Program looks at waste sites and the poor

Poor areas often get dumped on. Or so claimed Benjamin Davy, who led a discussion entitled "Junk Justice: Why Dumping on the Poor Might be a Bad Idea" at Kings Court/English House Thursday night. The program, co-sponsored by the Institute for Environmental Studies, dealt with various environmental justice issues. Davy, a professor of law at the University of Technology in Vienna, Austria, is a visiting professor at the Law School and the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University. In the discussion, Davy addressed the fact that waste sites, which are often hazardous, tend to appear in poor communities. He also spoke about the possible political and economic reasons why this practice continues. "Since the 'greening' of the public agenda, sometime in the late '70s, policy makers?were concerned with the contamination of the environment on a local level," he said. "At least we should acknowledge that there is injustice here." The discussion centered around the economic strife that poor communities incur when trying to keep their neighborhoods free of hazardous waste. "The poor don't have enough money to fight back," said College freshman Ian Kelley. "They simply can't counteract [the interests of ] big corporations." Wharton sophomore Faquiry Diaz said the situation is analogous to building a jail. Though most community members may support the construction of a prison, few would be happy if it were built in their own backyard, he said. College freshman David Aaron explained the role racism plays in environmental injustice by referring to New Jersey's Quality Education Act. Under the act, which was espoused by former New Jersey Governor Jim Florio, local taxes are collected and divided statewide using a method that siphons money away from opulent communities and toward minority communities such as Camden, N.J. Aaron, who worked on Florio's failed reelection campaign earlier this year, explained that the capitalist system maintains a comparative advantage for whites. "The market structure has racism built into it," said Aaron. About 25 undergraduate, graduate and professional students attended the discussion, held in the Class of '38 Lounge in English House. "We try to arrange events that will be interesting to the student population," said Daren Wade, program assistant for Kings Court/English House. Wade said this program is valuable to students in his residence because it encompasses all three of the residence hall's magnate wings, which specialize in the sciences, the humanities and international studies. Krimo Bokreta, assistant dean for residence at Kings Court/English House agreed, stressing that the problem of "junk justice" affects each of those fields. The program was funded by the Department of Residential Living.

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