Lack of Choice

The perils related to social injustice revolve around and are exasperated by the concept of choice (or lack there of).  In many instances low-income individuals don’t have the ability to make the choices they need to live a happy, healthy, and productive life.

Food and Health

All of the author’s writings we read this week covered health in one way or another as it related to social justice.  Bullard writes about the asthma epidemic in the United States and how it increased by 40% between 1982 and 1991 as a direct result of air pollution.  Just as economically disadvantaged people may not have the choice to leave an environment with polluted air, they also often don’t have access to healthy food and exercise.  This has spurred another huge epidemic, obesity.  Check out the maps showing the disturbing trends in obesity in the US.

In order to curb these trends, we have to find a way to make the healthy choice the easy choice.  For some reason, in my mind obesity and McDonalds fit into the same sentence.  McDonald’s menu has gotten much healthier, I must say.  When you go on their website there are definitely healthy options.  Check out the picture for a happy meal it has milk and apples instead of a coke and fries.  But, when you actually go to order that happy meal, the default is the coke and fries.  Many people don’t even think about it and so they end up with the unhealthy option when instead it would be better for society if the default choice was the option with milk and fruit.  Ok, enough with my rant on McDonald's.

But, it isn’t just the fast food restaurants that are the problem.  Let’s think about the actual options people have in low-income areas for food.  Some people only have the options available to them in the local food pantry.  Yes, those people may want to eat fresh, local or organic food but that isn’t a choice.  Their options are whatever is available to them at the local food bank, and as you can see in the picture this is often not the healthiest option. 

On a side note, if you donate to your local food pantry (which you all should, of course) take a look at this article that gives an overview on how to make safe healthy food bank donations. 

Throughout the world, the economically depressed areas are often also associated with a lack of healthy food options.  These areas have been coined with the term food desert, which is any area where healthy, affordable food is difficult to obtain. They are most prevalent in rural as well as urban areas and in low-socioeconomic minority communities.  This idea is best portrayed when you look at the food desert locator for Indianapolis. 

The great thing about knowledge and mapping is that now we can begin to locate areas to target for community gardens, affordable markets, and healthy food pantries!  Once we find a way to make the healthy choice the easy choice (or even a choice at all), we can begin to help alleviate many of the health problems such as obesity that can be associated with economically depressed areas.

Housing

Bullard (184) discusses how institutional barriers have locked millions of people of color (or low income) into polluted neighborhoods and hazardous, low-paying jobs, which make it nearly impossible for them to “vote with their feet” and escape those types of environments.  People don’t choose to live in these areas; they are stuck. 

Much like the Don’t Move, Improve! Campaign that Roseland (160) mentions that is being led by the South Bronx in New York in an effort to revitalize health, daycare, economic education, housing, environment, transportation and capital development in low income areas, the City of Philadelphia has created a unique program to revitalize many economically depressed areas in the City through art.   The City of Philadelphia Mural Arts Program was founded in 1984 and unites artists and communities through a collaborative process, rooted in the traditions of mural-making, to create art that transforms public spaces and individual lives. 

At a public art conference a few years ago, I was lucky enough to meet Jane Golden, the lead artist and founder of the program and receive a tour of some of the murals.  It is truly amazing how the murals have transformed the neighborhoods they reside.  The artists work with the surrounding community to design and paint the murals, which gives the community members a sense of pride and ownership.  Currently there are over 2,500 murals throughout the city, and over 40,000 walls have been cleaned of graffiti.  In my opinion this program is a prime example of how we can improve low-income areas through art!