Many Americans feel exhausted this week. After all, they’ve spent the past year trying to denounce President Elect Trump’s cruel words and actions against human rights, and for what? More heartache? More gut-wrenching work?

Well, yeah.

For years—decades—social warriors and activists have fought, and fought, and fought some more for equal rights, pay… You name it, they’ve fought for it. Unsurprisingly—and disappointingly—every longtime and modern social warrior found out in 2016 that the fight for a good, just world is far from over.

Now, I’m going to frame this as a good thing.

Bear with me…

It gets bad before it gets better

When Barack Obama was elected president in 2008 and sworn in in 2009, there were a lot of Americans—ahem, white Americans—who thought racism was yesterday’s news. Ah, ha-ha. It’s almost funny how ignorant many of us were.

Similar to the post-racial America myth, in 2009, many Americans also thought that women were seen as equal to men. That reality was shattered every time national news reported on the wage gap. And we also discovered that many people still think women are asking for it—it being rape—whenever they get drunk, go on a date, wear skimpy clothing… The list goes one.

And let’s not forget LGBTQ rights! When president Obama’s views on same-sex marriage evolved, many of us thought that everyone else in America evolved, too! That dream was quickly squashed when states proposed bathroom bills to keep trans-people out of the “opposite” sex’s restroom.

Lastly, the painful, ugly, sexist and racist 2016 presidential election. President elect Donald Trump told America he has grabbed women by the pussy, assumes many Mexicans are rapists and is happy he and Putin have a positive relationship. All of this, plus plenty more news, didn’t influence enough Americans that Trump was a poor choice for president.

Here’s the better

While all the previously mentioned stuff is quite upsetting and disturbing, it proves something: America is far from great and we’ve got a lot of work to do. Work we may not have realized needed to be done if Hillary Clinton had won the presidential election.

Yeah, my point of view isn’t exactly cheery and it sure won’t help any of us feel any less exhausted, but at least we all know that this country is facing some deep issues. So, it’s time to suit up, raise your fist and fight the good fight.

This is our country. Let’s fix it and make certain we’re wide awake this Friday morning… Then take a long nap on Sunday.

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White privilege is real. And while I don’t think that the MTV documentary about white privilege looks too compelling, it’s at least… something.

I’m white and I am well aware that there are inherent things I will never have to deal with. I’ll admit that as a teenager, or even as a young woman in college, I wasn’t nearly as aware of this privilege as I am today.

I grew up in a family that was incredibly open about all human rights issues, so I was well aware that certain people, especially white people, have it much easier than others. But I still couldn’t fathom just how good white people had it until the advent of cell phone cameras. Sure, I learned about apartheid and racial discrimination in school, but I had never seen police officers brutally throw a young black woman to the ground at a pool party until just a few months ago.

Since the creation of the hashtag #blacklivesmatter and the sickening number of shootings that have happened in the black community this year, the topic of white privilege has been broached more than a few times. I, for one, want it to be. I want people to call me out if I say something ignorant about the black experience. However, not all white people think that white privilege is an actual thing. I suppose I get that — it’s easy to hide from uncomfortable truths.

I think that this NPR piece hit the nail on the head about white privilege. Many white people get uncomfortable when the topic of race comes up. This is silly. Whenever we treat anything as a taboo (hello, American sex ed), people shy away for the topic. Whites need to get over their insecurities and listen. Because after all, no one is going to hate you for not knowing something — but people will disrespect you if you refuse to listen or learn. (On that note, take a listen to the first 10 minutes of a recent episode of the Mental Illness Happy Hour podcast — it’s a great example of how people can have a conversation about #blacklivesmatter and white privilege respectfully.)

The NPR piece also states something about white privilege that makes a lot of sense: Many white people think when you say they are privileged, you are talking about how financially well off they are. Having inherent privileges because of the color of your skin does not mean everything is good for you — it’s a hard concept for many to grasp.

And that’s why I don’t think this MTV “documentary” looks so bad. These kids remind me of the teens I went to high school with. They all live in a bubble that allows them to think that white people are being discriminated against, and that they are always in danger of saying something racist. People who think like this should have a mirror put up to their actions and not be mocked, but be challenged to think about the topic at hand. So, while I don’t think this MTV doc will be talked about for years to come, it at least is one piece of media that is examining white privilege, and we do need more of that.

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Image of protest for editorial use via Shutterstock

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Eileen Fisher is the real deal when it comes to sustainability.

Back in 2011, when I was a wee lass who had just been accepted to business school, I attended a panel discussion titled “Sales with an Impact: The CSR Advantage in Consumer-Facing Businesses” at Boston’s Simmons College. It was a fascinating event: One that left an aspiring, mission-focused marketing consultant wide-eyed and bushy-tailed at the thought of a concentration in business ethics and sustainability. There was one panel member, however, who – even several years later – I recall as being remarkably not full of shit. That was Amy Hall, Eileen Fisher’s Director of Social Consciousness.

It’s a testament to Hall’s character that’s particularly crucial on the heels of Eileen Fisher’s Vision2020 announcement: The declaration that, by 2020, to go from being on 66 percent sustainable, according to the initiative’s website, to 100 percent. By then, the company has declared, “if the linen is conventionally grown we won’t use it.” It’s so much more than linen, though. “Sustainability” is a far-reaching term that certainly includes, but also extends beyond ecological sustainability. It’s about labor issues, toxic treatments, and recycling, among other imperative parts of the supply chain. In the company’s words, there will be “no excuses.” But, as I said back in 2011, “no bullshit.”

Last Monday, Hall, joined by three of her colleagues (Liz Wisler, Eilieen Fisher’s VP of Manufacturing and Product Development, Candice Reffe, Co-Creative Officer, and Inka Apter, Facilitating Manager, Fabric Development) at New York’s Fashion Institute of Technology (FIT) for a panel discussion on the company’s Sustainable Business Vision. Perhaps the largest takeaway, as first made evident by the multi-departmental composition of the panel, was, in fact, the company’s extensive and momentous definition of sustainability.

“Eileen Fisher is not siloing sustainability in a CSR department,” says Sass Brown, FIT’s Acting Associate Dean School of Art and Design. “It’s a conversation across the entirety of the company, the entirety of the supply chain.”

On Vision2020’s website, Eileen Fisher lists six fundamental categories that will fall under its broad sustainability initiative: Fibers, color, resources, people, mapping, and reuse. Fabric wastage? Outta there. Toxic dyes? See ya. And anything less than fair pay for global workers? Forget about it.

“They are talking about human rights,” continues Brown, “as well as environmental justice.”

Back to the idea of no BS, though. I hardly believe I was the only one who raised a skeptical eyebrow under the Color category when I read, “By 2020, roughly 30% of our product will be bluesign® certified,” meaning that it meets the standards of this third-party system of rating of water and chemical utilization.  That was, however, until I read the next sentence: “But frankly that’s not good enough.”

That sentiment reflects what was another key impression left by the FIT panel: The transparency of Eileen Fisher and its people. “They were quite honest that they don’t have all the answers,” says Brown, “and they don’t know exactly how they’re going to change, in some respects.”

The brand is the first to admit the freakishly ambitious nature of Vision2020. After all, I’ve been trying to give up carbs for five years, not change an entire corporate ecosystem, and I still haven’t been able to commit. While not an entirely fair comparison, Eileen Fisher does have its work cut out:  Four years, 6 months, and 17 days remain before January 1, 2020.

I have faith, however, and there are two reasons for my confidence: The first: Eileen Fisher’s role as something of a pioneer in the space of social consciousness. After all, prior to meeting Amy Hall at Simmons in 2011, the words “social consciousness” hadn’t even appeared in any job title I came across. Second, while its aspirations may be bold, they’re also precise; Eileen Fisher has broken down and analyzed vital details of what, exactly, the company is setting out to achieve within the realm of Vision2020. Rather than “going green” or “reducing waste,” the company has done its math and spelled out exactly what those commitments will look like. And if Eileen Fisher falls short? They’ll be the first ones to admit it.

Let the pervasive sustainability countdown begin.

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VideoWe all have rights.

 The United Nation’s Universal Declaration of Human Rights, a cornerstone text, is brought to life in this video through motion graphic. The result is moving.

We love the art of storytelling, so every weekend we bring you videos that have been making the rounds at EcoSalon. Enjoy!

The post Video: The Universal Declaration of Human Rights appeared first on EcoSalon.

Princess Isabella of Spain outlawed slavery in Brazil on May 13, 1888. And that would seem to be that. But it’s not. Raj Patel, in his book Stuffed and Starved, writes that there are somewhere between 25,000 and 50,000 people enslaved in Brazil.

Though sugarcane and cattle ranches are known culprits, slavery happens on soy plantations, too. In 2003, the last year for which figures are cited, 4,932 slaves were freed from farms in Brazil – and that’s just the farms that were inspected.

As we saw in our last piece on soy, deforestation for biofuels, soy, sugar cane, cattle ranches, and other uses ruins the land that indigenous people once lived on. Combine that with massive inequalities in land ownership, and you have a recipe for slavery. As the rural poor are left with few options to make a living, they are vulnerable to promises of good jobs with decent wages on faraway plantations. What they find instead once they arrive is that they owe money for meals and transportation as well as their housing and clothing. The good wages they were promised never materialize and pretty soon they find themselves in debt bondage – stuck with no way home.

This article details some of the conditions workers endure on Brazil’s soy plantations. Workers often toil 7 days a week for more than 12 hours a day, without adequate shelter, toilets, or drinking water. They are exposed to pesticides and beaten if they try to leave. (Here’s a graphic that illustrates the problem geographically.)

This is tragic, but there is hope:

Brazil’s Landless Rural Worker’s Movement, or MST after its Portuguese name (Movimento dos Trabalhadores Rurais Sem Terra), is a huge and successful social movement comprised of rural farm laborers and peasant farmers ousted from land they once farmed. According to Patel’s book, in 2002 there were 5 million landless families in Brazil, with 150,000 camped out on the side of the road. The MST secures land for these families – land that they can live on, work, and begin to build a functional society upon.

Here’s how MST works: A group of people occupies unused land and works to build a society from scratch complete with farms, schools and clinics, while petitioning the government to win title to the land. After years of struggle, often violent, these groups sometimes do win title to the land.

Though some of the settlements are farmed collectively, the movement is built on democratic ideals with a highly egalitarian structure. Importantly, there is also a strong foundation in sustainable agriculture. One key tenet assures the rights of farmers to save their own seeds, which preserves biological diversity and ensures that the farmers don’t become dependent on companies like Monsanto.

Farmers on the settlements grow a variety of crops for local, human consumption and eschew the IMF and World Bank encouraged model of primarily growing cash crops for export, a practice that has led to food insecurity and famine in other developing countries. (Climate change is likely to reduce the demand for soy, incidentally.)

From the website of MST: Since 1985 the MST has won land titles for more than 350,000 families in 2,000 settlements. As a result of MST actions, and 180,000 encamped families currently await government recognition. Land occupations are rooted in the Brazilian Constitution, which says land that remains unproductive should be used for a “larger social function.”

Forget the smoothie. Put down that soy protein powder and look for Friday’s recipe using miso, one of the traditional, fermented soy products that are good for your heath.

Note: Slavery figures come from the International Labor Organization.

Image: Peter from Wellington

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