Nearly every Saturday from 9:00-2:00 I volunteer at Urban Tree Connection, a non-profit organization that works in West Philadelphia "to assist urban, low-income communities and revitalize their neighborhoods by transforming abandoned open spaces into safe and functional places that inspire and promote positive human interaction". The full mission statement can be viewed on their website: http://urbantreeconnection.org/about.html. Some brief history that I am aware of is that the organization started to beautify vacant lots and improve neighborhoods since the lots would no longer be available for crime related activities. However, the organization shifted to planting mostly community supported agriculture (CSA) gardens due to the greatly limited access to fresh produce. There may have been a misguided agenda coming in, but I find the easy shift to the communities' agenda, a powerful way for UTC to make a meaningful impact in the communities.
Non-profits are never perfect and while I am in favor of UTCs' work, the racial issues creating the need for such a program are unidentified. The fact that these communities are almost entirely black/racial minorities is overlooked and on the website and in practice "urban" and "low-income" communities are the identifying factor. Even though UTC is a commendable organization, it does seem to be existing in a "colorblind vacuum". When you are in West Philly walking around with our group of almost entirely white UC Bonners it is impossible to ignore that no such vacuum addresses the systemic racial oppression.
Once again, UTC isn't perfect as it is merely treating a symptom of long upheld racial oppression/white supremacy. Still, at least personally, the first hand accounts of such poverty are much more impactful than reading about them alone could ever be. This past Saturday a group of volunteers were starting up a new site, clearing weeds and seemingly ever-growing mounds of garbage. People dump their garbage in these lots because there are no garbage men going around every Tuesday evening, and no dumpsters to be seen or accessed. The side street was also lined with trash. We were also bundling up the trash and debris from the lot and putting it on this side street. Sue, the volunteer coordinator (and one of the sweetest woman on earth) had instructed us to put the waste there as she had spoken with a garbage man the previous week about her predicament of nowhere to put this trash. The garbage man agreed to go that way and clear the bundles on Monday.
On this side street was a small cinderblock house that legitimately appeared to be the size of the double room that I have here at UC to myself. I saw at least three people come out of this house. I got to talking to a resident of the house named Simon as he stood outside having his morning coffee and cigarette. Simon had recently painted his house and was happy to see projects to restore his neighborhood. We were also planning to clean and weedwhack the area right across from his house, he offered to do the weed whacking if we provided the tool, I inquired but was instructed to decline due to liability limitations. Quite possibly a manifestation of subconscious racial profiling. Simon and I talked about the produce and ways for him to get involved come Spring, he asked what we were going to do with the garbage that we were placing next to his home. I casually replied that someone would come and pick it up on Monday. I got back to work and he thanked me for helping the area. Immediately after it struck me how absurd it is that a white woman was able to get the garbage to be picked up but these residents aren't given the same consideration, when it is where they live. Then I thought of it in terms of my privilege of being at Ursinus and the fact that people come clean and take our garbage on a daily basis. We take for granted so many things that are an unexamined manifestation of white privilege. I think the UC student body should constantly remind themselves of starc differences that occur due to our privilege here and the racial oppression occurring a mere 30 miles away (or closer when thinking of Norristown). Education through this class coupled with real life experiences have a far deeper impact than either alone could fully achieve.
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