Cultural geographer Carolyn Finney said everyone has a relationship to the environment and everyone should ask themselves what they personally have to sacrifice.
“Are you breathing?” she asked an audience Monday evening. “You have a relationship with nature.”
Members of the Moscow community filled the Bruce Pitman Center to hear Finney speak about her life experience as an African American woman traveling the world.
Finney is a professor of environmental science, policy, and management at the College of Natural Resources at the University of California, Berkeley, and is the author of “Black Faces, White Spaces: Reimagining the relationship of African Americans to the Great Outdoors.” She also spoke at a panel discussion Tuesday morning.
Yishan Chen | Argonaut
Professor Carolyn Finney speaks at an event Monday about her life experiences.
Finney said she failed her first year of college and left her second year.
It wasn”t until she decided to go on a backpacking trip to Nepal that she said her life changed for the better.
She has since spent her life traveling the world and studying issues of environmental justice.
Finney titled her speech “Radical Presence: Black Faces, White Spaces and Stories of Possibility,” in reference to her book, which examines the relationship of environmental justice to black and white Americans.
Finney said she chose the word “radical” because it represents getting to the root of an issue.
Finney spoke about experiences she had growing up where she realized she was treated differently because of her skin color.
She said watching her father”s land taken away when she was a young girl has stuck with her as she”s dedicated her life to understanding the relationship between humans and land.
Finney said she does not use the word “diversity” anymore and instead uses the word “differences.” She said the word incorporates a wider range of characteristics than simply black and white.
Finney also said the Homestead Acts are the most powerful pieces of legislation in American history.
The first Homestead Act gave qualifying people – including freed slaves and women – the opportunity to apply for a federal land grant.
Kysha Harris, Natural Resources graduate student at UI, was able to sit down for lunch and speak with Finney before her speech.
“I think she has a powerful message that needs to be heard,” Harris said.
Taylor Nadauld can be reached at arg-news@uidahoedu or on Twitter @tnadauldarg