Cancer Alley: This is OUR Briar Patch

Into the Mix

Ben & Jerry's and Vox Creative

Documentary, Society & Culture

4.3 • 537 Ratings

🗓️ 21 August 2024

⏱️ 42 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

The violent history of Cancer Alley began long before the petrochemical industry arrived in the 1960s. Prior to being dominated by plastics plants, this land was home to plantations. To understand how this stretch of the Louisiana River Parishes became a “sacrifice zone” – a place where plastic is more important than people – we’re taking a look back at the violent legacy of this land. Here’s how Ms. Sharon and Jo Banner, a neighbor from nearby St. John the Baptist Parish, are working to honor the past as they fight for their future. Learn more about the Descendants Project here.

Transcript

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0:00.0	Look at the size of these trees.
0:05.0	Cannot get over.
0:08.0	This is Into the Mix, a Ben and Jerry's podcast about joy and justice, produced with Vox Creative.
0:15.0	I'm Ashley C. Ford.
0:17.0	So I just wanted you to see where that line is called Woodland Quarters.
0:22.6	So this is where the location of the quarters for the plantation and their descendants
0:28.6	are still living in this street, down the street.
0:31.6	Wow.
0:33.6	We are back in Louisiana in St. John the Baptist Parish, just a few miles down the Mississippi River from St. James Parish, where we were with Ms. Sharon last week.
0:44.4	When we see fence-line communities, you can see how closely these homes are to plantations.
0:52.9	Imagine if this was a petrochemical company,
0:55.0	how it would be right on the fence line
0:57.0	of a petrochemical company,
0:58.0	which has happened in so many instances.
1:00.0	We saw a lot of that in St. James Parish.
1:09.0	I'm surrounded by a grove of enormous live oaks,
1:13.5	talking with Joe Banner at the woodland plantation in Laplace, Louisiana.
1:19.6	Joe Banner and her twin sister Joy own this land.
1:23.3	They are among the first black people and descendants of enslaved people in Louisiana to own a former plantation.
1:31.3	It's unbelievable that we own it. We never thought we would be able to achieve, like, owning a plantation.
1:38.3	So being here means the ancestors are always calling out, they're always paying attention. And they're making it
1:48.2	happen. And like Ms. Tish and Ms. Sharon, Joe's family has been rooted in this land for a long time.
	...

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