Environmental racism, treatment of Mexican-American migrant workers and correlations between toxic waste and race are just a few of the topics to be discussed tonight during an ecological public talk and discussion.
The Ecological Conservation, a Rockefeller Foundation Resident Fellowship Program, which deals with gender, science and the sacred, features Kamala Platt, a resident fellow at the Center for the Study of Women in Society.
“This is the fifth Rockefeller speaker we have had on campus,” said Lynne Fessenden, the CSWS program manager.
Platt will discuss her research on the poetics of environmental justice, focusing on environmental racism in the Willamette Valley.
“The definition of environmental justice is basically where we live and where we go for vacation,” Platt said. “I am studying the effects on human communities and health.”
Her research on environmental racism has particularly focused on migrant workers.
“I am working a lot with Latina women with a Mexican-American background,” Platt said. “It is a comparative study which looks at places like Texas and near the Northeast Mexican border where there is about a 90 percent Mexican-American population.”
From her studies she has found the danger that resides among farm workers from the use of pesticides.
“Workers are finding that the pesticides are hazardous to their health and to their families, yet their employers are blackmailing them with deportation” if they question the practices, Platt said.
The conference is at the Cesar Chavez House on 1672 E. 17th Ave.
“We thought that since the talk focused a lot on the community, the Chavez House would be a good place for it,” Platt said. “A lot of people on campus don’t even know that it exists.”
For more information, call Fessenden at 346-5399.