It was inevitable

The Mustache discovers Van Jones

Posted by David Roberts at 11:05 PM on 16 Oct 2007

Read more about: environmental justice | green jobs | Van Jones

Tom Friedman just introduced Van Jones to a large new audience. All he had to do to make it a great column was get out of the way and let Van speak.

For story: It was inevitable
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Yes!!

Sometimes Friedman is worth the space he takes up on the NYT op-ed pages, and this was certainly one of those times.

This is one of the gripes I have with how environmentalists are covered in the media, and with Al Gore, to be frank. We're constantly portrayed as urban liberal elites (sadly, that's mostly true), and Gore contributes to that with jet-setting and high-powered greenie chums. We need to reach out! Go, Van!!

(Not to mention that spreading the green good word to wider audiences gives us more influence at the ballot box and with our representatives.)

by plum at 12:19 AM on 17 Oct 2007

connexions

This is obviously very good, to teach valuable engineering skills in green technologies to people (young people only?; or are older people invited as well?) in such places as Oakland, Watts and Newark, where financial success and security are hard to come by. One might think a smart, truly concerned politician should have come up with the idea to organize and fund these programs. But whatever; good for Van Jones, that he figured out how to step in and be effective.

We may wonder, though, if it has been easy for these people coming through the programs with valuable skills to find jobs in which those skills can be applied.

Also, about the polar bears: I hope Jones does not regularly turn polar-bear-talk into a joke. Polar bears are no more a part of the typical experience of white people in America than of black people. The fact is, people from every background can be fascinated by observing and studying wildlife, even from afar. Kids in Oakland are no less likely to become interested in polar bears and their fate than kids in Mill Valley.

Chickens deserve our true friendship! So do fish! So do other sentient beings! Let us learn to be kind.

by caniscandida at 6:22 AM on 17 Oct 2007

This drives me crazy

It's not Van Jones fault, but apparently everybody is so beaten down about the loss of manufacturing that it has taken on the characteristics of a natural phenomenon:

"a big chunk of the African-American community is economically stranded. The blue-collar, stepping-stone, manufacturing jobs are leaving. And they're not being replaced by anything. So you have this whole generation of young blacks who are basically in economic free fall."

Well said, except that it is within the realm of human action to rebuild the manufacturing base. It should be clear that the long-term economic health of African-Americans,and all Americans, is a strong manufacturing base.

That's because of the next statement,

"You can't take a building you want to weatherize, put it on a ship to China and then have them do it and send it back,"

, well, you can take all of the building material production and send it to China, and if the manufacturing base of the US proceeds to disappear, eventually the US won't have anything to exchange for those building materials, and all those good people with green collar jobs won't have any building materials to weatherize with. It is not an advantage that a job can't be outsourced -- that means the job is dependent on manufacturing.

Finally, I hate to nitpick, but most residents of Newark and Harlem, in my experience (and my wife's, who grew up in Newark) are not in mortal fear of making it out the neighborhood. I know it's a fine line to walk between waking up America to the plight of inner-city neighborhoods and making them in caricatures, but Harlem had much less crime when there was a thriving middle class because of garment jobs and Newark was once a booming manufacturing center.

by Jon Rynn at 6:52 AM on 17 Oct 2007

I like Friedman, usually

he is MUCH less a waste of space than Maureen Dowd....

And there have been PLENTY of politicians talking about Green Collar jobs, including Barack Obama, so Van Jones isn't remotely the only one talking about it (not that I have anything against what he's doing at ALL, but it's not correct to say that politicians haven't jumped on this bandwagon.)

And people forget how many people in this country pay attention to celebrities and the elite lifestyle. It can't be the only focus of organizing, but if it becomes hip and cool to be green, then a lot of people will be persuaded to be green. That's a good thing, we should go with that. Unfortunately, like it or not, celebrities get more attention than Van Jones or Dave Roberts, and what we need is more attention.....

by Flamingo at 7:40 AM on 17 Oct 2007

Blacks and Polar Bears

I love Van Jones's work, but my experience working in inner city minority communities is a little different. I don't find that people - be they black, brown, or Asian, rich or poor - have too much varying levels of concern about global concerns, symbolized by the polar bear. I've talked about rainforests and whales and even polar bears in some of the poorest neighborhoods in America, and often found more concern there. Just because people don't have a lot of education or a lot of money doesn't meant they don't share the common human concern for our fellow creatures. They may not always have the same amount of time or money to dedicate to political action (of any kind) as wealthier people, but I haven't found lower levels of concern.

by Glenn Hurowitz at 12:50 PM on 17 Oct 2007

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