disparity. But, there are plenty of academic institutions doing more and more studies—I don’t think we need any more of those, personally. We know where the dirtier air, water, and soil are, and who lives there. Many of the knock-on effects on their lives are a result of a degraded environmental quality of life that wealthy people would never tolerate. The issue is not new or hard to see, but we are paying for it every day. A well-researched Columbia University study in 2006 showed a direct link between proximity to fossil fuel emissions sources and learning disabilities in children. In the United States, poor kids who do poorly in school very often go to jail.
Tell us about your green-collar job training programs. Why is that an effective solution?
MC: It isn’t the job training that makes it effective; it’s the job placement. That’s why I always make sure to describe that aspect of my work as “training and placement systems.” Placing difficult-to-employ people in good, paying jobs that fulfill their needs is not easy. You get there by establishing trusting relationships with potential employers, so they know that your graduates will perform. But you also have to look at the trends. I see climate adaptation as a real growth area with lower barriers to entry and long-term career ladders, especially in horticultural infrastructure systems—using plants and trees to manage stormwater runoff and cool urban heat islands, especially.
In your experience, what have you learned about how to make a change?
MC: Don’t surround yourself with people who “want to make a change.” Listen to everyday Americans to hear their concerns and aspirations. Don’t spend too much time in “activist” circles. Many of them are not in touch with the realities facing most people and, at worst, they romanticize poverty and are always trying to preserve it some way. Having grown up in poverty myself, I can tell you: not very romantic.
Families, small businesses, public school teachers, the elderly can all be invaluable in determining where to spend your energy and how to shape messages that work. People who steep themselves in “social-justice theory” and come up with complicated manifestos and rules about how to talk to each other, generally slow us all down in my opinion. There are some great exceptions. We have not made much social progress in the last two decades: prison recidivism, obesity, asthma, income disparity, high school dropouts, teen pregnancies—all up. Yet, philanthropic spending has gone up every year, too.
Who inspires you?
MC: Anyone who is looking at their problems as chances to move ahead and not get mired in a victim mentality.
This post is a condensed version of an article in the August issue of The Solutions Journal, based at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University. For the full article please see www.thesolutionsjournal.com.
[/caption]
Born and raised in the South Bronx, Majora Carter is best known for leading the effort to create the South Bronx Greenway: eleven miles of bike and pedestrian paths that connect the rivers and neighborhoods to the rest of the city. In 2001, when few people were talking about sustainability in poor neighborhoods, she pioneered one of the nation’s first urban green-collar job training and placement systems.
Currently, Carter runs her own consulting firm, hosts the Peabody Award-winning special public radio series “The Promised Land,” and serves on the boards of The Wilderness Society and the U.S. Green Building Council. Her work has earned numerous honors, including Fast Company’s 100 Most Creative People in Business, a MacArthur “genius” Fellowship, Essence Magazine’s 25 Most Influential African Americans, and a New York Post Liberty Medal for Lifetime Achievement.
Tell us about your environmental work in the South Bronx.
MC: I was able to show people how to tap into greater economic potential for themselves through environmental restoration work. Many had never held a job, or were formerly incarcerated and thus were a psychological drain on the environment because they felt like they weren’t worth anything. Getting them some training in the hard skills of estuary restoration, erosion control, green roofing, and urban forestry helped the environment. But the soft skills of how to be a team player, look busy when the boss is around, and get to work on time are what kept them in the jobs and put pride in their step. Pride was displayed publicly every time they came home from work. This is a crucial element, pride, in any environment. It shapes your demands and expectations going forward. And my experience has shown that jobs are the best and most cost-effective way to achieve that.
How do poor communities bear the brunt of pollution more than affluent communities?
MC: Let me put it this way: If we had located all of our power, transport, waste, chemical, and agribusiness infrastructure near wealthy communities as easily as we have near poor ones, we would have had a clean and green economy decades ago. What we have, instead, is concentrations of these above-mentioned facilities near where poor people live. The public health fallout is evidence of the disparity. But, there are plenty of academic institutions doing more and more studies—I don’t think we need any more of those, personally. We know where the dirtier air, water, and soil are, and who lives there. Many of the knock-on effects on their lives are a result of a degraded environmental quality of life that wealthy people would never tolerate. The issue is not new or hard to see, but we are paying for it every day. A well-researched Columbia University study in 2006 showed a direct link between proximity to fossil fuel emissions sources and learning disabilities in children. In the United States, poor kids who do poorly in school very often go to jail.
Tell us about your green-collar job training programs. Why is that an effective solution?
MC: It isn’t the job training that makes it effective; it’s the job placement. That’s why I always make sure to describe that aspect of my work as “training and placement systems.” Placing difficult-to-employ people in good, paying jobs that fulfill their needs is not easy. You get there by establishing trusting relationships with potential employers, so they know that your graduates will perform. But you also have to look at the trends. I see climate adaptation as a real growth area with lower barriers to entry and long-term career ladders, especially in horticultural infrastructure systems—using plants and trees to manage stormwater runoff and cool urban heat islands, especially.
In your experience, what have you learned about how to make a change?
MC: Don’t surround yourself with people who “want to make a change.” Listen to everyday Americans to hear their concerns and aspirations. Don’t spend too much time in “activist” circles. Many of them are not in touch with the realities facing most people and, at worst, they romanticize poverty and are always trying to preserve it some way. Having grown up in poverty myself, I can tell you: not very romantic.
Families, small businesses, public school teachers, the elderly can all be invaluable in determining where to spend your energy and how to shape messages that work. People who steep themselves in “social-justice theory” and come up with complicated manifestos and rules about how to talk to each other, generally slow us all down in my opinion. There are some great exceptions. We have not made much social progress in the last two decades: prison recidivism, obesity, asthma, income disparity, high school dropouts, teen pregnancies—all up. Yet, philanthropic spending has gone up every year, too.
Who inspires you?
MC: Anyone who is looking at their problems as chances to move ahead and not get mired in a victim mentality.
This post is a condensed version of an article in the August issue of The Solutions Journal, based at the Institute for Sustainable Solutions at Portland State University. For the full article please see www.thesolutionsjournal.com.TriplePundit has published articles from over 1000 contributors. If you'd like to be a guest author, please get in touch!
