A conversation with me and Bill McKibben

A conversation with me and Bill McKibben

America’s Thing With Race affects everything. You’ve heard me say that so often that you probably don’t hear it anymore. But it affects everything. It brought us the electoral college that brought us five presidents that the majority of Americans didn’t ask for. It brought us George W. Bush and Dick Cheney who brought us a multi-generation war based on false information, costing trillions of dollars and thousands of young American lives. It brought us Donald Trump who brought us turmoil, open racism, and “alternative facts”.

America’s Thing With Race brought us ten states that turned down Medicaid Expansion losing billions in federal aid and denying health coverage to millions - likely because it was perceived as being a program more beneficial to Black Americans than to White…which is probably true because America’s Thing With Race has also brought us a seemingly permanent underclass with diminished access to jobs that offer healthcare or even access to healthcare itself.

It brought us the 2008 housing bubble and the Great Recession where subprime mortgages were marketed primarily to Black and Brown people who had had historical challenges to home ownership. And the Great Recession in turn brought us 13 trillion dollars in evaporated wealth.

America’s Thing With Race brought us Sarah Palin and the Tea Party that wanted to take America back…way back to when America enjoyed undisputed White power and White rule. It brought us performative politicians who do nothing except stir the pot and, well…perform.

It brought us a country that misses the ideals that it expounds upon to the rest of the world – liberty and justice for all…where all men (people) are created equal and have the God given right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.

It brought us the grossly over-played fear of crime and ‘Those people’ who inherently traffic in crime. It bought us mass incarceration and the almost 30 billion tax dollars Americans pay in incarceration cost. Crime and the fear of crime brought guns and guns brought a mass shooting every day of the year.

America’s Thing With Race bought us book and poem banning, a ban on teaching history, and the general dumbing down of America.

But recently I was reminded of something else America’s Thing With Race has brought us. It’s brought us an element of global warming.

A few days ago I was having a discussion with Bill McKibben, famed environmentalist, climate change activist, founder of 350.org, educator and author. We were guiding a workshop about America’s Thing With Race with his newest organization, Third Act, and the role that racism plays in all aspects of life here in the United States. Bill brought up how America’s racist past often informs the present. Back in the not-so-long ago days of redlining, when divestment, not investment was the norm in Black communities – while parks were being built and trees planted in America’s “leafy suburbs” - Black communities were not enjoying the same level of amenities.

Bill: “I was leafing through the latest issue of Current Opinion in Nephrology and Hypertension (a journal for kidney doctors) because cases of kidney disease are going up due to higher temperatures, increased sweating, and dehydration.

But here’s what struck me: They had some interesting data about the temperatures in American cities, and they connected it to something you might be familiar with called redlining. Back in the 1930s, the federal government drew lines around minority neighborhoods, essentially limiting further investments in those areas. 

These were places that just steadily deteriorated as a result of federal policy. Each neighborhood was graded from A to D. When you visit those neighborhoods that were given a D grade a century ago, you’ll notice a significant difference in temperature. Due to the lack of investment, there are fewer parks and trees, which has led to much higher temperatures in those areas. And when I say, “way higher,” I mean, way higher.

In comparison, the neighborhoods that received an A grade in the 1930s now have an average temperature that is 8°F lower than the city’s overall mean temperature. On the other hand, the neighborhoods that received a D grade have an average temperature that is 4.8°F hotter.

So, we’re looking at almost a 13°F temperature difference in these neighborhoods because of the racist policies enacted by the federal government a century ago.”

Thanks, Bill, for helping make my point. Peel back a layer or two and there it is, America’s Race Thing. Anyway, it was an enjoyable, informative, thought-provoking conversation. You can read it here. There are even pictures.