EP.9 Pt.1 Amin Davis - Those Who Answer The Call - Organizations Adding Value

Discussing the social and environmental changes that our communities of color and lower resource communities have been facing for decades. Awakening of consciousness that will help to reverse environmental racism and environmental injustices that are so prevalent in our nation and in our communities. 

Transcript

Amin Davis - 1st Segment

Wading Deep Podcast

Amin Davis, Partners for Environmental Justice (PEJ), Board Member

SPEAKERS: 2

Speaker 1–Reverend Jemonde Taylor, Rector – St. Ambrose Episcopal Church

Speaker 2–Amin Davis, Partners For Environmental Justice (PEJ), Retired Board Member

1

Speaker 1

I am honored to welcome today's guest, Amin Davis, Partners for Environmental Justice PEJ . Board Member welcome Amin.

2

Speaker 2

1:01

Thanks for having me, I appreciate you having me look forward to our conversation.

1

Speaker 1

1:06

What is environmental racism in your own words.

2

Speaker 2

1:11

In my own words, environmental racism, are policies and practices that essentially put communities of color and low wealth communities in situations where they're subjected to either dirty water, dirty air, or you know, too much water or not enough water, essentially environmental hazards that the rest of the population are generally not subjected to.

1

Speaker 1

1:44

I like how you phrase that subjected to and also in terms of dirty water or not enough water. I know for the past, gosh, I guess five or six years we think about Flint, Michigan, we think about what's happening in Jackson, Mississippi water quality, and these are certainly black and sometimes brown communities.

2

Speaker 2

2:10

Yeah, and you know, so that's kind of where you see these patterns when there are these disasters or issues with people not being able to access, you know, clean water to drink to bathe, to just live their lives normally. And more often than not, you'll see that they are in black and brown communities and or communities that are just economically disadvantaged in some way.

2:41

How did you get into environmentalism?

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Speaker 2

2:45

Honestly, I came out of the womb with a God given love and His creation, especially with water, you know, I've always loved water, particularly streams, rivers, lakes, and swamps. I grew up about 15 minutes from downtown New Haven, Connecticut, and I spent a lot of time as a young boy exploring a stream behind my neighbor's house. And I always enjoyed doing that I even dug a stream channel behind my father's garden, and put a pipe in it. Wow, that drain water from my neighbor's yard into the stream when it would rain, so after the rain, I would go out and just watch the water flow through the pipe and watch the water flow down into the neighbor's yard. So it's just been a part of part of me and I've always loved just, you know, his creation natural areas. And it's, it's just like I said, it's just just a part of me, I can't, I can't take credit for it. It's just, but I'm grateful for that I've had opportunities to, to nurture that love that was innately inside of me and even to this day, have opportunities to to be involved in natural areas. So that's how

1

Speaker 1

4:08

that's fascinating. You know, I'm imagining a young Amin, digging a stream channel in the garden that's, that's magnificent. And you talked about I guess this this innate this this god given love of water and of course, as Christians and people have faith water is extraordinarily important and religious, particularly in in a Christian, Judaic and even in Muslim tradition. Certainly from a Christian standpoint, we read about Holy Scripture that the Holy Spirit moved or brooded over the waters of creation, the beginning, water being the channel for salvation, for the people from fleeing bondage, and Egypt through the Red Sea. And of course, we have Jesus who was baptized in the River Jordan and Christians, a sense had been baptized so that water is an important religious symbol. And I think it's just fascinating that you didn't say this. But you know, actually God was your teacher in this. You didn't mention that your parents were environmentalists, or had specific training in this area. And yet you came into this world with this love of water particulate, particularly streams, lakes and swamps. I think that's, that's magnificent.

2

Speaker 2

5:35

Yeah, and, you know, that's kind of where my most of my passion was around those areas. But I also have felt just an innate need to protect the natural resources, both the land and water, I remember, they were building a new neighborhood, next to my neighborhood. And as a kid, I used to ride it was a field, it was just kind of a an open field at the time, you know, me and my neighbors, we used to ride our BMX bikes up and down the field and hadn't had a great time there. And I remember one day seeing these posts in the ground. And I didn't know exactly what those posts meant. But I had a feeling that it meant that there was a change coming to that field where we used to ride our bikes through. And I later came out came to understand that those posts were survey markers. And those posts indicated the areas that were going to be built. And instead of the fields and the grass and the stream, there will be houses there. So I remember pulling out the stakes from the ground, because I just felt that, you know, our area was being encroached upon by something that was going to change it. So again, that was just a part of me. I didn't I didn't know what was going on. But you know, that's, that's what ended up happening. And now that that subdivision has been there, that's probably an old considered an older neighborhood. Now, it's probably 40-45 years old now. So. So yeah, I've just felt a, there's been an innate desire for me to be a steward of God's creation and natural areas that I still, in some ways maintain to this day.

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Speaker 1

7:15

Yeah, and what a great story about an activist Amin, the activist, the young activist with, with the BMX bike, pulling up the stakes. I mean, there's so much in that story. You know, we think about when developments happen, that notices go out to people who are 50 feet away from the property, and 50 feet is nothing. You know, what, uh, what would it have looked like with this development, this neighborhood, if the developer had bridged conversation community, with your community, if you didn't stumble upon this by riding your bike. But, you know, your parents knew that this was happening because the developer had enough courtesy and human sensibility to engage the community to talk about maybe some benefits, to maybe even explore naming so many possibilities. But what we find time and time again, what development is that developers come in and encroach domesticate a space, and it's theirs, and the neighbors, they'll get a notice of 50 feet away, but have no say, and I love that image of you're pulling up the stakes as a sign of protest, of, hey, this is our play area. This is our space. And we have a say in it. And my power right now is to pull up that stake. I think that's great.

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Speaker 2

8:49

Yeah, yeah, I think where I grew up, I don't even know if they had rezonings. Again, this is when I was, you know, in middle school, elementary school, middle school. In they may have and I might not have been aware of it. But regardless, you know, I think we weren't aware of what was going on. And, you know, like, like you said, that when when changes like that come to an area, oftentimes the folks that are going to be affected are aren't given the common courtesy of being able to be told what's going to go on, or to even have a stake in you know, what, what will go on, that may affect, you know, their neighborhood.

1

Speaker 1

9:35

You're absolutely right. Another reason I find your area around water so fascinating, is, you know, there is there's a narrative that black people can't swim or black people don't like to swim. And, you know, there's so many stereotypes around that. And the fact of the matter is that in the United States was illegal. for black people to be members of country clubs that had swimming pools, so if you were black in America, the way you would learn to swim is if you or a family member had enough money to have a pool in the in the backyard, or lived on a coastal area and could go and swim in the ocean. And we notice when the ocean swimming in the ocean is, is difficult anyway. But your your your love of water, water quality, preservation, helps disrupt that narrative. And I think when when people jokingly talk about black people, African Americans not being able to swim, they do it outside of the historical context, you can't swim unless you are near water, or you have water to swim, you learn by swimming by being in water. So if you don't have water, you can't learn to swim. So I was a little bit of a sidebar, just wanted to throw that in and appreciate your work around water quality.

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Speaker 2

11:01

Yeah, and that's true to that. And often, particularly in like urban areas, as well, it's not common to have, you know, swimming pools or things like that. And just in you know, our culture, it's not, it's not uncommon, you know, the, the way I grew up was a typical of, you know, even a lot of my family. So I realized that my upbringing may not be typical of the, you know, the black experience or whatever. But yeah, a lot of things, you know, in our world are based on opportunity and exposure. And that, you know, probably talk about that a little bit later in terms of what I felt strongly and what I've gotten involved in later in my life.

1

Speaker 1

11:52

Can you talked a little bit about Partners for Environmental Justice PEJ, your was your role in history with that nonprofit?

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Speaker 2

12:01

Yeah, it's interesting that my history in North Carolina I moved to North Carolina in 1995 to attend NC State for graduate school. But it's like my life in North Carolina has always kind of directly or indirectly been high to PEJ and to Walnut Creek. The reason why I say that is as a graduate student I was looking for I didn't have a research project. And my professor at the time, one of my professors, man named Dr. Gary Blank, who I still believe may still be at the University at NC State University. He got me connected with a professor at Shaw University and Shaw University named Dr. Maxine Highsmith.. Dr. Highsmith was made me aware of some of the issues, environmental injustice issues going on around RochesterHeights, and she helped me to formulate a research proposal that became the basis of my research project. I ended up doing a biologic a biological assessment of the upper Walnut Creek watershed, which included study sites along Walnut Creek behind Centennial Campus, and along Garner Road, near Rochester Heights. I, as far as my research project, the proposal included some environmental justice elements, the research project didn't, because I was in the zoology department at the University. And that was really focused on animals and water. And it really was devoid of the involvement of people per se. So I actually attended a meeting where there were some folks from Partners forEnvironmentalJustice in attendance at that meeting. I don't even remember, I just remembered that some of the issues that were going on in Rochester heights such as the flooding issues, Walnut Creek, were discussed at that meeting. But beyond that, I didn't really know or understand. I had taken an environmental justice class my senior year at Hampton University. So that was the first time that actually even heard of environmental justice. But I after graduation from NC State, I, I  I was focused on trying to get a job to support my life and begin my career as an environmental professional. So I didn't really get reconnected with the Rochester Heights issues and with PEJ until 2001, a good friend of mine named Ross Andrews, who was an active board member of PEJ at the time, and he actually ended up becoming the first director of the Walnut Creek wetland Park. He invited me to be a team leader for the stream cleanups that PEJ had started doing in the late 90s. So we would meet in the fellowship hall at Saint Ambrose church where you are shepherd the church here currently shepherding in the ladies with serve breakfast there. I remember bananas and you know, things like that. We did a little breakfast, Ross Ross and Dr. Norman camp who became the longtime chairperson of PEJ. would fire up the troops kind of give an overview of what PEJ's mission was in terms of trying to address the flooding issues. And they also had given their vision about there being an urban wetland destination Park, right near the Rochester Heights community, which is now the Walnut Creek Wetland Park. So I from 2001, I helped out with the semi annual cleanups. And then, but it wasn't until 2016 When I started regularly attending PEJ board meetings.

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Speaker 1

16:16

Wow, that that's that's a long arc. And I didn't realize you were Hampton grad talking about universities on the water that that esteemed institution. So it's fascinating that what you started off with biological assessment of the Walnut Creek watershed led you to early conversations in01 with Dr. Norman camp, and then coming back and in 2016, attending meetings regularly. Can you talk a little bit about this vision of an urban wetland destination park at Walnut Creek? Do you think that is what it is now? does need to grow into that perhaps what needs to be done to make it happen if that's not how you would categorize it today?

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Speaker 2

17:12

Yeah, it's it's interesting, you know, what's going on in the Rochester Heights community and even in Raleigh, southeast Raleigh, east Raleigh, in terms of how the community is changing? You know, obviously we both know Rochester Heights as one of the first African American subdivisions built in the late 1950s. Just south of Walnut Creek in the floodplain, you know, certain, there's a newspaper article that talks about how one of the first homebuyers was told by the developer that there would be no flooding issues and probably less than a year after that experience flooding. So that's been a recurring issue almost since, you know, the community was was built and it is because of the development pressures. The Rochester Heights, South Park, just, you know, adjacent to Rochester Heights, along MLK is you know, there was a New York Times article published in a couple of years ago that talked about how the community is changing and talked about the gentrification and talked about how, you know, historically African American area is rapidly changing. People are being displaced because of the property values that are being elevated in that area. And I've even I've noticed actually started taking pictures several years ago, as I saw the community changing in terms of the houses, there's different houses going up, ythere are different people moving in these areas. And so, you know, it's pretty obvious that with Rochester Heights, though those changes aren't as visible as they are in South Park, because Rochester Heights is a is on the National Register of Historic Places that true homebuyers can't come in and tear down the houses and make them look different, like a lot of the other houses that are being built up in you know,Southeast Raleigh in East Raleigh around St. Augs, all of that. But, you know, you can see just by, you know, the folks that are moving into these areas are different now. I will say that I am not, you know, I'm not opposed to redevelopment. I'm not opposed to other people moving into an area that are different from what's there. I mean, that's part of the story of America. Right? But I am, you know, a better model of development is one that takes in, for instance, southeast Raleigh, a nonprofit called Southeast Raleigh Promise has a development model called revitalization without displacement. So if you look at that center, they intentionally tried to improve it. area that hadn't been under resourced historically. And if you're familiar with that area, they now have a school Southeast Raleigh Elementary School, Southeast Raleigh YMCA. So they serve education they focus on the YMCA is health and wellness, the beacon range affordable housing complex helps folks to, you know, have a place to live. And that so that that model is is something that I personally enjoy. And I think it falls under the realm of what's called equitable development and equitable development are policies and practices that essentially, the reverse decades of environmental injustices due to, you know, with the environment with housing, socially, economically. But getting back to your question about the park and it being an urban wetland destination that PEJ envisioned back in the late 90s, I think to some degree, it does serve as a monument to the environmental justice effort, efforts and advocacy of PEJ and their partners. I do want to make it clear that it wasn't just P. E. J, there were other faith communities, other Episcopal churches that started off as actually Episcopalians for environmental justice, that became what we know as partners for environmental justice back in the late 90s. So the park itself is is definitely a monument to those efforts. But I also think that when I go there, most of the time, I don't see folks from those, you know, RochesterHeights, per se, I mean, I don't know, I don't pull the people and say, Hey, where are you from. But what I will say to be truthful is that I generally do not see a lot of people of color and African American folks there, the times I'm there. And I think that it would be in my mind personally, it would be good to see folks that that live in southeast Raleigh that are African American and people of color, being able to access that, that green space to learn about. And also to learn about its history, it would be good to see some kind of model or exhibition at the park that documents the history of how it came to be. I know the former park director or she's actually retiring and maybe in a couple of days, Stacy Hagwood. She's made a concerted effort to really share the story of how the park came to be in PEJ’s advocacy with visitors which I applaud her for. But I think holistically it would be good. You know, we've talked We've even talked to folks in Rochester Heights who don't even know the story of how the park came to be. So So I think it's kind of a mixed bag when it taught when we're talking about the park and what whether it's achieving its intended purposes a PHA had established for it.

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Speaker 1

Thank you so much, Amin.

23:21

The Wading Deep podcast comes to you from a place we affectionately call The Brose, Saint Ambrose Episcopal Church, Raleigh, North Carolina. Follow us on Facebook, YouTube, The BroseNC on Twitter and TheBrose1868 on Instagram. 

I am your host, the Reverend Jemonde Taylor. God is going to trouble the water of environmental racism, resurrecting a river of life clear as crystal. 

Shalom, Salaam, Peace