When an energy company decided it wanted to build a solar farm in the sleepy town of Archer, Florida, activists stood up and took notice. The town, which is steeped in Black history (rock legend Bo Diddley was born there), is also one of the few counties in Florida where Black homeownership — the prime driver for middle-class wealth — is at a much higher rate than most other counties in Florida. Yet, if this proposed solar farm — reported recently by The Grio — were to go up on 650 acres of vacant farmland near the St. Petersburg area, the residents would receive no benefits from its presence.

And, in fact, they’d be all but driven out — which, they say, is the point.

Jeraldine McMillan, who is a native of Archer, told the local CBS affiliate that none of the residents would receive benefits like cheaper electricity, for example.

“We get our power from Clay Electric, and this whole project does not benefit us at all, and that’s where they overlooked us,” she said. “We grew up in this area. We’ve been here all our lives, and it’s generations of generations that have been here. It’s not right.”

The residents of Archer say that they’re victims of what’s known as environmental racism. This neologism is used to describe how environmental factors caused by global warming and other climate change factors have all but pushed people — mostly Black and Brown, because of course — out of their homes. (Other examples include the Flint water crisis and the Sierra Blanca toxic waste dumping endorsed by Senator Bernie Sanders). So convinced are they of this — and rightly so — that the NAACP has gotten involved to prevent the solar farm from going up.

“The Alachua County Branch of the NAACP stands in support of the citizens of Archer in opposition to the Sand Bluff Solar Project in Archer Florida,” reads an online petition by the organization. “This project is proposed to be built in a community and we are concerned this zoning exemption will destroy property values of the homes and land that adjoins the project. We request you please reject the Sand Bluff Solar Project in Archer.”

Archer

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