ecofem  

Re: Racism and the enviornment

Shanti
Tue, 25 Mar 2098 17:02:34 +0100

Try a search on "environmental justice" - most of it is about race class
and envioronmental quality.
I personally have found the following site useful:
http://www.speakeasy.org/wfp/20/Justice.html
http://www.law.vill.edu/vls/journals/elj/volumes5_2/fisher.htm
http://weber.u.washington.edu/~jamesher/barb.htm.

The following book - if you manage to obtain a copy - is also relevant:

Dumping in Dixie: Race, Clas, and Environmental Quality by Robert D.
Bullard (Published by Westview Press)

----------
> From: Renee Brook Hogue <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
> Subject: Racism and the enviornment
> Date: Tuesday, March 24, 1998 9:50 PM
> 
> Hello Everyone - 
> 
> I am a student at Bowling Green State University and a member of its 
> first ecofeminism class.  I am putting together a presentation on racism 
> and the enviornment (aka envioracism, I believe...), but I am having a 
> hard time locating materials.  If anyone out there knows of any media 
> materials at all, websites included on this subject it would be 
> extremely helpful.  Thank you!
> 
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> Renee Brook Hogue:     That wasn't it.  I slept, say:  a snake
> ~ Poet                 Masked among black rocks as a black rock
> ~ Activist             In the white hiatus of winter--
> ~ Artist               Like my neighbors, taking no pleasure
> ~ Feminist             In the million perfectly-chiseled
>                        Cheeks alighting each moment to melt
>                        My cheek of basalt.  They turned to tears,
> rbhogue@               Angels weeping over dull natures,
> hotmail.com            But didn't convince me.  Those tears froze.
>                        Each dead head had a visor of ice.
>                              - Syvia Plath, "Love Letter" -
> <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><>
> 
> 
> ______________________________________________________
> Get Your Private, Free Email at http://www.hotmail.com
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Mar 25 09:19:30 1998
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 10:16:26 -0600
From: Gwendolyn L Griffin <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED]
To: "[EMAIL PROTECTED]" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: montana

Hi yall, 
anyone who lives in whitefish montana going to this, or anyone in/near
to the south going to this? If someone IS who might be comfortable
sharing ride space, please contact me!  
many thanks, 
gwendolyn griffin
[EMAIL PROTECTED]

Ecofeminism: A Practical Environmental
Philosophy                               for the 21st Century."

                                 April 2-5, 1998
                             The University of Montana
                                   Missoula, MT

The University of Montana MA Program in Environmental Philosophy, and
Women's Voices for the Earth (a Missoula based Ecofeminist activist
group),
in conjunction with the Environmental Studies Program and the Center for
Practical Ethics at the University of Montana, announces an
international
conference on the future of Ecofeminism.  Featured speakers include
Francoise d'Eaubonne, who coined the term Ecofeminism in her 1974 work
"Le
feminisme ou la mort," Val Plumwood (Philosophy, University of Sydney
and
University of Montana), author of Feminism and the Mastery of Nature,
and
Joni Seager (Geography and Women's Studies, University of Vermont),
author
of _Earth Follies: Coming to Feminist Terms with the Global
Environmental
Crisis_.  Other participants include:  Albert Borgmann, Chris Cuomo,
Victoria Davion, Irene Diamond, Greta Gaard, Lori Gruen, Marti Kheel,
Andrew Light, Catriona Sandilands, Deborah Slicer, Noel Sturgeon, and
Karen
Warren.

Attendance at the conference is open to members of the public and is
free,
but donations may be made to Women's Voices for the Earth.  No advanced
registration is required.

The Conference begins Thursday, April 2 at 6:30 pm, with opening plenary
presentations by d'Eaubonne, Plumwood, and Slicer in the Gallager
Business
Building Room 122, on the University of Montana campus.  The Conference
ends on Saturday, April 4, at 7:00 pm, with a closing plenary featuring
Joni Seager at the Front Street Theater in Downtown Missoula.  All other
presentations will be given from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm on the UM campus in
Jeannette Rankin Hall, Room 202.  There will be a Reception and
Ecofeminist
Art Opening, "Encompassing Visions:  Expanding the Language of
Ecofeminism," at the University Center Gallery April 3, at 5:15 pm.  A
full
conference schedule, including titles of papers and times of
presentation
is available via e-mail, by request.
>From [EMAIL PROTECTED] Wed Mar 25 09:35:30 1998
Date: Wed, 25 Mar 1998 11:33:29 -0500 (EST)
From: "Randi Zimmerman (CAS)" <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
To: STUDIES IN WOMEN AND ENVIRONMENT <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
Subject: Liberal Feminist as Ecofeminist?
In-Reply-To: <[EMAIL PROTECTED]>

What a great question!  I agree with the original post, that a liberal
feminist is not an ecofeminist.  The person who wrote to the contrary used
Rachel Carson as an example -- well, Rachel Carson refused to be called a
feminist of any kind.  We should not confuse "equal opportunity" feminists
who also believe in doing environmental work as ecofeminists.  The
ideology of liberal feminism is inherently anti-essentialist, that is,
there is no inherent difference between men and women.  LF's believe that
oppression (against women and non-whites) can be eliminated once barriers
to opportunity are removed. 

Environmentally this plays out in our protective legislation -- i.e.
mitigation of wetlands, saving owls, etc.  I do not mean to diminish this
work.  Working at the DEP (Dept of Environ. Protection) can be an
effective avenue for change as an ecofeminist.  However, most ecofeminists
I know understand that they are attempting to subvert the dominant system.
A liberal feminist would see this as the end all, be all of ecofeminism --
working within the system.  Believing that the system will become more
fair once everyone has a chance to be heard in the system.

Granted the definition of ecofeminism is still in process, but the
concepts that the way humans see/treat women and the way humans see/treat
nature are intricately linked seems to be a common thread.  From the
radicals, ecofeminism seems to have elevated the "feminine" traits of care
and nuturing.  From the cultural feminists, ecofeminism has adopted the
notion that culture shapes our identities and establishes a normative
heirarchy where human/man is valued above woman/nature.  Socialists have
added the notion of system of domination.  And finally, third wavers/woman
of color has begun to define the concept of interlocking oppression.
Besides attempting to legislate social change, I do not see how liberal
feminism has advanced the evolving theory of ecofeminism.

Well, I've rambled enough for now.  Look forward to continuing the
discussion.

Randi Zimmerman

"In the process of infinate beginnings, even immortality is mortal."
                                    -- Trinh T. Minh-ha