Black Environmentalists Are Organizing to Save the Planet From Injustice

authordefault
on

Byย Rachel Ramirez, Grist.ย This story originally appeared inย Grist and is republished here as part of Covering Climate Now, a global journalism collaboration strengthening coverage of the climateย story.

โ€œI canโ€™t breathe.โ€ These were among the final words that George Floyd and Eric Garner gasped before their deaths at the hands of white police officers. That plea has become part of the current rallying cry for racial justice and an end to police brutality in the U.S. But for Black people living near industrial facilities, the phrase has an additional layer of meaning: a reminder of their disproportionate pollutionย burden.

โ€œWhile many in power seemed surprised that COVID-19 is killing twice as many Black Americans, those of us in the environmental justice movement know that the health impacts of cumulative and disproportionate levels of pollution in our communities have created underlying health conditions that contribute to our higher COVID-19 mortality rates,โ€ said Peggy Shepard, co-founder and executive director of WE ACT for Environmental Justice,ย at a virtual press conference onย Monday.

Shepard is part of theย National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN), a national coalition of Black environmental justice groups and grassroots activists founded in 1991. Although the network took a hiatus in 2006 after executive directorย Damu Smith passed away, the network just announced that itโ€™s making a comeback against the backdrop of the COVID-19 pandemic and renewed calls to fight racialย injustice.

The networkโ€™s mission sends a clear message: Environmental injustice is not a single issue. Rather, itโ€™s a constellation of issues including discrimination in housing, jobs, andย healthcare.

Itโ€™s impossible to untangle Black communitiesโ€™ current risks from Americaโ€™s long history of racist policies and practices. Discriminatory policies such as banksโ€™ government-sanctioned refusal to approve home loans and insurance for people in communities of color, also known as redlining, forced Black families into neighborhoods more likely to beย exposed to industrial pollutionย andย extreme heat. Now these same communities face a surge in unemployment and poverty rates as a result of the economic downturn brought on by the pandemic, and they are alsoย disproportionately dyingย from the novel coronavirus as a result of a lack of health insurance, unequal access to test sites, and higher workplace exposure via employment in essential services. As if that wasnโ€™t enough,ย a recent Harvard studyย also found a link between air pollution and death from COVID-19.

Given the systemic conditions that disproportionately expose Black people to the coronavirus pandemic, climate change, and other worsening crises, NBEJN members โ€” including the networkโ€™s co-chairs, environmental justice pioneers Robert Bullard and Beverly Wright โ€” say they are now looking to bring in Black lawyers, engineers, leaders, and other experts to join forces to help create an equitable green stimulus package, take on the fossil fuel industry, and fight the Trump administrationโ€™s seemingly endless orders toย weaken environmental protections.

โ€œWe see these environmental rollbacks as not just fast-tracking project permits, but as a fast-track to the emergency room and cemeteries,โ€ said Bullard, an author and professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University. โ€œThe NBEJN is about dismantling systemic racism, and weโ€™re talking about turning the dominant paradigm on itsย head.โ€

Network leaders say COVID-19 recovery legislation could be an opportunity for lawmakers to pass a robustย green stimulus packageย that would focus on environmental justice. Such a green stimulus package, the coalition said, needs to address core issues of systemic racism by, for example, providing green jobs to communities ofย color.

โ€œGreen stimulus packages often only look at protecting the world, but not protecting people like us,โ€ said Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice. โ€œAny stimulus package dealing with transportation to housing or whatever theyโ€™re talking about doing will have to include us and need to be viewed with equity and justiceย lenses.โ€

Even if an equitable green stimulus package makes it through Congress and the White House, there will still be a lot more work to be done. Bullard said that even if the Democratic party wins the presidential election or takes control of the Senate, it will take time to reverse Trump-era environmental policy damages, including the countryโ€™s withdrawal from the 2016 Paris Agreement. Even then, he added, policymakers will need to take additional steps to curb greenhouse gas emissions and center frontline communities. And NBEJN leaders say the network will stick around to make sure those steps areย taken.

โ€œRacism is baked into Americaโ€™s DNA,โ€ Bullard said. โ€œNBEJN is needed today to fight these conversing threats and underlying conditions that are denying Black people the right to breathe and the right to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness enjoyed by whiteย America.โ€

Main image: May 27, 2020, a ‘Black Lives Matter’ sign along 38th St. in Minneapolis, after the death of George Floydย in Minneapolis, Minnesota. Credit:ย Lorie Shaull,ย CC BYSAย 2.0

authordefault

Related Posts

on

Carrboro, N.C., accuses Duke of knowingly fueling the climate crisis for decades with harmful emissions, deception, delay, and "greenwashing."

Carrboro, N.C., accuses Duke of knowingly fueling the climate crisis for decades with harmful emissions, deception, delay, and "greenwashing."
on

Immad Ahmed explains how "human-centered design" is helping displaced people in South Sudan and Bangladesh overcome daunting odds.

Immad Ahmed explains how "human-centered design" is helping displaced people in South Sudan and Bangladesh overcome daunting odds.
on

Unique collaboration convenes leaders from the global climate and trauma healing movements to explore the neglected inner dimensions of the crisis.

Unique collaboration convenes leaders from the global climate and trauma healing movements to explore the neglected inner dimensions of the crisis.
on

Corporations have found ways to be heard during negotiations on reversing the drastic global decline in plant and animal life.

Corporations have found ways to be heard during negotiations on reversing the drastic global decline in plant and animal life.