CMU holds events, panel to honor MLK

Students, faculty and other members of the community gathered in Rangos Hall of Carnegie… Students, faculty and other members of the community gathered in Rangos Hall of Carnegie Mellon University’s University Center yesterday for poetry readings to celebrate the life of Martin Luther King Jr.

High school and college writers took turns on stage reading their literary works that received recognition in the Martin Luther King Jr. Day Creative Writing Awards.

First-place winner of high school poetry Madeline Chandler, of Pittsburgh High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, shared “Krissy and Chris,” her piece about a white girl and a black boy being scared to talk to each other in school.

Nefertiti Umeh, from Winchester Thurston High School, read her prose, “What a Day,” inspired by a man who insulted her with a racial slur on her way home from school.

“I have grown used to this feeling and have contrived ways to make it clear that the color of my skin is exactly what it is,” Umeh read. “It is only a genetic shade of pigment, it is not who I am.”

Other events of the day included a candlelit procession to symbolize Civil Rights against racial segregation as well as a community conversation titled “Environmental Justice – Is it Working in Pittsburgh?” The event attracted about 50 viewers, who sat scattered throughout the McConomy Auditorium.

“It’s important to understand that it’s not just about the administrators, but also about the students and the entire community,” said M. Shernell Smith, a coordinator at CMU’s Student Development. “We want to help students engage in what we’d like to see happen environmentally and socially.”

Moderated by Peter Madsen, a professor at CMU, the discussion aimed to define the obstacles of environmental justice and examine what Pittsburghers should do to address these problems.

Tackling the topic of injustice, whether it is social or environmental, is not simply about race but rather power, said Stephen Thomas, director of Pitt’s Center for Minority Health, and Philip Hallen, a professor at the Pitt Graduate School of Public Health. “If there’s anything that Martin Luther King left for us, he gave us the voice to social justice issues, moral thread and overlay,” Thomas said. “We can’t separate the physical environment from the cultural environment. The environmental justice movement is an arena to eliminate disparities.”

Perhaps the biggest threat to humanity today is global warming and climate change, said panelist Court Gould, executive director of Sustainable Pittsburgh, a non-profit organization that strives to integrate economic prosperity, social equity and environmental quality in the Pittsburgh region, according to its website. He added that low-income communities, which are said to be the least contributors to this issue, could be the most ruthlessly affected by global warming in the future.

Panelist Khari Mosley, Pennsylvania state director, added that the social justice movement in race, gender, sexual orientation and class inevitably brings environmental justice to the table. For example, Mosley said, high levels of fluoride in water in Pittsburgh and Philadelphia increase the number of teeth cavities for people living in the area. According to ActionPA.org, urban drinking water systems are more likely to be fluoridated than suburban and rural water systems. And since half of the black and nearly half of Hispanic populations – compared to 21 percent of non-Hispanic whites, according to the website – live in cities, minorities are far more affected by the fluoride.

Mosley added that society has come a long way with racial equality, but environmental issues like Hurricane Katrina and the effect it had on low-income, black communities reveal there is still work to be done.

“It’s really about power,” Mosley said. “There must be a dramatic shift in public opinion and urgency of the moment. Going to work and sending kids to school is really just one piece of the puzzle. It’s coming outside those walls that makes a difference.”