1 00:00:01,320 --> 00:00:04,800 Doctor Beverly Wright has been working in environmental justice 2 00:00:04,800 --> 00:00:08,760 since before it had a name. In fact, she was so much at the 3 00:00:08,760 --> 00:00:11,960 forefront of this movement that when she started, a lot of the 4 00:00:11,960 --> 00:00:15,680 terms we now use for climate environmental work didn't exist 5 00:00:15,680 --> 00:00:17,920 yet. We figured out how to educate 6 00:00:17,920 --> 00:00:22,120 communities, how to connect them with the government, how to not 7 00:00:22,120 --> 00:00:27,120 just collect data, but allow communities to learn how to 8 00:00:27,120 --> 00:00:29,400 collect their own data. With citizen science, they have 9 00:00:29,400 --> 00:00:31,480 names. All this that I did, they now 10 00:00:31,480 --> 00:00:34,040 have names for it. Now they call it citizen 11 00:00:34,040 --> 00:00:35,760 science. That's what we were doing. 12 00:00:35,760 --> 00:00:38,640 They call it community based participatory research. 13 00:00:38,640 --> 00:00:45,960 We started that in the 90s. Doctor Wright, or Doctor Bev, as 14 00:00:45,960 --> 00:00:49,040 her students call her, grew up in New Orleans in a family with 15 00:00:49,040 --> 00:00:52,880 deep roots in the area. I can trace my history back 7 16 00:00:52,880 --> 00:00:57,960 generations to this town. Earlier in her career as a 17 00:00:57,960 --> 00:01:01,600 professor of sociology, Dr. Wright rooted for students field 18 00:01:01,600 --> 00:01:03,680 work in the New Orleans area, too. 19 00:01:04,319 --> 00:01:07,320 And while New Orleans is known for things like Mardi Gras and 20 00:01:07,320 --> 00:01:10,480 Creole cooking, there are other traditions of the Gulf Coast 21 00:01:10,480 --> 00:01:14,920 region, like a long history of building petrochemical plants in 22 00:01:14,920 --> 00:01:16,880 the backyards of black neighborhoods. 23 00:01:17,320 --> 00:01:20,080 Yes. Cancer Alley is what we called 24 00:01:20,080 --> 00:01:22,360 it. When Doctor Wright learned that 25 00:01:22,480 --> 00:01:26,800 80% of African Americans in the New Orleans region lived within 26 00:01:26,800 --> 00:01:31,440 3 miles of a toxic facility, she says that is when she went from 27 00:01:31,440 --> 00:01:34,880 thinking of herself as a scholar to understanding her role as an 28 00:01:34,920 --> 00:01:38,520 advocate scholar. After that I was a warrior for 29 00:01:38,520 --> 00:01:42,280 this. Welcome to Path Breakers, a show 30 00:01:42,280 --> 00:01:44,960 about what it takes to cut through the noise and red tape 31 00:01:45,520 --> 00:01:47,760 and all of the other obstacles to progress. 32 00:01:48,200 --> 00:01:51,400 I'm Tracy Pearson and I work on the communications team at the 33 00:01:51,400 --> 00:01:53,760 Kresge Foundation. And I'm Jamie Bennett. 34 00:01:53,960 --> 00:01:56,480 I work at the intersection of arts, culture, and equitable 35 00:01:56,480 --> 00:01:59,600 community development. On each episode of this podcast, 36 00:01:59,600 --> 00:02:02,480 we talk with a different path breaker, someone who's forging 37 00:02:02,480 --> 00:02:04,360 new ways forward in their own community. 38 00:02:04,840 --> 00:02:07,720 Today we have the joy of welcoming Dr. Beverly Wright, 39 00:02:07,840 --> 00:02:10,960 founder and director of the Deep South Center for Environmental 40 00:02:10,960 --> 00:02:13,160 Justice. We're going to talk to her about 41 00:02:13,160 --> 00:02:16,360 her journey as an environmental justice pioneer, get some 42 00:02:16,360 --> 00:02:18,640 information about the eye opening work she and her 43 00:02:18,640 --> 00:02:21,360 students have produced to help get the movement off the ground, 44 00:02:21,760 --> 00:02:24,560 and about the next generation of climate workers and justice 45 00:02:24,560 --> 00:02:27,320 leaders at the Deep Southcenter who will pick up her baton. 46 00:02:31,000 --> 00:02:33,720 Hello, Doctor Wright, welcome to the podcast. 47 00:02:33,720 --> 00:02:37,560 Thank you, hello to you, and thank you for inviting me. 48 00:02:38,280 --> 00:02:41,240 We're going to talk how about a few things today, New Orleans, 49 00:02:41,240 --> 00:02:45,360 your work in the environment sector, but also as a scholar 50 00:02:45,680 --> 00:02:48,600 and advocate. And I think a lot of people when 51 00:02:48,600 --> 00:02:52,120 they hear New Orleans, they think very festive and Mardi 52 00:02:52,120 --> 00:02:58,640 Gras and partying and but there's also Hurricane Katrina 53 00:02:59,880 --> 00:03:04,760 and it being the 20 year, I don't like the word anniversary. 54 00:03:04,760 --> 00:03:07,280 Neither do I. But that happened 20 years ago. 55 00:03:07,720 --> 00:03:11,000 It's not an anniversary, no, but it is a moment where we need to 56 00:03:11,000 --> 00:03:14,240 hold space for what transpired. Yeah. 57 00:03:14,440 --> 00:03:17,560 And so I want to talk to you about that from a climate 58 00:03:17,560 --> 00:03:20,840 perspective and with you working in the South and the Gulf Coast 59 00:03:20,840 --> 00:03:22,840 region, what's the feeling right now? 60 00:03:23,640 --> 00:03:31,120 Well, I suspect that the feeling runs along a spectrum of, you 61 00:03:31,120 --> 00:03:38,040 know, yes, we've survived to we're not where we should be and 62 00:03:38,040 --> 00:03:41,520 feelings that New Orleans will never be the same for those of 63 00:03:41,520 --> 00:03:45,360 us who live here. The changes that have been 64 00:03:45,360 --> 00:03:51,520 occurring with the loss of population, in particular real 65 00:03:51,520 --> 00:03:56,280 loss of our black middle class, who are mostly in the public 66 00:03:56,280 --> 00:04:00,520 school system that has been completely taken over by what I 67 00:04:00,520 --> 00:04:04,120 would call a failing charter school system. 68 00:04:04,400 --> 00:04:08,360 The racial composition of our schools now are mostly white 69 00:04:08,360 --> 00:04:10,560 teachers with all black students. 70 00:04:11,000 --> 00:04:15,720 I think that the black population has lost much ground 71 00:04:15,720 --> 00:04:21,160 and we've been pushed out. I think that our culture that is 72 00:04:21,160 --> 00:04:27,600 the the heartbeat of this city is being stolen in a way that is 73 00:04:27,600 --> 00:04:30,680 not as authentic as it used to be. 74 00:04:31,720 --> 00:04:35,200 So I don't have any reason to celebrate. 75 00:04:35,280 --> 00:04:41,360 The only celebration would be that my personal family, to some 76 00:04:41,360 --> 00:04:45,040 extent all survived except my uncle who never made it back 77 00:04:45,040 --> 00:04:49,360 home. Most of us were able to restore 78 00:04:49,360 --> 00:04:51,560 our homes and my personal family. 79 00:04:51,560 --> 00:04:56,000 But that is not true for so many people in the city of New 80 00:04:56,000 --> 00:05:01,120 Orleans and the Lower 9th Ward, which has hit the hardest, but 81 00:05:01,120 --> 00:05:05,800 it has it is so different from what it used to be now with the 82 00:05:05,800 --> 00:05:09,960 kind of mixed income that they called putting out here in. 83 00:05:10,440 --> 00:05:14,440 So a lot of poor people in a suburb with no real 84 00:05:14,440 --> 00:05:18,640 transportation, no jobs out here, no sidewalks or walking 85 00:05:18,640 --> 00:05:24,320 and you know, grocery stores miles apart, people having 86 00:05:24,320 --> 00:05:28,520 across the Interstate by foot, chick running in between cars. 87 00:05:28,920 --> 00:05:35,000 So it's really a disaster that has just exacerbated because of 88 00:05:35,000 --> 00:05:40,880 what I call disaster capitalism that has really took root in my 89 00:05:40,880 --> 00:05:45,480 city and gentrification at warp speed of all of the historic 90 00:05:45,480 --> 00:05:48,840 neighborhoods. And so all of our hard gains, 91 00:05:48,840 --> 00:05:53,320 which were really difficult in US truly racist and segregated 92 00:05:53,320 --> 00:06:00,360 city to get, we're losing that. So for all the rave about the 93 00:06:00,360 --> 00:06:06,520 city of New Orleans, how successful we were with coming 94 00:06:06,520 --> 00:06:10,760 back, none of that was ever true for black people. 95 00:06:11,480 --> 00:06:15,040 And the black population is poorer than what it was before 96 00:06:15,040 --> 00:06:18,240 Katrina. We have a loss of transitional 97 00:06:18,240 --> 00:06:22,120 wealth, black wealth in this city just by losing your house, 98 00:06:22,120 --> 00:06:26,400 which is probably the, the biggest portion of our wealth. 99 00:06:27,080 --> 00:06:32,560 If a, if a storm comes and it wipes out, you know, your house, 100 00:06:33,080 --> 00:06:35,840 then where are you, especially if you can't rebuild. 101 00:06:35,840 --> 00:06:39,200 And then we were fighting the discriminatory, discriminatory 102 00:06:39,360 --> 00:06:44,480 process called the Road home program, which had a formula 103 00:06:44,480 --> 00:06:49,400 that that was really crazy. It said that we will pay you one 104 00:06:49,400 --> 00:06:52,400 of two things and we'll pay you the lowest value. 105 00:06:52,400 --> 00:06:56,840 So they looked at the value of your house and the cost to 106 00:06:56,840 --> 00:07:00,360 rebuild your house. They would take whichever 1 was 107 00:07:00,360 --> 00:07:05,680 the low was the lowest value. So my house in a black 108 00:07:05,680 --> 00:07:08,920 neighborhood maybe was worth 250. 109 00:07:09,200 --> 00:07:13,640 The same house in a white neighborhood is worth 400,000. 110 00:07:14,000 --> 00:07:18,800 The cost to rebuild is 380, but all I could get was 250. 111 00:07:19,280 --> 00:07:22,160 So we went to court over that. And one, that this is a 112 00:07:22,160 --> 00:07:25,800 discriminatory screening because you pick the lowest value. 113 00:07:25,800 --> 00:07:29,640 So it means most of us did not have enough money to rebuild our 114 00:07:29,640 --> 00:07:33,680 houses. So I don't feel like celebrating 115 00:07:33,680 --> 00:07:35,520 at all. In fact, I wish I could leave 116 00:07:35,520 --> 00:07:37,960 the city. But there's so many people who 117 00:07:37,960 --> 00:07:42,240 want to talk, you know, they want to have these conversations 118 00:07:42,560 --> 00:07:45,840 about all of this, not recognizing how painful this is 119 00:07:45,840 --> 00:07:49,880 for most of us. You know, the celebration that 120 00:07:49,880 --> 00:07:52,760 makes no sense. Memorial would be a better 121 00:07:53,640 --> 00:07:57,640 memorial were to use then celebration for me so. 122 00:07:58,760 --> 00:08:02,600 Yeah, Doctor, right. You talk a lot about your work 123 00:08:02,600 --> 00:08:06,480 as climate justice. And when I think of climate 124 00:08:06,480 --> 00:08:10,480 justice, I tend to think of the environmental realities, the 125 00:08:10,480 --> 00:08:12,320 capitalist, the disaster capitalism. 126 00:08:12,320 --> 00:08:14,240 You talk about the cultural realities. 127 00:08:14,600 --> 00:08:18,640 Will you just for for listeners who sort of haven't talked in 128 00:08:18,640 --> 00:08:21,800 that frame of climate justice, would you just help introduce us 129 00:08:22,080 --> 00:08:24,040 to why you frame your work that way? 130 00:08:24,960 --> 00:08:29,680 So I would say that I frame my work is environmental and 131 00:08:29,680 --> 00:08:33,960 climate justice because I cannot separate environmental justice 132 00:08:33,960 --> 00:08:37,840 from climate justice. In fact, the first people to 133 00:08:37,840 --> 00:08:43,600 recognize the intersection of those two were people who lived 134 00:08:43,600 --> 00:08:47,800 in toxic environments, fence lined with a polluting 135 00:08:47,800 --> 00:08:50,840 facilities. And then as they began to learn 136 00:08:50,840 --> 00:08:55,320 more about climate, they realized that the the facilities 137 00:08:55,320 --> 00:08:58,560 that were making them sick, poisoning them, lowering their 138 00:08:58,560 --> 00:09:02,160 property value, making it work nothing to anybody that was 139 00:09:02,160 --> 00:09:04,960 living and breathing. So I we have so many graveyards 140 00:09:04,960 --> 00:09:08,800 surrounding these facilities. They began to make they made the 141 00:09:08,800 --> 00:09:13,120 connection between that and the change in the climate which they 142 00:09:13,120 --> 00:09:17,000 were looking at first of all with, you know, small animals 143 00:09:17,000 --> 00:09:20,600 disappearing, screens rusting and falling off their windows. 144 00:09:20,600 --> 00:09:24,600 In three months, spotted cars. You could you knew they lived up 145 00:09:24,600 --> 00:09:27,960 river because one side of their car would have these strange 146 00:09:28,080 --> 00:09:30,320 spots where the paint had been eaten out. 147 00:09:30,680 --> 00:09:35,320 And now they could also, you know, directly relate that to 148 00:09:35,320 --> 00:09:39,440 the change in the climate, plants in their gardens no 149 00:09:39,440 --> 00:09:42,040 longer growing and their general health. 150 00:09:42,560 --> 00:09:45,320 Add to that. And this is what is so ironic. 151 00:09:46,040 --> 00:09:51,200 Add to that COVID, the COVID virus that has this unusual 152 00:09:51,200 --> 00:09:56,280 relationship with PM 2.5, that is what is released from 153 00:09:56,320 --> 00:09:59,920 petrochemical facilities. It actually attaches itself to 154 00:10:00,200 --> 00:10:03,840 these small molecules and when we breathe it in, it goes deeper 155 00:10:03,840 --> 00:10:07,160 into our lungs. So our death rate faster, quick, 156 00:10:07,320 --> 00:10:12,440 faster than most people and we die more quickly. 157 00:10:12,440 --> 00:10:16,680 So it's a more virulent disease for us because we live near 158 00:10:16,680 --> 00:10:19,200 toxic facilities than it is for those who don't. 159 00:10:19,840 --> 00:10:25,840 So it's it's very difficult to separate these environmental 160 00:10:25,840 --> 00:10:30,560 justice and climate justice. People of color are in double 161 00:10:30,560 --> 00:10:32,960 double jeopardy of for both of them. 162 00:10:33,400 --> 00:10:36,760 So they're in a double jeopardy situation from climate and 163 00:10:36,760 --> 00:10:40,560 environmental justice. And the polluting industries are 164 00:10:40,560 --> 00:10:46,440 the ones that are fueling, you know, carbon greenhouse gases, 165 00:10:46,840 --> 00:10:50,640 which means that we are being attacked from two places. 166 00:10:51,400 --> 00:10:54,600 So the the negative impact of what's going on from 167 00:10:54,600 --> 00:10:59,360 environmental exposure is climate change and the impacts 168 00:10:59,360 --> 00:11:04,000 doubly impact communities who live in these very highly 169 00:11:04,000 --> 00:11:10,400 polluted areas. So climate justice was an 170 00:11:10,400 --> 00:11:12,720 automatic for us when we made the connection. 171 00:11:12,720 --> 00:11:17,640 In fact we did in as early as 2000 with a huge conference in 172 00:11:17,640 --> 00:11:20,440 The Hague. It was called the Other Climates 173 00:11:20,680 --> 00:11:23,680 Summit. And at that time we would we, I 174 00:11:23,680 --> 00:11:27,600 have a picture and I love to take it out of a panel that we 175 00:11:27,600 --> 00:11:32,480 had on climate justice that far back before anybody was making 176 00:11:32,760 --> 00:11:37,400 the connections between the impacts on poor communities 177 00:11:37,400 --> 00:11:40,160 living in these polluted areas and the climate. 178 00:11:41,160 --> 00:11:44,880 Doctor Wright is this Is climate and environmental justice 179 00:11:44,880 --> 00:11:47,960 something you saw yourself working in when you were a young 180 00:11:47,960 --> 00:11:50,520 girl in New Orleans? Absolutely not. 181 00:11:54,320 --> 00:11:56,360 How did you, how did you end up in this field? 182 00:11:56,360 --> 00:12:00,320 I'm just so curious how you ended up in in such important 183 00:12:00,320 --> 00:12:03,600 and dynamic and complex and layered work. 184 00:12:04,000 --> 00:12:08,000 It was a strange road to where I am, and I didn't choose it. 185 00:12:08,000 --> 00:12:10,680 It sort of fell on me, to be honest with you. 186 00:12:10,720 --> 00:12:16,760 I I grew up in New Orleans never ever thinking that the 187 00:12:16,760 --> 00:12:22,000 facilities were bad. They were always sold to us as 188 00:12:22,360 --> 00:12:26,560 jobs and progress. Never, you know, death and 189 00:12:26,560 --> 00:12:31,640 sickness and death. And I didn't realize that from 190 00:12:32,800 --> 00:12:35,200 from my experiences in Louisiana. 191 00:12:35,840 --> 00:12:38,880 I began to look in this direction when I was in Graduate 192 00:12:38,880 --> 00:12:40,960 School. And my graduate professor, 193 00:12:41,360 --> 00:12:45,040 Doctor Addie Levine, was also married to to her husband, 194 00:12:45,040 --> 00:12:49,680 Maurie Levine, who was a psychologist working with people 195 00:12:49,680 --> 00:12:54,560 who were being exposed to, you know, toxic facilities with 196 00:12:54,560 --> 00:12:56,480 their children dying of leukemia. 197 00:12:57,040 --> 00:12:59,920 So her husband was where it was called Love Canal. 198 00:12:59,920 --> 00:13:02,280 It was the first in Niagara Falls. 199 00:13:02,960 --> 00:13:08,560 It was the first toxic facility poisoning of, of a community. 200 00:13:09,200 --> 00:13:12,520 So it's a facility poisoning of a whole community. 201 00:13:12,880 --> 00:13:16,640 And I was a graduate student and she just kind of introduced me 202 00:13:16,640 --> 00:13:18,440 to that. And I was a part. 203 00:13:19,120 --> 00:13:22,240 I was like, oh, my God, The guys who worked there, their skin 204 00:13:22,600 --> 00:13:25,320 would turn to a yellowish color from the chemicals that were 205 00:13:25,320 --> 00:13:27,680 there. That's how you knew that you 206 00:13:27,680 --> 00:13:30,400 know, it was there. It might that somehow you knew 207 00:13:30,400 --> 00:13:32,280 where they worked and where they lived. 208 00:13:33,160 --> 00:13:38,680 But no black people lived or worked in Love Canal. 209 00:13:40,160 --> 00:13:43,960 Later, years later, I found out there was a huge housing project 210 00:13:43,960 --> 00:13:48,560 across the street, but they were never brought into the fight and 211 00:13:48,560 --> 00:13:51,800 they were also sick and dying, not from working in the plant 212 00:13:51,800 --> 00:13:53,440 because they didn't have those jobs. 213 00:13:53,720 --> 00:13:57,040 They wouldn't be in the projects if they had had those jobs, but 214 00:13:57,040 --> 00:13:59,560 they were exposed. That is came maybe 14 years 215 00:13:59,560 --> 00:14:03,040 later, I found out about the black people, but I found out 216 00:14:03,400 --> 00:14:07,080 about what was going on in my own community first. 217 00:14:07,600 --> 00:14:11,360 So after maybe 10 years of working at the University of New 218 00:14:11,360 --> 00:14:16,600 Orleans with my major professor coming down and she would bring 219 00:14:16,600 --> 00:14:20,480 her little slide projector and I'd introduce my class, the Love 220 00:14:20,480 --> 00:14:24,320 Canal. I met Doctor Robert Bullard at a 221 00:14:24,360 --> 00:14:28,160 Southern Sociological Association meeting, just 222 00:14:28,160 --> 00:14:32,240 happened to meet him there. And he really, he said he found 223 00:14:32,240 --> 00:14:36,560 out that I was from Louisiana. And he said, you know what, I 224 00:14:36,560 --> 00:14:38,360 think we should work together on something. 225 00:14:38,360 --> 00:14:41,200 I'm like, what? By then I was working on teen 226 00:14:41,200 --> 00:14:43,280 pregnancy and a bunch of other things he said. 227 00:14:43,680 --> 00:14:47,040 And he told me about what was going on in Houston, TX with his 228 00:14:47,040 --> 00:14:51,600 wife Linda, who was a lawyer. And she was fighting the the 229 00:14:51,600 --> 00:14:56,840 sighting of a landfills in a middle class black community and 230 00:14:56,840 --> 00:15:00,760 couldn't understand why they picked this one black community 231 00:15:00,760 --> 00:15:04,400 as big as Texas is. And the community that lived 232 00:15:04,400 --> 00:15:06,760 there said they felt like they were being discriminated 233 00:15:06,760 --> 00:15:09,960 against, you know, with them putting this landfill behind 234 00:15:09,960 --> 00:15:13,360 their property, which would destroy their dream homes. 235 00:15:13,880 --> 00:15:20,680 And so she asked him to do this. Can you help me find out where 236 00:15:20,680 --> 00:15:23,480 all the other landfills are? Where are they? 237 00:15:23,480 --> 00:15:27,240 And he did with his, with his class at Texas Southern 238 00:15:27,240 --> 00:15:29,360 University was an assignment for them. 239 00:15:29,920 --> 00:15:32,440 And it wasn't like it is now. I mean, you have to go down in 240 00:15:32,440 --> 00:15:35,840 basements and courthouses and pull up old maps and stuff 241 00:15:36,280 --> 00:15:40,520 'cause this was in the 70s. And his class did that project 242 00:15:40,520 --> 00:15:43,960 and produced the results that showed that, you know, there 243 00:15:43,960 --> 00:15:49,760 were maybe four other large landfills, all of them in three 244 00:15:49,760 --> 00:15:53,120 of them in black communities and one was in you can guess what 245 00:15:53,120 --> 00:15:56,680 other community it was Latino. So three of them were in black 246 00:15:56,680 --> 00:16:00,680 communities, one in a Latino community, when in fact the 247 00:16:00,680 --> 00:16:03,680 black population was only about 25%. 248 00:16:04,520 --> 00:16:08,920 So he said to me, you know, this is happening in Texas. 249 00:16:08,960 --> 00:16:12,080 It could be how happening in other places. 250 00:16:12,480 --> 00:16:15,640 And since I lived in Louisiana, he said, why don't we work 251 00:16:15,640 --> 00:16:21,040 together to see if we can identify all of these landfills? 252 00:16:21,040 --> 00:16:24,920 And sure enough, he got a grant for about $20,000. 253 00:16:24,920 --> 00:16:28,240 I think it was from a foundation whose name I can't remember 254 00:16:28,240 --> 00:16:32,760 right now to do this study. And out of that came dumping in 255 00:16:32,760 --> 00:16:36,800 Dixie, which is now like the textbook in environmental 256 00:16:36,800 --> 00:16:40,760 justice in AT client and universes across the country. 257 00:16:41,520 --> 00:16:46,120 And so from there I started working in Louisiana directly 258 00:16:46,120 --> 00:16:51,680 with communities and there were a number of specific incidences 259 00:16:52,320 --> 00:16:56,800 that made me change my whole career path from working with 260 00:16:56,920 --> 00:17:00,840 teenage pregnancy. I was a social psychologist, but 261 00:17:00,840 --> 00:17:05,440 I was also looking at Not in my backyard and how people deal 262 00:17:05,440 --> 00:17:09,359 with finding out that they're living in a toxic environment. 263 00:17:09,560 --> 00:17:13,040 Back then, it was all new, and most of the research was on 264 00:17:13,040 --> 00:17:16,680 nuclear plants, you know, like people living around nuclear 265 00:17:16,680 --> 00:17:18,640 facilities. That's where all the work was. 266 00:17:18,640 --> 00:17:22,400 They weren't even dealing with petrochemical facilities because 267 00:17:22,440 --> 00:17:25,839 I think at one time, we all thought it was pretty safe. 268 00:17:25,880 --> 00:17:29,720 Nobody ever warned us about the toxins that came out of them. 269 00:17:29,880 --> 00:17:33,600 We knew they were stinky, but we never dreamed that they were 270 00:17:33,600 --> 00:17:36,800 poisonous, you know, just at the community level. 271 00:17:36,920 --> 00:17:39,880 And Louisiana was a hot spot. I mean, they talk a lot about 272 00:17:39,880 --> 00:17:45,040 Warrington, North Carolina, but what went on in Louisiana, 273 00:17:45,320 --> 00:17:49,080 that's where the big fight was because of the petrochemical 274 00:17:49,080 --> 00:17:54,680 industry and 85 mile stretch of land with 136 petrochemicals and 275 00:17:54,680 --> 00:17:56,920 six refineries. Cancer Alley? 276 00:17:56,920 --> 00:17:57,760 Yep. Yes. 277 00:17:58,080 --> 00:18:03,440 So I mean you still can't find any place this the size that we 278 00:18:03,440 --> 00:18:07,200 of the corridor with that many plants, not even in Texas. 279 00:18:07,400 --> 00:18:11,080 Texas is a much bigger place than Louisiana is. 280 00:18:11,480 --> 00:18:16,320 And we have almost only produces almost as much oil and gas as 281 00:18:16,320 --> 00:18:18,520 Texas and more natural gas from here. 282 00:18:18,720 --> 00:18:22,840 But we're a poor state, whereas Texas is not poor, but we are 283 00:18:22,840 --> 00:18:25,280 very poor. And you can blame it on 284 00:18:25,280 --> 00:18:28,440 corruption and stupidity. That's what I call it. 285 00:18:28,720 --> 00:18:34,440 It's a combination of the two that has, you know, gotten us to 286 00:18:34,440 --> 00:18:39,120 this place where this beautiful state that's known for its many 287 00:18:39,120 --> 00:18:41,960 waterways and fishing and hunting and stuff is being 288 00:18:41,960 --> 00:18:45,720 completely destroyed by pollution from the oil and gas 289 00:18:45,720 --> 00:18:50,280 industry. But I fell into this by I got a 290 00:18:50,280 --> 00:18:54,400 letter from the Office of Civil Rights, US Office of Civil 291 00:18:54,400 --> 00:19:00,280 Rights, but it was a Louisiana branch to testify at a civil 292 00:19:00,280 --> 00:19:02,600 rights hearing because communities were saying that 293 00:19:02,600 --> 00:19:05,040 they were being poisoned by these facilities. 294 00:19:05,800 --> 00:19:08,800 So I was like, OK, And they had found out about us just by 295 00:19:08,800 --> 00:19:13,280 writing articles that bullet and I had been writing and going to 296 00:19:13,280 --> 00:19:16,200 different conferences around the country, sort of listening to 297 00:19:16,200 --> 00:19:20,160 people. So I got this letter to show up 298 00:19:20,160 --> 00:19:23,960 there to testify about what was going on in Louisiana. 299 00:19:24,560 --> 00:19:28,000 And I decided that before I did that, I was going to do as a 300 00:19:28,000 --> 00:19:31,640 sociologist who's some participant observation because 301 00:19:31,640 --> 00:19:34,960 I got my little MIT, my little minivan with a couple of my 302 00:19:34,960 --> 00:19:39,000 students from Xavier, and we drove up and down the River 303 00:19:39,000 --> 00:19:43,040 Road. And I was appalled. 304 00:19:43,040 --> 00:19:44,880 It's one thing to read about supper. 305 00:19:44,960 --> 00:19:50,600 I was appalled at what I saw and that fence line to all of these 306 00:19:50,600 --> 00:19:53,920 facilities. I mean, like 6 feet away was the 307 00:19:53,920 --> 00:19:57,720 fence line from Shell Motiva and all these plants. 308 00:19:57,720 --> 00:20:00,880 I mean, I just had never seen anything like it. 309 00:20:01,000 --> 00:20:05,000 And then you saw graveyards. It was just awful in the smells 310 00:20:05,000 --> 00:20:08,800 and they were just terrible. And I got out of my van one time 311 00:20:08,800 --> 00:20:15,480 with the kids to talk to a community person because I 312 00:20:15,480 --> 00:20:17,080 didn't understand what I was seeing. 313 00:20:17,080 --> 00:20:20,840 Like I would see Black communities, it would be Black 314 00:20:20,840 --> 00:20:22,920 people living there, and then I'd see. 315 00:20:23,400 --> 00:20:25,840 Just cement platforms. What do you call it That what 316 00:20:25,840 --> 00:20:27,640 the house sits on? Just where? 317 00:20:27,720 --> 00:20:31,320 A slab, A slab. I would see slab foundations, 318 00:20:31,720 --> 00:20:36,640 like not far away, a whole huge section of just slab. 319 00:20:36,640 --> 00:20:40,120 So I asked the black guy, old, older black man. 320 00:20:40,120 --> 00:20:41,880 I said, well what's going on here? 321 00:20:42,360 --> 00:20:44,520 I said what was over here? He said, oh, that's where the 322 00:20:44,520 --> 00:20:48,560 white folks used to live. He said a boss came down about 8 323 00:20:48,560 --> 00:20:52,240 years ago and said he was going to move us out and he never came 324 00:20:52,240 --> 00:20:55,680 back. So I did the first GIS map 325 00:20:55,680 --> 00:21:00,040 showing the spatial distribution of toxic facilities by race and 326 00:21:00,040 --> 00:21:04,760 income and it basically showed that 80% of African Americans 327 00:21:04,760 --> 00:21:09,160 living in the different parishes live within 3 miles of a toxic 328 00:21:09,520 --> 00:21:12,920 facility versus their counterpoint who did not. 329 00:21:13,440 --> 00:21:19,680 So it was this strange mapping of facility sightings that 330 00:21:19,680 --> 00:21:23,120 showed black people being left behind while white people were 331 00:21:23,120 --> 00:21:27,240 being moved to safety. And it showed the lack of 332 00:21:28,320 --> 00:21:32,600 political clout that black people had, that it was easy for 333 00:21:32,600 --> 00:21:36,440 politicians to just ignore them. And even to this day, we're 334 00:21:36,440 --> 00:21:40,240 still fighting that right now. We're still fighting the same 335 00:21:40,240 --> 00:21:44,240 thing with politicians being bought out by these facilities 336 00:21:44,240 --> 00:21:47,040 and allowing our people to get sick and die. 337 00:21:47,520 --> 00:21:50,800 So I was so by the when that when that happened, you know, 338 00:21:50,800 --> 00:21:54,200 that was kind of it. One community in Geisma, 339 00:21:54,200 --> 00:21:58,400 Louisiana. And in that community back back 340 00:21:58,400 --> 00:22:03,720 then, we brought eat the EPA administrator, Carol Browner, 341 00:22:03,960 --> 00:22:07,840 for a visit. And when we drove through the 342 00:22:07,840 --> 00:22:11,480 communities, there were little white crosses on the lawns and 343 00:22:11,480 --> 00:22:16,800 some of them had like 8, 3-4. And I asked them what did that 344 00:22:16,800 --> 00:22:18,600 represent? They said it represent the 345 00:22:18,600 --> 00:22:21,640 number of people in their household who had died of 346 00:22:21,640 --> 00:22:24,120 cancer. And they believe that it was 347 00:22:24,120 --> 00:22:27,600 tied to them living so close to these facilities. 348 00:22:27,640 --> 00:22:30,760 I was done. I kind of jumped in it. 349 00:22:31,280 --> 00:22:36,480 And all of our work really began after that early exposure. 350 00:22:36,960 --> 00:22:41,040 And you know, while I'm thinking this is just happening in 351 00:22:41,040 --> 00:22:45,280 Louisiana and I knew a little bit about Texas, I never 352 00:22:45,280 --> 00:22:49,680 expected it to cross the whole United States of America. 353 00:22:49,920 --> 00:22:54,000 And Doctor Wright, you, you've been a scholar, you're a 354 00:22:54,000 --> 00:22:56,480 researcher, you're a teacher, you're an advocate, you're a 355 00:22:56,480 --> 00:22:58,880 warrior. You brought all of that work 356 00:22:58,880 --> 00:23:01,440 together when you founded the Deep South Center for 357 00:23:01,440 --> 00:23:04,080 Environmental Justice, which you currently lead. 358 00:23:04,520 --> 00:23:06,320 Would you just what is the center? 359 00:23:06,320 --> 00:23:08,800 What is the work of the center? What is this thing that you've 360 00:23:08,800 --> 00:23:13,880 built? So it's this is a long story 361 00:23:13,880 --> 00:23:15,880 too, because the center has evolved. 362 00:23:15,880 --> 00:23:20,440 But I was a college professor and a researcher, and when I 363 00:23:20,760 --> 00:23:24,560 left the University of New Orleans and then went to Wake 364 00:23:24,560 --> 00:23:29,440 Forest University to teach, and then came back to New Orleans to 365 00:23:29,440 --> 00:23:33,560 start the Deep Southcenter for Environmental Justice, what I 366 00:23:33,560 --> 00:23:39,880 learned was that academic researchers were really not 367 00:23:39,880 --> 00:23:43,040 doing research that benefited the communities where they 368 00:23:43,040 --> 00:23:46,320 lived. And the research that they did 369 00:23:46,320 --> 00:23:51,040 in Louisiana was mostly for the benefit of the oil and gas 370 00:23:51,040 --> 00:23:54,000 industry that was supporting most of it. 371 00:23:54,840 --> 00:23:58,600 And when they did research with community people on their 372 00:23:58,600 --> 00:24:02,560 problems, it was for tenure. It was not set up in a way that 373 00:24:02,560 --> 00:24:04,720 it was shared back with communities. 374 00:24:04,720 --> 00:24:09,480 It wasn't put to use in any way to bring about policy changes. 375 00:24:09,720 --> 00:24:12,320 It just went into an article for tenure. 376 00:24:13,400 --> 00:24:17,680 And it was also unethical because they made promises to 377 00:24:17,680 --> 00:24:21,800 communities that what that they never kept promises that they 378 00:24:21,800 --> 00:24:25,840 couldn't keep just to get into the door to collect the data. 379 00:24:26,760 --> 00:24:30,280 And I looked at that and I'm like, this is not who I want to 380 00:24:30,280 --> 00:24:32,920 be. This is not the kind of 381 00:24:32,920 --> 00:24:35,480 researcher that I would ever want to be. 382 00:24:35,480 --> 00:24:38,920 I've all of them work the way that I was raised. 383 00:24:38,920 --> 00:24:43,400 I was always raised to give back, and you needed to give 384 00:24:43,400 --> 00:24:47,360 back to your community. So even in teaching, it was 385 00:24:47,360 --> 00:24:52,440 about educating students so they could be better stewards of this 386 00:24:52,440 --> 00:24:56,920 earth in their community, working to better the quality of 387 00:24:56,920 --> 00:25:01,920 life for all of us. That's just who I am and what I 388 00:25:01,920 --> 00:25:05,760 saw was not. So I started the center really 389 00:25:06,240 --> 00:25:08,680 to because of all of the pollution. 390 00:25:08,680 --> 00:25:12,800 I'm like, communities don't really know what's going on. 391 00:25:12,800 --> 00:25:17,600 And they were asking questions. They were like the in fact not 392 00:25:17,600 --> 00:25:22,400 asking questions. They were telling me we believe 393 00:25:22,720 --> 00:25:25,120 that we're sick because of this facility. 394 00:25:25,720 --> 00:25:29,520 We don't know what's coming out of those smokestacks. 395 00:25:29,960 --> 00:25:31,640 We know there's flaring all night. 396 00:25:31,640 --> 00:25:34,120 We can't sleep. We know they're horrible smells. 397 00:25:34,480 --> 00:25:38,400 We know that our people have rare cancers, not common 398 00:25:38,400 --> 00:25:43,280 cancers, but they're rare. And they couldn't understand 399 00:25:43,280 --> 00:25:45,760 why. Well, you know, very, very 400 00:25:45,760 --> 00:25:48,360 quickly I began to understand why. 401 00:25:48,360 --> 00:25:52,000 It's because they are exposed to multiple chemicals at one time. 402 00:25:52,520 --> 00:25:56,000 Not one chemical in the science was dealing with one chemical at 403 00:25:56,000 --> 00:25:58,360 a time, right? You take a community being 404 00:25:58,360 --> 00:26:02,160 exposed to all of this and every time they went to court, they 405 00:26:02,160 --> 00:26:08,200 would lose the battle because you know, the the industry would 406 00:26:08,200 --> 00:26:11,120 come in with their big time lawyers and say, wow, you know, 407 00:26:11,120 --> 00:26:14,440 what we're releasing is not a neurotoxin. 408 00:26:15,120 --> 00:26:18,360 You know, it's, it's, it doesn't cause brain cancer. 409 00:26:18,360 --> 00:26:21,800 And this and that and the other while there, that one chemical 410 00:26:21,800 --> 00:26:24,960 did not, but the, the research did not exist. 411 00:26:25,520 --> 00:26:28,720 Hear me? The research did not exist when 412 00:26:28,720 --> 00:26:33,480 we first started to show the synergistic or combination 413 00:26:33,600 --> 00:26:37,000 effects of these chemicals. We've come a long ways. 414 00:26:37,000 --> 00:26:40,720 When you hear cumulative impact, people pushing for cumulative 415 00:26:40,720 --> 00:26:44,840 impact and you see the fierce pushback from industry, it's 416 00:26:44,840 --> 00:26:49,080 because they know that this would absolutely prove that they 417 00:26:49,080 --> 00:26:53,080 are poisoning and not that they are the cause of sickness and 418 00:26:53,080 --> 00:26:58,520 death in our communities from exposure to multiple carcinogens 419 00:26:58,520 --> 00:27:01,480 at one time. So this big push against it and 420 00:27:01,480 --> 00:27:03,800 every time you push it, oh, it's too complicated. 421 00:27:03,800 --> 00:27:06,840 But what about this one? All of that's a smokescreen to 422 00:27:06,840 --> 00:27:08,880 keep us from getting to the bottom of this. 423 00:27:09,360 --> 00:27:14,440 And so I, I figured out that, well, if I'm going to be a 424 00:27:14,440 --> 00:27:21,760 different kind of researcher, what should I be doing to make 425 00:27:22,200 --> 00:27:26,800 this whole process of collecting data for evidence so that you 426 00:27:26,800 --> 00:27:30,120 could change the quality of your life or be in control of that? 427 00:27:30,840 --> 00:27:35,440 How should, how could I do this? And so when I first started out, 428 00:27:36,840 --> 00:27:39,720 I was, you know, sort of in my little cubicles trying to think 429 00:27:39,720 --> 00:27:44,080 of a hypothesis and pulling down all these books and reading and 430 00:27:44,080 --> 00:27:48,400 stuff. And I wrote a number of research 431 00:27:48,400 --> 00:27:50,360 grants. Never got any of them funded. 432 00:27:51,280 --> 00:27:54,240 When I started talking directly to communities, I said, well, 433 00:27:54,240 --> 00:27:55,600 what do you think the problem is? 434 00:27:55,600 --> 00:27:57,680 They'd say. And they said, I said, So what 435 00:27:57,680 --> 00:27:59,520 do you think we should do? And they told me. 436 00:27:59,920 --> 00:28:02,600 So I went back and wrote a proposal representing what they 437 00:28:02,600 --> 00:28:05,080 said. And the first year I opened the 438 00:28:05,080 --> 00:28:10,360 center, I got 13 grants funded. I'd never gotten 1 funded on my 439 00:28:10,360 --> 00:28:13,800 own. Now I wrote about 35, you know 440 00:28:13,800 --> 00:28:17,480 what I mean? But of that 35 or so, I got 13 441 00:28:17,480 --> 00:28:20,880 funded in the first year. They weren't all huge grants, 442 00:28:21,160 --> 00:28:24,400 some of them were 30,020 thousand, but I did manage to 443 00:28:24,400 --> 00:28:30,360 win a $250,000 grant from EPA and some of the small 444 00:28:30,360 --> 00:28:32,360 foundations. And that's how the center then 445 00:28:32,360 --> 00:28:37,240 started, you know, from an idea where a number of us came 446 00:28:37,240 --> 00:28:41,120 together from some of the HBCUS and Uno. 447 00:28:41,120 --> 00:28:45,320 And then I came up with this whole process for working with 448 00:28:45,320 --> 00:28:49,320 communities and developed this model that I now call the 449 00:28:49,320 --> 00:28:53,800 Communiversity model, that, by the way, I've been implementing 450 00:28:53,840 --> 00:29:00,920 for the last 33 years. And it's been now been evaluated 451 00:29:00,920 --> 00:29:04,280 to show that our process absolutely works. 452 00:29:05,160 --> 00:29:09,000 And to be honest, it's all about democracy. 453 00:29:09,840 --> 00:29:12,160 Democracy means power to the people. 454 00:29:13,000 --> 00:29:17,760 How do you get the people really involved in the political arena 455 00:29:18,320 --> 00:29:24,040 that that ends up putting them truly in charge of decisions 456 00:29:24,040 --> 00:29:26,080 that directly impact their lives? 457 00:29:26,080 --> 00:29:27,840 That's what democracy is supposed to be. 458 00:29:28,920 --> 00:29:33,040 And during that time, when we started the center, we had like 459 00:29:33,040 --> 00:29:37,960 16 communities that joined our Advisory Board and we just got 460 00:29:37,960 --> 00:29:40,600 to work. It was all education for us. 461 00:29:41,040 --> 00:29:44,320 We had workshops every week in some communities. 462 00:29:44,320 --> 00:29:48,560 We introduced them to EPA, to DEQ. 463 00:29:49,160 --> 00:29:51,520 We did. We, we also was like a travel 464 00:29:51,520 --> 00:29:57,200 agency where we, we literally took them to DC to meet with the 465 00:29:57,200 --> 00:30:01,760 different divisions within EPA, develop relationships with those 466 00:30:01,760 --> 00:30:05,880 people. And what resulted from that was 467 00:30:05,880 --> 00:30:11,240 that EPA started listening. And once they started listening, 468 00:30:11,880 --> 00:30:15,520 then we could get some action, you know, moving forward on 469 00:30:15,520 --> 00:30:17,880 policies. We started fighting permits, you 470 00:30:17,880 --> 00:30:21,160 know, that were coming through, developing the data, working 471 00:30:21,160 --> 00:30:25,360 with lawyers to to be able to push back against a lot of these 472 00:30:25,360 --> 00:30:26,920 permits. We lost. 473 00:30:26,920 --> 00:30:29,880 We won some. We lost a lot of it because the 474 00:30:29,880 --> 00:30:33,240 laws don't support us. They're based on industry 475 00:30:33,240 --> 00:30:38,560 standards, not human health. So if you have standards that's 476 00:30:38,560 --> 00:30:41,240 supposed to be protecting communities with the standards 477 00:30:41,240 --> 00:30:44,480 are industry standards and not health standards, that's how you 478 00:30:44,480 --> 00:30:47,680 get cancer Alley. Well, Doctor Wright, how do we 479 00:30:47,680 --> 00:30:50,800 begin to sort of cultivate the leaders we need next? 480 00:30:51,160 --> 00:30:54,400 What what do we do to sort of make sure that there's a next 481 00:30:54,400 --> 00:30:57,800 doctor right to pick up the relay race that that you 482 00:30:57,800 --> 00:31:00,200 started? Yeah, well, I'm trying very hard 483 00:31:00,200 --> 00:31:02,640 to do that now. I'd say right now the majority 484 00:31:02,640 --> 00:31:07,360 of my staff are in their 30s. So one thing you do is, is 485 00:31:07,360 --> 00:31:12,480 cultivate the next generation. It's not easy, you know, and it 486 00:31:12,480 --> 00:31:14,680 does take years, but we have to do it. 487 00:31:14,680 --> 00:31:17,720 And I believe it or not, I think that young people are ready. 488 00:31:17,720 --> 00:31:19,560 I think they're just tired of us. 489 00:31:19,680 --> 00:31:22,720 I'm tired of us. You know what we do at the 490 00:31:22,720 --> 00:31:26,520 center without HBCU, Climate Change Consortium and our big 491 00:31:26,520 --> 00:31:30,400 conference with young people. I've watched a lot of young 492 00:31:30,400 --> 00:31:32,520 people who are going to be medical doctors become 493 00:31:32,520 --> 00:31:35,680 environmental scientists. You know, they, they make the 494 00:31:35,680 --> 00:31:39,760 change into something related to the environment for working 495 00:31:39,760 --> 00:31:42,600 directly with people. And a young woman who wanted to 496 00:31:42,600 --> 00:31:47,040 be a doctor, she now wants to be, she came to our conference 497 00:31:47,800 --> 00:31:50,920 with all of these black kids everywhere, smart as a whip, 498 00:31:50,920 --> 00:31:53,280 doing all kinds of amazing research. 499 00:31:53,720 --> 00:31:56,920 And she told her mother, I want to be an environmental engineer 500 00:31:57,280 --> 00:32:00,840 and I want to work with people the way that you do because with 501 00:32:00,840 --> 00:32:03,960 this group, I feel so much love and people supporting one 502 00:32:03,960 --> 00:32:06,360 another and that she what she wants to do. 503 00:32:06,360 --> 00:32:08,800 So that's what our conference does with young people. 504 00:32:09,280 --> 00:32:12,400 But for the Deep Southcenter, I'm trying very hard to make 505 00:32:12,400 --> 00:32:16,880 sure that that the legacy remains and that the mission 506 00:32:16,880 --> 00:32:22,200 isn't toward it because it's easy to follow the money and 507 00:32:22,200 --> 00:32:25,280 lose your way. We've managed not to do that. 508 00:32:26,200 --> 00:32:32,400 And I tell people my work, I'm working to close down deep 509 00:32:32,400 --> 00:32:34,720 Southcenter. In other words, where we've done 510 00:32:34,720 --> 00:32:37,080 enough, that is our work is no longer needed. 511 00:32:37,880 --> 00:32:42,200 I don't know when that's, but that's our job to really work to 512 00:32:42,200 --> 00:32:45,560 make that we are no longer needed, that we've accomplished 513 00:32:45,560 --> 00:32:48,840 our goals. I don't it's certainly not going 514 00:32:48,840 --> 00:32:50,840 to happen. I don't think it'll happen in my 515 00:32:50,840 --> 00:32:54,000 lifetime, but I think it can happen with the next generation 516 00:32:54,400 --> 00:32:56,720 if we keep working, if we keep educating. 517 00:32:56,720 --> 00:33:00,800 And I tell people all the time, I've never seen a community that 518 00:33:00,800 --> 00:33:05,480 had all of the information make a bad decision for their 519 00:33:05,480 --> 00:33:08,520 community. When do you bite the hand that 520 00:33:08,520 --> 00:33:11,520 feeds you? When it feeds you poison? 521 00:33:12,120 --> 00:33:14,040 That's so right. Well, Doctor, right, We 522 00:33:14,040 --> 00:33:17,960 appreciate you coming onto the podcast and sharing some of your 523 00:33:17,960 --> 00:33:21,600 wisdom with us and your knowledge and of course, all of 524 00:33:21,600 --> 00:33:24,800 the work that you have done over the duration of your career. 525 00:33:24,800 --> 00:33:28,960 Thank you so much. Doctor Wright, thank you so much 526 00:33:28,960 --> 00:33:33,400 for everything that you shared. I feel guilty asking you to do 527 00:33:33,400 --> 00:33:36,480 anything more. But at the end of each episode, 528 00:33:36,480 --> 00:33:38,800 we do a lightning round with our guests. 529 00:33:38,840 --> 00:33:41,960 And Tracy, you know, will you, will you kick us off for that? 530 00:33:43,360 --> 00:33:46,920 Very quickly, rapid fire. These are rapid fire questions. 531 00:33:46,920 --> 00:33:49,680 I'm a professor. It's hard for us to answer in 532 00:33:49,680 --> 00:33:51,840 one word. I'll try. 533 00:33:52,480 --> 00:33:55,520 OK, what is the first book you remember reading? 534 00:33:56,240 --> 00:33:58,160 You're going back all the way to elementary school. 535 00:33:58,160 --> 00:34:02,080 The first one I read was something about Jane, Jane and 536 00:34:02,080 --> 00:34:05,400 Jack. You're ordering a sandwich 537 00:34:05,640 --> 00:34:08,080 dressed or undressed. Dressed. 538 00:34:08,440 --> 00:34:10,120 Always dressed. Amen. 539 00:34:10,120 --> 00:34:14,920 Yes, it's almost August, but now that we're still in July, what's 540 00:34:14,920 --> 00:34:20,520 your song of the summer? Anything that says stay cool. 541 00:34:21,760 --> 00:34:23,800 I know in that Louisiana humidity, yes. 542 00:34:24,280 --> 00:34:31,040 Summer Breeze feel fine. That's mine growing in the magic 543 00:34:31,320 --> 00:34:37,000 in my mind, that Doctor Bell. Doctor Wright, do you have a 544 00:34:37,000 --> 00:34:40,520 collection of anything? I do have a collection of 545 00:34:40,520 --> 00:34:44,040 holiday dishes and stuff. I'm a real holiday person. 546 00:34:44,719 --> 00:34:48,719 Katrina took my mother's Christmas dishes so but I'm I'm 547 00:34:48,719 --> 00:34:53,320 saving them for my children. If you wrote your memoir today, 548 00:34:53,320 --> 00:34:55,880 what would the title be? Or Are you ready to share the 549 00:34:55,880 --> 00:34:59,120 title of your book? Yeah, my mother's eyes. 550 00:34:59,800 --> 00:35:02,120 Oh, my mother's eyes. I love that. 551 00:35:02,160 --> 00:35:06,400 Yeah, how I see things through. I think back so often with what 552 00:35:06,400 --> 00:35:09,560 she told me and how I didn't understand it then. 553 00:35:09,560 --> 00:35:12,680 So illumination is what's happening at this point in my 554 00:35:12,680 --> 00:35:15,960 life. Thinking back to your days in 555 00:35:15,960 --> 00:35:18,960 the classroom, what was your favorite class to teach? 556 00:35:19,880 --> 00:35:22,920 Well, the only thing I talked back then was introduction to 557 00:35:22,920 --> 00:35:27,160 sociology and and introduction to social psychology. 558 00:35:27,160 --> 00:35:30,520 But I love teaching the sociology of women. 559 00:35:31,480 --> 00:35:35,240 So I taught that class back in the day and I I really love that 560 00:35:35,240 --> 00:35:37,720 class. Was did you have a favorite 561 00:35:37,720 --> 00:35:39,040 class that you took as a student it. 562 00:35:39,440 --> 00:35:43,760 Was sociology. Obviously done. 563 00:35:43,760 --> 00:35:47,240 Oh. Yeah, I love, I love sociology 564 00:35:47,240 --> 00:35:50,840 because because it was so relevant to life, if you know 565 00:35:50,840 --> 00:35:54,440 what I mean. Now relevant to life, it helps 566 00:35:54,440 --> 00:35:58,800 you to understand social structures and the impacts that 567 00:35:58,800 --> 00:36:03,240 they have on on your lives and how people become who they are 568 00:36:03,240 --> 00:36:06,320 and what part government plays in molding society. 569 00:36:06,320 --> 00:36:10,720 So so it was sociology and that's why I majored in 570 00:36:10,720 --> 00:36:14,600 sociology with a concentration though in social psychology 571 00:36:14,600 --> 00:36:17,560 because I was always interested in how people think. 572 00:36:17,600 --> 00:36:19,840 I. Love that. 573 00:36:21,000 --> 00:36:23,600 And finally, who was a path breaker in your life? 574 00:36:23,600 --> 00:36:25,160 Who's someone who paved the way for you? 575 00:36:27,080 --> 00:36:32,960 The path breaker in my life to me was my mother and the other 576 00:36:32,960 --> 00:36:36,160 person would be Doctor Adeline Levine, who passed away. 577 00:36:36,560 --> 00:36:41,080 She was my major professor and one of my major professors. 578 00:36:41,080 --> 00:36:45,240 She was really second, but she became first because she helped 579 00:36:45,400 --> 00:36:49,400 guided me through an environment that I knew nothing about, 580 00:36:49,520 --> 00:36:53,600 completely white environment. I was in Buffalo, NY, People 581 00:36:53,600 --> 00:36:56,320 were white, the snow was white, everything was white. 582 00:36:56,320 --> 00:37:01,640 I was cold and very unhappy and didn't know how to manage the 583 00:37:01,640 --> 00:37:04,480 system. And I remember she she told me, 584 00:37:04,480 --> 00:37:07,920 she said, come here little girl, you got two things against you. 585 00:37:08,280 --> 00:37:11,640 You're black and you're female. She said, but we going to get 586 00:37:11,640 --> 00:37:13,240 out of here. And she did. 587 00:37:13,240 --> 00:37:14,920 She became one of my best friends. 588 00:37:14,920 --> 00:37:17,640 I loved her dearly. She was hard as hell. 589 00:37:17,640 --> 00:37:21,560 I hated her at some point, but I began to realize what she was 590 00:37:21,560 --> 00:37:24,320 doing. So my mom and Addie goes to. 591 00:37:25,560 --> 00:37:27,800 Beautiful. Well, thank you so much, Doctor 592 00:37:27,800 --> 00:37:29,080 Bev. It's amazing. 593 00:37:29,080 --> 00:37:31,480 Thank you. Thank you for letting us learn 594 00:37:31,480 --> 00:37:33,200 with you, I really appreciate it. 595 00:37:33,320 --> 00:37:36,240 Well, you're quite welcome and thank you for being interested 596 00:37:36,240 --> 00:37:39,320 in the Deep Southcenter for Environmental Justice. 597 00:37:42,040 --> 00:37:45,080 Doctor Wright is the founder and executive director of the Deep 598 00:37:45,080 --> 00:37:47,080 Southcenter for Environmental Justice. 599 00:37:47,760 --> 00:37:50,560 Path Breakers is produced by the Kresge Foundation, which was 600 00:37:50,560 --> 00:37:54,280 founded in 1924 with a mission to promote human progress. 601 00:37:54,800 --> 00:37:58,080 Today, Kresge works to expand equity and opportunity in 602 00:37:58,080 --> 00:38:01,680 America's cities. Read the stories of all of this 603 00:38:01,680 --> 00:38:04,760 season's Path Breakers and learn about our grant making and 604 00:38:04,760 --> 00:38:08,280 social investing work in Detroit, Memphis, New Orleans, 605 00:38:08,280 --> 00:38:11,880 Fresno, and cities across the US at kresge.org. 606 00:38:12,360 --> 00:38:14,960 To hear more stories from the Path Breakers, be sure to 607 00:38:14,960 --> 00:38:18,120 subscribe to the show wherever you listen to podcasts. 608 00:38:19,480 --> 00:38:22,080 Our producers are Juliet Hindley and Zach Rosen. 609 00:38:22,360 --> 00:38:24,200 Managing editor is Krista Yankee. 610 00:38:24,480 --> 00:38:27,960 Our show art is by Rochelle Baker and Creative direction by 611 00:38:27,960 --> 00:38:31,680 Alejandro Herrera. Special thanks to my colleagues 612 00:38:31,680 --> 00:38:34,480 on the Environment team in the American Cities Program for 613 00:38:34,480 --> 00:38:38,000 lifting up Doctor Wright and speaking her name as a truly 614 00:38:38,000 --> 00:38:41,000 phenomenal path breaker. We'll talk to you all next week.