Title: Agency, Equity, and Environmental Justice: An Interview with James Hoyte
Abstract: James Hoyte is Assistant to the President and Lecturer on Environmental Science and Public Policy at Harvard University. From 1983 to 1988, Hoyte served as Massachusetts Secretary of Environmental Affairs with responsibility for the planning and management of all environmental and natural resource conservation policies and programs for the Commonwealth of Massachusetts. He has published articles in the fields of environmental policy and management and serves on the boards of directors of numerous environmental and civic organizations. Timothy J. Cunningham of the Harvard Journal of African American Public Policy interviewed James Hoyte on 12 December 2005. HJAAP What led you to public service as a career? HOYTE I suppose it is fair to say since high school I have been interested in working on issues that affect people's lives, particularly people with social welfare issues at their heart. I grew up in very modest circumstances. My father had a big affect on me; he was very engaged in issues of race and social action. Even though he was a janitor, he was extraordinarily well read. He spoke about ideas, particularly ideas that related to socioeconomic status. From times I have always known that I wanted to work in areas that engage issues. I have gone between working in public service and teaching. I've been fortunate enough to combine interests in many ways as I look over the sweep of my career. I have had opportunities to teach. I've had opportunities to serve as a public manager. And I've had opportunities to affect issues of race and social justice as an activist in my professional life at Harvard. It really started with my upbringing. It was the focus of my family. HJAAP In the wake of Hurricane Katrina, dialogue about the two Americas has reemerged, suggesting the poor and mostly African American residents of New Orleans suffered disproportionately. What are your thoughts? HOYTE I think that is quite real. We would have had to have our heads in the sand not to observe the impact of Hurricane Katrina on the African American community in the Gulf Coast, and New Orleans in particular. We like to say there has been a wake-up call in our country to recognize that a portion of the population, our citizenry that clearly is underserved and underprivileged, clearly bore the blunt of the hurricane, namely urban dwellers in New Orleans. It remains to be seen what we do with that awakening. The devastation and impact on people, families, and property was so overwhelming. It is hard to conceive that there will not be a strategy to address the devastation. There are a variety of responses that have occurred, albeit delayed; the issue is going to be whether responses prove to be evenhanded--whether in the final analysis who were really affected most are made, and if not whole are at least a good way towards being made, whole. Depending on where you sit, there is a feeling of hope or weariness. There are significant issues of justice in error. HJAAP Let me ask you directly, do you believe the response was slow and/or inadequate because the overwhelming majority of people inside New Orleans following the disaster were poor and African American? HOYTE I do. Certainly, I do not believe that anyone at any level was sitting around saying, those are Black folks; we [are] not going to respond. I don't think that people this day and age very often think that way; there may be some of that on the fringes. It is the institutional relationships that exist. These institutional relationships disempower Black people across the board throughout our country at each level of our government, including New Orleans. There is a certain amount of success at the local level that Black politicians have had in New Orleans and other urban areas. But what really makes a difference is the economic infrastructure that exists and who controls the levers that relate to it. …
Publication Year: 2006
Publication Date: 2006-06-22
Language: en
Type: article
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