Evaluating Allocation

Session Objective: to analyse realities in the (mis)use and provision of food, water, energy, and other environmental necessities

So far in Unit 2, we have taken a look at some of the injustices involved in demographic data collection and begun identifying various risk inequalities connected to environmental hazards. This week, we look at the unfair distribution of environmental resources to consider how positive aspects of the environment, as well as negative, are unequally divided along racialised lines. We will also start working on our major assignment for Unit 2, a Statistical Story based on Disparate Distribution Data.

  • Read: a bit about our first (asynchronous) guest speaker, Emma Robbins, through the bio below and her website.

Emma Robbins

Emma Robbins is a Diné artist, activist, and community organiser with a passion for empowering Indigenous women. As Director of the Navajo Water Project, Emma creates infrastructure bringing clean running water to the 1-in-3 Navajo families without it.

Founder of The Chapter House, a new Indigenous arts space, Emma completed her BFA at the School of the Art Institute of Chicago and studied Modern Latin American Art History in Buenos Aires, Argentina. Through her artwork, Emma strives to raise awareness about the lack of clean water on Native Nations and educate viewers about issues such as the Missing and Murdered Indigenous Women crisis; representations and misrepresentations of Native Peoples; and broken treaties.

Emma regularly joins Climates of Resistance to speak about structural inequalities in resource access; the extreme levels of uranium contamination faced by the Navajo Nation; and the impact of COVID-19 on Native Peoples in the United States.

Emma Robbins, the Navajo Water Project
(pronouns: she/her/hers)

  • Understand: the importance of water for the Navajo Nation through Dig Deep’s video footage illustrating this partial telling of Diné Bahaneʼ, the Navajo origin story.

  • Watch: Emma’s conversation with Syracuse students last spring. (Unfortunately, the time zone difference means she can’t join our class live this semester – but she will be one of the community organisers available to choose from during small group interviews in Unit 4!)
    Optional: This COVID-19 project update provides some great visuals of the project, if you’re interested!

  • Visualise: extreme environmental inequalities around the world through the Unequal Scenes project.

  • Choose: one of the Unequal Scenes locations that is compelling for you, and read more about it. Prepare a summary of the situation to share with the class.

  • Remember: the importance of population statistics by watching these PSAs from Brian Stokes Mitchell encouraging everyone to participate in the 2020 Census.

Dubbed “the last leading man” by The New York Times, Tony Award-winner Brian Stokes Mitchell has enjoyed a career that spans Broadway, television, film, and concert appearances with the country’s finest conductors and orchestras. You probably know him best from singing “Through Heaven’s Eyes” in The Prince of Egypt. For fun, Stokes has been known to fly planes and jump out of them (usually not at the same time), and he can ride a bicycle on a high wire. Stokes has regularly teamed up with his Ragtime co-star Audra McDonald to advocate for Black Lives Matter, support artists during the COVID-19 pandemic, and call out racism in the entertainment industry.

photograph of Brian Stokes Mitchell

  • Recall: the third Learning Objective for this course, which is to evaluate evidence-based patterns of environmental racism. You have begun doing that by (1) identifying unfair trends in environmental risk through your Hamilton-inspired research and (2) critiquing the collection and use of data through your look at demographic studies. As many of you observed during last week’s study of environmental racism as an academic field, the goal is not only to acknowledge these trends, but also to bring attention to them in order to encourage action. Your first major assignment offers you a chance to do just that.

  • Examine: the Assignment Brief for your Statistical Story on Disparate Distribution Data. Start to brainstorm what you might want to research and how you can visually showcase the issue. We’ll work more on it in class!

NAT_GEO300 - Assignment Brief - Statistical Story.pdf

  • Think: about the relationship between distribution and outcomes, and the possibilities for a more just future, while looking at Alyssa Osasere’s Color of Change digital art.

Alyssa Osasere's poster titled "Color of Change." The image depicts a bifurcation through two sides of a hill. To the left the image becomes darker. The land is reminiscent of a wasteland. Atop the hill looking down into the valley is a person covered in dark, treacherous vines with thorns with bruises. A black bird sits on their right shoulder. To the right, down in the valley are light and clear skies with a lush valley. A person in a vibrant red has vines from flowers and the grass creeping up their arm.
Color of Change (Digital Art, 2016)

Alyssa Osasere is an illustrator based in Metro Detroit. Her work focuses on showcasing women of color and children in ethereal worlds. She has done editorial illustrations for Rookie Mag, and posters for Black Lives Matter and Color of Change. She also illustrates children’s books. In her free time, Alyssa enjoys studying music and astrology.

photograph of Alyssa Osasere

  • Complete: your Learning Log for this session via the form below.