I’m beginning to go into a rage whenever I hear about upper middle class white people wanting to start a community garden in a low-income racial minority community.

They enter the community on some sort of premise that it needs to be saved from the shackles of poverty, and they are going to do it by teaching said community about sustainability and health food. Okay cool, you recognize that people are living in poverty, go pat yourself on the back. Even better you realize that there are dire issues regarding the environment and access to healthy food in areas of concentrated poverty. AWESOME GO BY YOURSELF SOME ICE CREAM. But really what they are doing is making themselves feel better about their failure to actually address the roots of poverty. ADDRESS THE ROOTS OF LETTUCE AND NOT THAT OF POVERTY? MMMM no.

Instead of actually facing poverty head-on via policy changes and activism, they are putting a band-aid on it then acting like they cured cancer or some shit.