24 Jan 2006 Fight Global Warming: Surrender Your Bling
Peyton Knight sent over this commentary about a global warming report he read on the Black Entertainment Television website. Apparently, I am way behind the cultural curve, because I had to send him an email to find out what “bling” is. I thought maybe it was a typo.
No, as this article about bling’s entry into the Oxford English Dictionary explains, it is a term “used to describe diamonds, jewelry and all forms of showy style.”
But you knew that, so here’s Peyton’s message:
It was only last month at the United Nations Climate Change Conference in Montreal that we learned global warming is unfairly targetingwomen.
So, just when you thought that global warming couldn’t be any more bigoted, an article on the website of Black Entertainment Television is proclaiming that a warmer Earth disproportionately affects African-Americans.
It is only a matter of time before black Americans began to feel the sharp sting of this racist weather phenomenon.
According to the BET article, “If global warming gets worse, many African-American communities will be more vulnerable to breathing ailments, insect-carried diseases and heat-related illness and death.”
Quite a claim — one you might think requires further explanation and citation. (Don’t get your hopes up.) The author also laments, “asking Black folks to give up gas-guzzling SUVs and other bling is a tough sell.”
Has anyone ever calculated how much warming is directly attributed to bling?
Shouldn’t this be done before folks are urged to surrender their bling?
The news gets worse. As if the inherently racist tendencies of Mother Nature weren’t enough, the article points out that the Bush administration may have “made matters worse by creating new policies, like the Clear Skies Act and the Healthy Forest Initiative.”
I tell you, if I had a dime for every black person disproportionately affected by the federal government properly caring for the forestland it owns — well, let’s just say I wouldn’t be driving a Honda Civic.