David Caldwell Jr. - Environmental Racism (clip)

David Caldwell, Jr. (DC): I could say for us, what’s happened is that… It’s nothing, you know with bad water and buzzards and stinky air, you know, what do you tell your kids? “This is going to all be yours someday? You’re going to inherit all of this, this will be yours!” It’s like, “No thank you. I’m going to finish school, I’m going to get a job somewhere, and I’m getting out of here.” So as a result a lot of our young people in this community are gone. We were, [in] ’72, we were 100% Black. Now we’re like less than 8% Black, out here in this community.

Blanche Brown (BB): Hmm. Because everyone’s just left.

DC: And that is—I always have to clarify—that is of the historic neighborhood. Those are the original ones out here. Say, from ’72 to maybe ’76. But everybody just… you know. You don’t want to stay where you’re breathing air that is going to kill you, drinking water that is going to give you cancer, amd that kind of stuff.

BB: Well, yeah.

DC: I would not even dream of telling—I have two kids—I would not dream of telling them to stay.

BB: Mmhm.

DC: Under any circumstances. And my mother, our mother, who’s sick, she’s had a stroke. Father passed away a couple years ago, mother had a stroke and I can guarantee that’s the only reason we’re all still here. It’s her homeplace and she does not want to leave. This is where she wants to pass away under whatever circumstances. And, you know, we’re going to support that. And that’s the only reason…

BB: Did your mom grow up around here?

DC: She started in Chatham.

BB: Ok.

DC: Chatham County. Which is where she met my father, then they moved up to Chapel Hill.

BB: Ok. Ok.

BB: So I guess, how–-Do you still live in Rogers Road Community?

DC: My backyard I grew up in backs up to my backyard today.

BB: Aww. That’s awesome.

BB: Bit are your kids grown by now?

DC: Mmhm, mmhm.

BB: Ok, so, but they’ve left.

DC: Mmhm. They’re gone.

BB: And where are they?

DC: I have one brother that lives next door to my mom, and my backyard comes in the back. His kids are gone.

BB: Ok.

DC: But he’s still there.

BB: Ok.

DC: My daughter works for the federal government and my son works in Durham.

BB: Ok, so that’s pretty close, yeah.

DC: Well, he was down in Galveston, Texas for several years–

BB: Ok.

DC: –and just came back.

BB: Ok. I guess it’s as close as he’s going to come back.

DC: Yeah, that’s about the limit right there. [David laughs].