I’m an active social media user.
At least I am for somebody my age.
I watch Tik Tok even though I have never made one.
I post my art work on Instagram under @klonskyart
If you’re reading this you know I moved over from Wordpress and now write my opinions on substack.
fredklonsky.substack.com is where you go to subscribe and donate to this project if you so desire.
And, of course, I’m on Facebook.
I do Wordl first thing in the morning. I’m addicted. If I can’t get it in four lines it ruins my day.
About a year ago I started seeing a meme on Facebook called Tell Me Without Telling Me, also known as #TheTellMeChallenge.
It is a social game in which social media users ask others to share personal opinions and beliefs without using direct mentions of the subject.
Like tell me your Gay without telling me your Gay,
Or tell me you’re from Philadelphia without telling me you’re from Philadelphia.
Although I never participated I found it interesting.
It never occurred to me that the Biden administration would use it to implement environmental policy.
The New York Times has reported that even though Joe Biden included opposition to environmental racism as a candidate, he won’t say the R word now.
The White House’s new environmental strategy to tackle this problem will be colorblind: Race will not be a factor in deciding where to focus efforts.
Worried that using race to identify and help disadvantaged communities could trigger legal challenges that would stymie their efforts, administration officials said they were designing a system to help communities of color even without defining them as such.
“We are trying to set up a framework and a tool that will survive, and one that still connects to what the on-the-ground impacts are that people are experiencing,” said Brenda Mallory, chairwoman of the White House Council of Environmental Quality, which is designing the system. “I feel that we can do that based on race-neutral criteria.”
Is this a game of tell me it’s racism without saying race?
It is a game they can’t win.
The examples of environmental racism are way too numerous.
“When you look at the most powerful predictor of where the most industrial pollution is, race is the most potent predictor,” said Robert Bullard, a professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University and a pioneer in the environmental justice movement. “Not income, not property values, but race. If you’re leaving race out, how are you going to fix this?”