In the Social
Animal: The Hidden Source of Love, Character and Achievement by
David Brooks, the author analyzes popular methods of thought,
including the French and British Enlightenment. According to him,
thinkers from the French Revolution imagined we are Rational Animals,
distinguished from other animals by our power of logic. Marxists and
others in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries imagined that we are
Material Animals; shaped by the physical conditions of our lives.
Furthermore, thinkers in the British Enlightenment depict us as
Social Animals and emphasized
the power of sentiments and affections to bind people together on
subconscious levels. Ultimately,
Brooks argues that
intellectual history has oscillated between rationalist and romantic
periods, wherein rationalist thinkers reduce human behavior to
austere mathematical models while intuitive leaders and artists
emphasize feeling and imagination during romantic periods. Sometimes
imagination grows too luxuriant. Sometimes reason grows too austere.
While Brooks posits the
philosophers of the British Enlightenment were correct, I believe we
are a combination of all three: logic, material and social. As a
result, social change is achieved when reason and empathy lead to
persuasion. For instance, recently it was revealed that the lawyer
who defended California’s gay marriage ban, Charles Cooper, is now
planning his daughter’s same-sex wedding. He admits his views have
changed and will be evolving over time. More Americans
support legalizing same-sex marriage because of the activist that fought
for legal recognition of their human right to express love from a
place of personal experience and feeling that was operationalized on
a larger scale.
I could expound more on
the history of social change movements but I want to focus on
what such change means to many activists. It means connecting with
individuals and institutions to collaborate on programs, projects and
issues that increase parity for disenfranchised populations,
including formerly convicted and incarcerated people, youth, the
aging, the mentally ill, the poor, women and LGBT. Finding what we have
in common with each other leads to community, which lends itself to
understanding and empathy. These personal feelings and emotional ties
create collective actions that lead to persuasion and outcomes
creating massive, popular shifts in thinking. Eventually, such shifts
have the potential to change the material circumstances of our lives
and create a better world for everyone.
However, before structural change
can occur, the basic needs of disenfranchised populations must be
met. At the African American United Fund, we believe that in order to
create broad-based change, the individual, then the family, then the
neighborhood and finally the larger community must be stabilized out
of crisis. Basic needs must be addressed before systemic causes of
oppression are ameliorated. Our urban gardening initiative adopts
this approach by providing resources for the community, including
access to fresh produce, recreational space and education.
AAUF and I personally was honored to support Leticia Garcia’s thesis paper which captures the connections between logic, material and social operating
at the AAUF and other organizations in North Philadelphia who do work
with marginalized populations including those with low income, the formerly
incarcerated and senior caregivers by adding to the cannon of
research at the nexus of feminist, queer and critical race theories.
Marginalized populations are not homogeneous, that is formerly
convicted, senior caregivers and low income peoples cross pollinate
within distinct movements to reduce barriers to equity.
This research is important
because it brings together, in a cohesive manner, the works of other
noted scholars that focus
on distinct subsets of environmental justice communities, defined
by the federal government as, "the fair treatment and meaningful
involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin,
or income with respect to the development, implementation, and
enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies." This
is important within the context of Philadelphia because such
communities, including those created/sustained by the African
American United Fund, are often marginalized socially, politically
and culturally.
The outcomes of my working
relationship with Leticia Garcia have been to re-envision methodologies employed by the African American United Fund while staying true to our mission by creating Community Economic Justice along side Environmental Justice programs. Through our EJ programs, we have developed relationships with
multi-racial, multi-ethnic, multi-class communities and have found
allies across disciplines in municipal planning, urban agriculture,
community organizing and food justice/food sovereignty. This cross
disciplinary approach has increased the reach of the organization and
increased the impact of our work regionally, nationally and
internationally by using our garden space as a model and
participating in conferences and symposiums that address community
control of land use. Additionally, Leticia used ethnographic
fieldwork, participant observation, archival research and conducted a
symposium in preparation for her thesis. Through such activities,
this thesis research has informed and reflected our organization’s
work, providing insight into how communities can use food and
gardening as organizing tools to break free of Western, paternalist
concepts of usefulness and by redefining what work is and therefore what
the value of labor is.
With support and encouragement, Leticia will continue to explore concepts raised in her thesis by finding ways
to share the practical knowledge she gained by expanding beyond
academia into the public sphere to help others make connections between
land use, culture and community.
Read Leticia's research on the AAUF Garden and her full thesis at the link below...
