Building a Green-Brown-Bridge

Recently I’ve been thinking about Barack Obama, Henry Louis Gates, Van Jones, and Greenbridge.

When tension around race comes up, our society has a really difficult time differentiating between individual incidents of incivility and patterns of bias. South Carolina Rep. Joe Wilson thinks that an apology for his single act of disrespect is enough. But others see his “You Lie” comment towards the President to be part of a larger racial pattern questioning Obama’s authority. Henry Louis Gates saw being arrested in his own home in the light of a larger pattern of racial profiling. The police officer who arrested him thought he was just arresting a guy who threatened his authority.

Closer to home, Greenbridge and its developers continue to come under criticism for gentrifying Northside, and some attacks this summer called the Greenbridge developers racist. UNC-NOW and other Greenbridge critics see this project as a part of the larger pattern of African-American displacement in Chapel Hill. Not surprisingly, Greenbridge’s developers say they’re just one project impacting the neighborhood, and one that came relatively late to the gentrification party at that.

It’s incredibly difficult to bring people to a common understanding of racial tensions when they have such different perspectives about patterns versus individual events. At the national level, it’s hard to imagine that President Obama’s supporters and detractors will ever agree on the role race plays in their individual perspectives.

When this tension and conflict happens between individuals and groups who consider themselves progressive, I am truly disheartened. When wedges are placed between advocates for the environment and advocates for people of color, we all lose.

Former White House advisor Van Jones may be the country’s foremost thinker on bridging the so-called green/brown divide. When the right wing attack machine decided to play up white fears about Obama’s so-called radical agenda, they picked on Jones. Unfortunately, the Obama coalition made it all too easy. While people of color voiced their support for Jones, white environmental advocates were largely silent. Jones became expendable to the White House as soon as his support was reduced to coming almost solely from people who looked like him.

We could use Van Jones right here in Chapel Hill. Greenbridge didn’t create our local gentrification issues, and attacking Greenbridge alone doesn’t address the core problems facing Northside. We need leadership and vision that can create a green-brown-bridge… helping our advocates for people of color and our advocates for the environment to get on the same page. Now that he’s out of a job, maybe Van Jones could help us find some solutions. Let’s invite him to town for a beer summit.