Ocasio-Cortez: ‘Colonial’ Cauliflower in Community Gardens Makes Minorities Avoid Environmentalism

Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez (D-NY) declared on Sunday that the Green New Deal will reverse purported “colonial” attitudes associated with growing vegetables in community gardens.

“What I love too is growing plants that are culturally familiar to the community. It’s so important,” the 29-year-old freshman congresswoman said while filming herself strolling through a community garden in the Bronx.

“That’s really how you do it right,” the self-described Democratic- socialist continued in a follow-up video. That is such a core component of the Green New Deal is having all of these projects make sense in a cultural context, and it’s an area that we get the most pushback on because people say, ‘Why do you need to do that? That’s too hard.’”

FBI asked ‘Sammy the Bull’ if ex-Gambino mob prosecutor Comey knew meaning of ’86’: court filing

The Will of 100: Trump’s SAVE America Act sidelined after Senate unanimously agreed to August exit

New Reagan Movie Hits Theaters, Earns Big Thumbs Up from Audiences

Watch: Emotional Kurt Busch Reveals His Final Words with His Brother Kyle

USPS publishes rule to block mail-in ballots from states that don’t provide voter lists

Karmelo Anthony’s Legal Team Smears Austin Metcalf in Desperate Attempt to Overturn Conviction

Teacher who battled union fears she’s being targeted after shirt complaint: ‘I’m afraid’

Tupac Shakur murder trial’s first week sees heated testimony from reluctant witnesses with old gangland ties

America Has A Man Problem: When They Leave The Workforce, We All Pay The Price

WATCH: Father of three outraged over advice his family received amid trans teacher fight

Charles Manson’s granddaughter reveals moment she discovered dark family secret: ‘It was devastating’

Dem Senate hopeful racked up hundreds of missed votes during stops at multiple taxpayer serving jobs

New York Times Ordered to Pay College Basketball Player $9.25 Million for Defamation

College Costs Surge 10% Higher Than Last Year, New Report Shows

A Bayh-gone era for Indiana Democrats?

Ocasio-Cortez then said that growing cauliflower in community gardens represents a “colonial approach,” turning off people of color from embracing environmentalism.

“But when you really think about it — when someone says that it’s ‘too hard’ to do a green space that grows Yucca instead of, I don’t know, cauliflower or something — what you’re doing is that you’re taking a colonial approach to environmentalism, and that is why a lot of communities of color get resistant to certain environmentalist movements because they come with the colonial lens on them,” she argued.

Ocasio-Cortez and Sen. Ed Markey (D-MA) unveiled the Green New Deal in February, a plan to “transform” the U.S. economy with a “10-year national mobilization” to shift away from fossil fuels and replace them with renewable energy sources.

An outline and FAQ for the proposal detailed goals like replacing or upgrading every building in the country over ten years, the eventual elimination of “necessary” air travel, and “economic security to citizens unable or unwilling to work.” Ocasio-Cortez has claimed that the FAQ, which was given to NPR and other media outlets, is separate from the Green New Deal’s actual objectives.

Several Democratic presidential candidates, including Sens. Elizabeth Warren (D-MA) and Kamala Harris (D-CA), have expressed support for the Green New Deal. Campaigning in Iowa days after the plan was unveiled, Sen. Cory Booker (D-NJ), another White House hopeful, compared it to fighting Nazis to World Word II. “We have to deal with this. Our planet is in peril, and we need to be bold. It’s one of the reasons I signed on to the resolution. I co-sponsored the resolution for the Green New Deal,” he said. “There’s a lot of people blowing back on the Green New Deal. They’re going, ‘Oh, it’s impractical, oh it’s too expensive, oh it’s all of this.’ If we used to govern our dreams that way, we would have never gone to the moon.”