By: Julia T.
It's the 70’s, electrical plants are identified as a major culprit of sulfur dioxide, directly contributing to the rise of acid rain in the US. Large nonprofit environmental organizations like Greenpeace and Friends of the Earth zealously devise a plan of attack. Protesters lobby DC politicians and flood Washington. They line up scientists to testify about the connection between acid rain and deforestation… but they forgot one thing. They forgot to ‘send the memo’ to those experiencing the impacts of acid rain in their communities. Neighborhoods of color and poor communities who were experiencing heightened rates of acid rain were left at home to read about it in the paper. The all-white climate movement forgot to build alliances at the grassroots level and build a mass movement of affected people to advocate for themselves. The ‘forgetfulness’ here isn't unique to the acid rain movement- it has become a trend.
The face of the environmental movement has always been a white ordeal. Rarely do you see people of color in the black and white photos of climate rallies. It's no secret that Indigenous peoples and people of color are disproportionately affected by climate change, yet the face of the movement is often entirely white. Unfortunately, after attending various climate summits over the past six months, I noticed that the modern climate movement isn’t exempt from this trend; there was a huge lack of diversity. Why is that? Are white people just really good allies? Or do they finally feel like they have a cause to fight for that affects them? Whatever it might be, the deep racial roots of the climate movement date back to the formation of America.
Sprouting from the roots of colonialism, the American push for environmental protection and regulation only became possible once there was a government that could implement such measures. After conducting various interviews with The Māori of mainland New Zealand, the United Nations wrote, “The intimate relationship Maori have with their natural world is shared by many other indigenous peoples around the world. And the role indigenous peoples play as custodians of the land and the traditional knowledge that underpins it is gaining recognition along with their rights to ancestral lands and the resources they contain”(2017). Preserving and nurturing the planet was deeply intertwined in native culture long before European settlers arrived. The notion that preservation started with Americans becomes incredibly problematic when it excludes those who came before us from the narrative. Because of the exclusion that these movements have adopted, it has become even more important to amplify the voices of indigenous Americans in a space that they have become increasingly less welcomed in.
You may have also noticed white allies ‘forgetting’ to include or entirely overlooking BIPOC in their activism this year. As the Black Lives Matter protests erupted throughout major cities over the summer, white folk enthusiastically joined the movement but failed to keep up with it as the news coverage died down. Similarly, the movement for LGBTQ rights and pride month often feels like a white, gay-centered event — far removed from the black, trans men and women that fearlessly lead the Stonewall riots. For allies, protesting is a fun summer activity to participate in and talk about, but for those in the affected communities, it is their existence being politicized and threatened.
In our activism, it is crucial to remember the root of a movement and the communities on the frontline. As climate activists, we must also hold our activist groups and organizations accountable for their lack of diversity. In a recent Yale interview with Sociologist Dorceta Taylor stressed, “These organizations are not looking the way they look by total randomness. . . [Change] is going to require money. . .You cannot take the same organization doing the same old thing with no institutional change and expect diversity on the back end.”Diversity is a two side effort that white groups need to pull their weight on. Many climate groups do a poor job of retention and it is often the BIPOC that slip through the cracks. This can be avoided through things as broad as targeted outreach, recruitment, and inclusion of interested BIPOC or as small as a better salary counter offers. If the climate movement wants to continue to make strides in the future, inclusivity needs to be at the top of the agenda now.
Demonstrators march on Pennsylvania Avenue NW during the People's Climate March in Washington, D.C. (NBC, 2017)
Discussion Questions:
Are there ways that your personal activism is not currently intersectional? Why?
What other movements have turned predominantly white? Why do you think that is?