"It reminds me of the “bike to work” movement. That is also portrayed as white, but in my city more than half of the people on bike are not white. I was once talking to a white activist who was photographing “bike commuters” and had only pictures of white people with the occasional “black professional” I asked her why she didn’t photograph the delivery people, construction workers etc. … ie. the black and Hispanic and Asian people… and she mumbled something about trying to “improve the image of biking” then admitted that she didn’t really see them as part of the “green movement” since they “probably have no choice”

I was so mad I wanted to quit working on the project she and I were collaborating on.

So, in the same way when people in a poor neighborhood grow food in their yards … it’s just being poor– but when white people do it they are saving the earth or something.

"

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comment left on the Racialious blog post “Sustainable Food & Priviledge: Why is Green always White (and Male and Upper-Class)” 


I went to hippy medical school for a short time in my life to study Midwifery. I never fit in there. Every fucking person was a white trust funder who was way too oblivious to be studying medicine. The naturopath students were all fine with the fact that once graduated, their services would basically only be available to wealthy people since medicare doesn’t cover naturopathy and it’s DEFINITELY too expensive to self pay for those services.

Once, in nutrition class, the whole tone of the class discussion was how unconscionable it was for pregnant women to not eat an organic diet during pregnancy, and there was so much judgement for parents who do not feed their children organic diets once they are born. I raised my hand and said, “This entire conversation is extremely classist. You cannot have a discussion about nutrition without a discussion about classism and racism”. The professor could not address my comment in any way because she had been living in white, upper middle class bubble for far too long. It was very disappointing. 

I left that program, and that school.  

(via damnitamber)

(Source: ominykaress, via damnitamber)

Tags: white privilege classism racism environmentalism biking naturopathy