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April. 1980 - New National BLACK MONITOR
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A Close-Up View of Third World Events... And What They Mean To You
Focus on Black Americans and
the Global “Energy Crisis”
(Editor’s Note: The world and national
"energy crisis" is probably destined to do
more to reshape our lives and that of our
world than any other single concern in our
lifetime. Hence, we shall periodically re
focus upon this most vital issue, around
which there is often much more heat than
light. Our articles will be human-oriented,
with the idea of putting our readers much
farther ahead than the general public—both
on fuel savings tips and on the understand
ing of the public policy issues involved in
the rapidly worsening fuel or "energy
crisis.")
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Myth of Endless Supply
With the recent appalling announcement
in the United States by the Fuel Marketing
Advisory Committee and the National Ur
ban Coaliton that up to a staggering 86 per
cent of the income of some lowest-income
groups is spent on energy costs, grave
American alarm has sprung up on the
energy issue. More immediately, such a
report is a stark reminder that blacks—who
come from a tradition of abundant heat use
—may soon find themselves reflecting the
world energy crisis in the most deeply per
sonal terms!
Such statistics are not reflective of the
American public as a whole. But on a vari
ety of grounds, they serve to underscore the
simple and increasingly obvious fact that
the world is faced with a series of public and
personal problems regarding our global
energy resources. Black Americans may be
among the first to be devastated by the
impending crunch.
In the United States, as in most of the so
called old or First World nations, there has
been a reluctance to adjust to our present
crisis. Black Americans are no exception.
How could there be such a serious problem,
so many people seem to be asking, when
just a few years ago—within the past dec
ade—we were told that our energy supplies
were practically inexhaustible?
There is a remarkably revealing story in
this regard, told about the former Canadian
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Energy Minister, J.J. Green. In 1971, Mr.
Green went on a sales mission from Ottowa
to Texas, which was, even as late as then,
still the oil capital of the world. His goal
was to sell Canadian crude oil at the going
rate of $2.18 a barrel (It is now up to S3O a
barrel.) Mr. Green had to wait in line
behind Arab representatives on similar
missions, hoping to sell their crude oil
which cost less than 30 cents per barrel to
produce. As the International Environment
Liaison Centre of Nairobi, Kenya, reports:
“When his turn came, the Minister made
his pitch: ‘Canada had a 928-year supply of
oil, and was willing to sell a good portion of
it to the U.S.’”
Small wonder, then, that even today the
world as a whole cannot be convinced easily
or quickly that the “energy crisis” is “for
real”!
Unheeded Warnings
We have all been bombarded with the
“buy oil” propaganda. It has not been too
long ago, as we may remember, that gas
stations were offering trading stamps—
along with free gifts such as glassware—for
the public to purchase gas in greater and
greater quantities. Black Americans spent
disproportionately more on gas, because we
owned a larger share of the older “gas
guzzling” cars.
Then, the “educational advantages” of
extended—and even incessant —tourism
have been told and sold to us until we have
felt somewhat “culturally deprived” unless
we engaged in some added local or foreign
travel. Blacks bought more cars than ever,
and black Americans for the first time in
the history of the world were commonplace
as tourist-visitors throughout Asia, Africa,
and all of Europe.
Even while we were being subjected to
this kind of orientation, the global energy
crisis was hovering over us. As early as
1969, a number of non-governmental orga
nizations throughout the world warned that
what was then called “finite oil resources”
could not support the world’s growing
demand for fuel. Our own distinguished
American anthropologist-activist, the late
Dr. Margaret Mead, sought—along with
other scientists and scholars—to sound a
global alarm, as she and others urged that
strong conservation measures immediately
be implemented.
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The tragedy was, primarily, that the
pleas for conservation were often interpret
ed as pleas for the public to engage in acts
of sacrifice. How much more could black
Americans be called upon to sacrifice?
Then, again, the conservation of energy
was perceived as but a part of the efforts of
a seemingly strange and faddish group
calling themselves conservationists, who ate
health foods and often adopted an appar
ently off-beat way of life. Black Americans
had their own developed and inherited ways
of “being different,” and they hardly
needed any more. The regrettable conse
quence was that the promptings to curtail
our energy consumption habits were seen to
be largely partisan, and so were overwhelm
ingly ignored.
Endless Spiral
Rather than take the warnings seriously,
then, governments dismissed Dr. Mead and
her associates as “alarmists.” Business
interests labelled these energy conservation
spokesmen as “anti-growth”; and still
others simply saw them as “unpatriotic.”
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We were lulled into thinking that oil
would last for generations. The black poor
came to feel, in their chilly and barren
world where they were “frozen out” of
other comforts, that at least a snugly heated
—and perhaps “overheated” —house was
one of the few comforts which came almost
like an “inalienable right.”
Some psychologists have suggested that
“overeating” and “overheating” are often
associated with a sense of isolation
feeling of being “frozen out.” If this
be understood as holding true in any i
with blacks and others who are poor
alienated in our society, then the st
political and economic implications so
precipitously mounting fuel crisis ma;
come more severe.
Pleas for fuel conservation may b<
pected to fall on defiantly deaf ears, i
need for heat is to be linked in any sub
tive way with the presence of povertj
ented alienation. The poverty gap is g
ing, and especially so with the accelei
trends toward worldwide inflation. Bu
excessive demand for oil itself tenc
further increase inflation. Hence, wh
called a “vicious circle” is created, v
“cause” creates “effect” and “effect
turn creates a further “cause,” and s
and on.
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Conservation Can Mean
More Comfort
For. black Americans, there is im
here what may be seen as a convit
warning—a warning from which black
pie should not recoil. The helpful wai
is simply this: If any single group of Ai
cans needs to take energy conserv;
seriously, it is those who are black,
would add quickly these welcome
perhaps most surprising—words—
energy conservation does not mean the
of comfort!
®
Many black Americans will recall, w
strange nostalgia, some of their pos
experiences with keeping warm during
years of the Great Depression. When
or wood-burning kitchen stoves were st
use, there was always a pot boiling or
mering on the kitchen stove.
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