A collage that I made at the Museum of Contemporary Arts to brainstorm ideas for my zine. The title, "Well... we saved the polar bears" represents how our society tends to focus on the rights and safety of animals when it comes to environmental degradation, when people of color are facing similar challenges.
I chose to be an advocate for this topic because it is something that I see affecting my community and those around me. I heard about environmental racism as an issue recently, and it put a lot of puzzle pieces together. Learning about it reminded me a lot of what my grandma, aunts, and uncles would tell me about the yonkes in Barrio Logan and how they fought for Chicano Park. I understood why it was that the bay in the Latino communities is filled with industrial companies instead of being open and beautiful like the bay in the white communities. I understood why the air was always more grey and why the water was more murky. I understood why we were seeing all of our nature taken away. I wanted to study the topic because it was new, mysterious, but still somewhat personal.
To create this proposal, I used the following sources:
I learned that many basic and social needs are not being met for communities of color. People are not certain of their health or safety and they are not certain if the air they breathe or the water they drink is clean. People are visiting the hospital more for asthma, people are being exposed to cancer causing substances, and people are being treated as though their community deserves less than the white communities. In no situation should someone have to worry about such simple things like air and water.