Earth Equity News

Prodding Blacks To Think About Green. By Don Terry, Chicago News Cooperative, March 5, 2010. "No one can accuse Naomi Davis of lacking ambition. She wants simultaneously to rebuild black America and save the planet -- one neighborhood at a time. She knows she cannot do either alone. Her plan is to recruit and train an army. A green army. That is why Ms. Davis, a petite, 54-year-old lawyer turned environmental evangelist, was squeezing her way through a crowded South Side nightclub [on a] Monday night, passing out energy-efficient light bulbs... to anyone who would sign her e-mail list... 'Instead of waiting for the people to come to us, we go to them, wherever they are,' she said. 'We're going into the bars, the parks, the churches, the schools, the stores with this new green-economy education. We have to spread the word. Otherwise, people of color are going to be left behind.'

"Ms. Davis is the founder and president of Blacks in Green, a three-year-old trade association and education and advocacy group based in Chicago that 'teaches the benefits of the new green economy to communities of color through classes, programs, activities and enterprises.' She is part of a new generation of black and Latino environmentalists who hope to revitalize their battered neighborhoods, struggling suburbs and rural towns with green-collar jobs and businesses. Of the $787-billion federal stimulus package, about $80 billion was allotted for clean energy and other green initiatives. Ms. Davis said her goal was to ensure that black people 'and other people of color have our share' of the money going to green jobs and businesses, ranging from solar energy projects and wind farms to the construction and renovation of office buildings and apartment towers to make them environmentally sound. Ms. Davis also preaches do-for-self to go along with her gospel of green. 'The move toward eco-friendly development, and the jobs it creates,' she said, 'is an opportunity for blacks and other minorities to take more control of their destiny. In that sense, it is a way to move forward for communities that often feel left behind by economic opportunity.'"