By Nicki Miller

This analysis was written by Elizabeth (Nicki) Miller (pictured on the right). Nikki holds a Master of Public Administration with a specialization in Policy Analysis from the Robert F. Wagner Graduate School of Public Service and a Bachelor of Arts from the University of Connecticut.

ERJ Activism in Dominican Republic 

Last fall I attended the virtual Environmental and Racial Justice Network (ERJN) Fall  Summit that focused on Teaching at the Margins by Centering Critical Voices in Environmental and Racial Justice in Academic Teaching and Learning. I attended the summit with the intention to hear and learn more about work regarding environmental and racial justice (ERJ). The summit 

consisted of keynote presentations on ERJ-related topics, followed by facilitated breakout sessions. Though I wish I could have attended all the breakout sessions, the fourth topic on ERJ Activism caught my attention because it related to the Dominican Republic (DR).  

My paternal family is from San Pedro de Macoris – a municipality on the southeastern portion of Hispaniola – so I had a bias towards this session. Like most families in San Pedro, my family’s roots in that area date back to the late 19th to early 20th centuries when former slaves and workers of African Descent migrated from the Lesser Antilles to DR to work in the sugar cane fields and the sugar mills (ingenios). I have always been interested in how my family’s history was intertwined with the sugar cane industry in DR, but for a long time, I thought DR’s larger economy had shifted its dependence away from natural resource extraction. However, the session on ERJ  Activism quickly dispelled that belief.  

Alejandra Torres – a Masiyiwa-Bernstein fellow at the Global Justice Clinic at NYU  School of Law – facilitated the discussion – Extractivism in the Dominican Republic:  Environmental Impacts, Community Drama of Daily Life, Contractual Irregularities, and the  Mining Industry’s Violation of Human, Social, Cultural, Economic, and Environmental rights. 

Research professor and Coordinator of the Dominican Observatory of Public Policies at the  Autonomous University of Santo Domingo (ODPP-UASD – Spanish acronyms), Fernando Peña,  discussed the plight communities surrounded by multinational mining projects face. These mines include Barrick Gold‘s open pit gold mine, CORMIDOM‘s underground gold mine, and  Falcondo’s ferronickel mines in Bonao.  

“The Dominican Republic’s fertile soil and warm tropical climate give birth to bright green vegetation and trees. But for the villages around the mine, shrunken black and moldy fruits dangle  helplessly from barren limbs.” – Jaclynn Ashly, Jacobin  

Professor Peña elaborated on ODPP-UASD’s activism in response to the undeniable impacts mining activities and mining policies have on mulatto, campesino, and impoverished populations and water sources. The impacted communities constantly express their opposition to mining operations that not only have economic or environmental impacts, but physical impacts as well associated with skin lesions, nausea, stomach problems, rashes, high rates of cancer, and miscarriages. The main concerns relate to toxic waste and water reservoirs which make safe drinking water inaccessible. Over 36 water services have disappeared because of the pollution of water activities. There is also a looming fear and threat that mining companies want to transform the island into a huge gold mine which puts the Dominican Republic and Haiti at risk of becoming a desert because of plans for mining in areas with fresh water.  

Professor Peña laid out what steps have been taken or must be taken to address Extractivism in DR. He started with the root issue – the weak management by the government regarding the environment and laws governing mining practices are byproducts of weakened institutions abused by mining monopolies. In response to this ODPP-UASD has worked directly with impacted communities to get a better understanding of their current water crisis and how their rights have been violated. This research includes training community members in reporting violations made by mining companies.  

Secondly, mining activities’ compliance with human rights and environmental considerations must be mandated by the government. This can be advanced through grassroots movements and informing communities. These actions will help enhance the resistance to these projects to protect the island from special threats the mining industry poses (1), raise awareness, and help improve reporting and transparency of mining practices.  

Lastly, ODPP-UASD has developed a permanent intervention in the communities directly affected by the mining companies and their tailings dams, empowering them to push back against the system in which these mines operate in. However, to truly effect change, Professor Peña says these communities and ODPP-UASD need worldwide attention and political solidarity on this issue to urge the Dominican government to implement mandates concerning mining activities.  

It is important to realize that every place with an abundance of natural resources whether in the Caribbean or somewhere else in the world faces a constant tension between ERJ and profit – a central tenant in a capitalistic system. This tension should not result in a zero-sum game where some communities suffer in the long run just in the name of profit and economic growth in the short run. Unfortunately, it does especially in a context without rules, regulations, or safeguards to protect the most vulnerable communities and environments.  

When I was contemplating applying to NYU for graduate school, the rhetoric around  “Making an Impact” drew me to apply and ultimately choose Wagner. Over time I have realized that making an impact, whether domestically or internationally, involves working within a context shaped by historical, social, and environmental circumstances. Because of this context, any conversation revolving around making a positive impact must include a critical component of  environmental and racial justice for two reasons — 

(1) According to Professor Peña these threats include environmental threats, social poverty threats, discrimination threats,  watercourse/reservoir threats, exploitation threats, and racial threats. 

♦ Firstly, to empower members of marginalized and minority groups who have faced the legacies of racism and colonialism.  

♦ Secondly, to ensure that these marginalized groups in any area or country have the same access to activate laws and policies that ensure their safety and mitigate (if not eradicate) environmental damage.  

We cannot talk or learn about making an impact without considering the triple bottom line and all stakeholders involved in policy conversations, locally or abroad. Spaces and forums like ERJN advocate for considering the intersection of social, environmental, and racial justice. I look forward to seeing these considerations incorporated more into Wagner’s and the broader NYU course curriculum.  

For more on mining extraction in DR see below:  

• Webinar on Barrick Gold’s impact on different communities around the world.
• The Canadian Mining Company Dominicans Call “Worse Than Columbus”
• Barrick, Falcondo, and Canadian imperialism in the Dominican Republic
  

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  This blog post is the second of a two-part student series that analyzes and reflects on the Environmental and Racial Justice Network‘s Fall Summit titled Teaching at the Margins – Centering Critical Voices in Environmental. The Critical Voices Working Group, executively sponsored by ERJN, creates a platform that permits exchanges with and between communities of color on if and how academic institutions should discuss, teach, and conduct research with and about those at the forefront of the environmental crisis.

By Aisha Balogun

This analysis was written by Aisha Balogun (pictured on the right). Aisha holds a Master of Urban Planning from New York University and a dual BS/BA in Engineering (Architectural Design) and Sociology from Stanford University. 

Teaching Objectivity: Where Are We, Where Do We Go From Here?

 “The stories we tell about a place shape its fate.” 

Dr. Marisa Solomon shared this quote from a Nigerian artist during the 2022 Environmental and Racial Justice Network Fall Summit. At first, storytelling may sound like something that ought to be restricted to the family home and private life. In our time of hyper-partisan policy processes and media, professionals commonly claim to provide an objective analysis of problems and solutions in order to appeal to a broad audience. 

My urban planning education has already begun to push back on this restricted conception of stories and the gold standard of objectivity. In my data analysis courses, we were taught that in order for data to drive action–in order for data to have meaning for those who encounter it–the analyst must craft a story. In a policy analysis course, we discussed case studies in which the methods and assumptions used in policy-driven research were warped to serve specific stories about our nation held by people in power. 

Already, my time in higher education has taught me that stories drive our understanding of the world–both in personal and professional settings. In this sense, objectivity is a fickle concept: stories aren’t objective. Stories come loaded with embedded cultural values and expectations of cause and effect. These pre-loaded values and expectations make stories so powerful to begin with: they provide an accessible frame in which to understand social problems, which then provide a basis for the professional solutions higher education trains us to provide. Stories may be hard to detect behind statistical measures and scientific methods, but all work of interpreting research and diagnosing problems involves storytelling.

So, what next? 

“Uplift community voices” is a common refrain I’ve heard in my education. This is a necessary place to start. People in historically marginalized communities should have more power to shape the stories told about their communities that shape major policy decisions. In America, this means greater narrative power granted to communities of color and low-income communities. However, stopping here is not enough. As we face increasingly complex social issues over a broad swath of communities, whose stories will take precedence over others?

I see the next step in re-orienting our understanding of stories and objectivity within professional work as a process of directed individual reflection. A break-out session I attended during the 2022 Environmental and Racial Justice Network Fall Summit, facilitated by Dr. Saudi Garcia, provided an excellent roadmap for this process. She encouraged participants to critically evaluate how our identities inform the community-centered work we pursue by thinking through questions like “What are the different dimensions of your life and your work within which you think about ethics?” and “With whom do you work and with whom do you share your knowledge?”.

A crucial part of this process was discussing our findings after reflecting on our questions. Rather than using our personal experiences as a shield that justified any and all approaches within our work, the process of discussing with a diverse group of individuals opened up our stories to constructive critique. What communities, perspectives, and experiences may be left out of our stories? How can we actively pursue collaboration with the intention to address our own blind spots? Recognizing, again, that the perspectives of communities of color and low-income communities are those most often left out of mainstream American stories, Dr. Garcia clearly incorporated a racial justice lens in our collective evaluation process.

If higher education is serious about critically evaluating the idea of objectivity–as it should–then it must also provide students with the space to collectively critically evaluate their own stories, their influence on their own work, and the role of our understandings of race and class play in both.

This blog post is the first of a two-part student series that analyzes and reflects on the Environmental and Racial Justice Network‘s Fall Summit titled Teaching at the Margins – Centering Critical Voices in Environmental. The Critical Voices Working Group, executively sponsored by ERJN, creates a platform that permits exchanges with and between communities of color on if and how academic institutions should discuss, teach, and conduct research with and about those at the forefront of the environmental crisis.

Students recognize that climate change shapes how we live today and will continue to shape our future. Sustainability education can help students understand the reality of warming the planet, and develop green skills and ways to combat climate change in whatever course or career they choose to pursue. 

Sustainability encompasses all majors and career paths and extends far beyond the walls of an NYU classroom. That’s why NYU is dedicated to making it easier for students to find sustainability-related classes with the ‘sustainability’ tag in Albert.

In four easy steps, you’re now able to find great sustainability-related courses to fit into your schedule. 

1. Sign into Albert
2. Go to ‘Course Search’
3. Click the Academic Threads Filter to the left of the screen 
4. Select ‘Sustainability’

Yes, it’s as easy as that! 

If you think a class should have the sustainability tag added, reach out to the Office of Sustainability at sustainability@edu.nyu.