Reaching out is hard to do, or so it would seem. Our environmental community here in Houston is so white it’s embarrassing. If we were living in Boulder, I could understand. But the Bayou City is more diverse than a bowl of gumbo.

We’ve known about the problem for a decade. Paul Ruffins, previous editor of Crisis magazine and a self-labeled black environmentalist, declared in 1990 that “the environmental movement must embrace non-white people and their priorities and perspectives if is to have any hope of saving the planet.” [Context 25:33]

Although there have been a number of attempts by individuals and groups to reach out, many of which are laudable, we must admit the CEC community has largely failed to make meaningful working connections with minority communities here in the Houston/Galveston area. But I’m not so interested in analyzing what went wrong or what we haven’t done; I’m interested in what we should be doing.

For starters, the diversity and strength of Houston’s minority communities present a huge opportunity for reaching out. Many of these communities are already organized and easy to find.

It’s not as if we have nothing to talk about. The environmental justice movement showed us in the 1990s that the brunt of environmental impacts now fall on lower income communities, most of which are also minority communities. Environmental issues should be considered survival issues. Our health is being directly affected.

One approach, suggested by Ruffins, is to address the lack just as we would Ecology, which teaches us the need to preserve and encourage diversity. From this perspective, we should support the growth of minority-led environmental groups. We should help to increase awareness of environmental issues among minority community organizations. And perhaps first and foremost, we should seek to recruit minority board members, staff, and volunteers in our own organizations.

Much of what happens here in Houston is based on relationships. I fear that as environmentalists we have been unable to reach beyond our comfort zone, the network of social, political, and business relationships we have already built. Let’s learn from past attempts to build connections and charge ahead with some with new relationships.

Keep your eyes and ears open for initiatives this year to help us all do some reaching out beyond our current connections. If you know of any initiatives underway that are building relationships between our environmental and minority communities, or if you are interested in helping to lead this effort, be sure to contact us.