The White Domain

I was driven to lunch by my Vietnamese co-worker yesterday in his Toyota Sequoia. He had to get gas beforehand, and as he was filling it up he remarked that if GMs Volt comes down to, say, $32,000, he'd get one.

I wasn't stunned. This was the third time I've heard Asian co-workers say they were willing to trade in their SUVs for some "environmentally friendly" car. My Filipino neighbor who considered trading the Yukon for a Prius, and my old boss (from Northern India) who considered trading in his Sequoia for a Nissan Altima hybrid. Neither ever did.

First off, the pattern I see repeated in every setting I've worked is that foreign born American citizens who are educated drive more than most, and drive more expensive vehicles. They might not buy the most expensive houses, but their cars are large in every respect. Yes, this is a stereotype, but I'm not one to shy away from stereotyping -- cars represent a major slice of their identities. Even co-workers who don't drive expensive cars do engage in talk of high end vehicles, of wishing for more.

All their talk is bullshit. When was the last time you've seen a Vietnamese lady drive a Prius, huh? A Bangladeshi man drive one? An Indian family with rooftop PV panels? They don't give a damn about the environment, about continued car dependency, about climate change...only about gas prices. It isn't the car payments that bug them, it's the operating costs. Blowing $650 a month to get that rig, no problem, but $300 a month in gas? Their talk of switching only ever comes in the context of operating costs.

This is why environmentalism is the domain of the white and the wealthy and who've only ever known prosperity, and why environmentalism is doomed to fail. There are four billion others willing to embrace our car dependency and coal burning if they only could. The millions who come to the U.S., Latin America or Europe immediately embrace it with a gusto greater than the original citizens.

I'm convinced the only reason I ride my bicycle to work, why I installed PV, or why I try to buy local is because I'm white. Because I have no reference to a world with less.