In a lecture room at the University of Michigan's School of Natural Resources, 25 little eyes stared up at me. The children were thinking rapidly about the question I had just asked: "Tell me what you think of when I say the word 'environment.'" Slowly one hand arose, and a small soft voice said "trees!" then 10 more hands shot up.

On this day, these children from a middle school in Flint got their first lesson in environmental justice. To help them understand, I asked "How many of you have asthma or have someone in your family with asthma?" A chill reached down my spine as all 25 little hands shot up. This experience helped inspire me to pursue a degree in Toxicology at U of M's School of Public Health. I wanted to address the lack of environmental health research in communities of color in environmental health.

What does this have to do with affirmative action?

Week after week of seeing different children talk about their same environmental injustices, you ask, who is protecting these children? Sitting in an environmental policy class, I looked around, and out of a class of 50 students, there were two students of color including myself, and I realized the problem.

Diversity is important across all fields and professions. The environmental movement's success is based on diversity, and there isn't much at this level. A paper that came out of the Second National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit (Summit II) highlighted the problem of long-term sustainable support for environmental programming for people of color. Many of the children at K-12 inner city schools are not adequately exposed to earth or environmental sciences. According to the National Science Foundation, less than 5% of bachelor's degrees in earth sciences are earned by members of underrepresented groups (people of color). However, our communities share the larger part of the environmental problems in the country.

A study on health disparities and segregation found the racial differences in health disparities are a driving factor in segregation in the U.S. (Frosch, et al., 2006). One of the leading causes of these disparities is environmental exposures. As segregation increased, cancer risks associated with ambient air toxics were amplified (Frosch, et al., 2006). In Detroit, one in five children has asthma, a rate that continues to increase. Health can also affect educational status. The School Governance and Leadership: Asthma Wellness 2003 report reveals: "Asthma is the leading cause of school absenteeism due to chronic illness, accounting for more than 14 million missed school days and educational opportunities/year." This burden is borne disproportionately by African-American children, who have a risk four times higher than other children of dying from an asthma attack. Affirmative action increases the opportunities for people of color to enter into the environmental field and address some of these disparities and lack of representation.

Applicants to university-based environmental justice programs are qualified, but sometimes the application process does not reveal the other qualities these individuals bring. A study done at U of M medical school showed 90% of its underrepresented (African Americans, Latinos and Native Americans) students graduated successfully from medical school even though they had significantly lower MCAT (Medical Entrance Exam) scores than white students.

An organization called Michigan Civil Rights Initiative has spearheaded a campaign to abolish affirmative action policies in Michigan with a ballot question this fall. MEC has already adopted a resolution against this ballot initiative and urges other environmental groups to do the same.

~~~ Opportunities ~~~

Speaker training and information on Environmental Movement and Affirmative Action. Call Roshani Deraniyagle-Dantas at (517) 487-9539 or e-mail her at roshanimec@voyager.net.

One United Michigan, an organization in Michigan fighting the anti-affirmative action ballot initiative. For more information and the ballot language, visit www.oneunitedmichigan.org or e-mail Stephanie Chang at stephanielilychang@gmail.com.