By: Maya W.
Preservation and conservation are likely terms you’re familiar with; conservation is the preservation of land that allows sustainable use of natural resources, preservation on the other hand aims to maintain the present state of something, whether it be buildings, objects, or land. When it comes to preserving land, use of natural resources is discouraged. After a lot of debate and lobbying, the national forests in the U.S. adopted the conservation model in the 20th century. Despite the founding of national parks and the conservation/preservation movements being fueled by empathy for the natural world, the voices, contributions, and needs of Black and Indigenous people were (and still are) often overlooked in environmentalist circles, and the history of the national parks in this country is one of the most obvious examples of this. If you don’t believe me I implore you to name some of the founders of the preservation movement. Many people reading this are probably thinking of preservationists like John Muir and Teddy Roosevelt, despite the fact that the idea of preservation and conservation in the Americas started with Indigenous people. The white-washing of preservation and conservation is just one example of the pervasive racism against BIPOC in this particular sect of environmentalism.
An example of BIPOC racism in conservation is how the needs of Black people have often been overlooked, whether intentionally or unintentionally. This is in part, due to the racist founders of the movements. Madison Grant, a prominent conservationist, alongside Teddy Roosevelt, was a prime example of this racism. Though he was a conservationist, he is known more for his book, “The Passing of the Great Race, or The Racial Basis of European History,” which the New Yorker writes is a “pseudo-scientific work of white supremacism that warns of the decline of the ‘Nordic’[northern European] peoples.” Grant’s work heavily influenced the Immigration Act of 1924, which restricted immigration from Eastern Europe, Southern Europe, and Africa. The act also banned migrants from the Middle East and Asia. Grant’s racial theory continues to influence and perpetuate White supremacy today. In its own time, his racial theory was supported by his fellow conservationists, including Teddy Roosevelt. Grant continued encouraging this pseudoscience all his life, and while it’s easy to dismiss these views as common for the time period, we also need to remember that the racial theories Grant wrote of were a direct effect of increased immigration. Works of White supremacy such as his were not uncommon for the time, but they were deliberate and direct responses to the “threat” that immigrants posed to White America at the time. While Grant is one of the most notable and well-documented racists in the early preservation movement, he was not the worst by far. Many of his peers held and perpetuated the same racist beliefs. In fact, founder of Sierra Club, John Muir, wrote in “Our National Parks”, an essay collection to promote national parks, of the “dirty and irregular life” Indigenous people near Yosemite led. He went on to write, “As to Indians, most of them are dead or civilized into useless innocence.” If you look hard enough at the people in the middle of the conservation/preservation movement you can see their racism very clearly, and it wasn’t just a few people within the movement, they all either produced racist works, or supported them heavily.
Although there are many instances of conscious racism in the environmental movement early on, there’s also a multitude of racism that may be unconscious. Take for example how Black people were unable to access National Parks for a good amount of the 20th century. Though national parks were marketed as somewhere for everyone to have natural accessibility, it failed to consider the circumstances that many people of color were in when it came to making cross-country road trips and there are many accounts of racism perpetuated by people who worked in national parks. When it came to making cross-country trips, it was often too unsafe for families or people of color to make the journey to national parks (and even now it’s still dangerous). In addition to this, there are many examples of conscious racism. Before 1964 many people of colour, and especially Black people, were barred from or segregated at public parks. The harm that this has had on all communities of color, but especially Black communities cannot be overstated. This combined with the fact that many Black families moved not only to the north during the Great Migration, but to urban areas made it almost impossible for Black people to experience nature in the same ways white people did. The history of disinvestment in Black and Brown communities has also left people of color with inadequate access to nature compared to predominantly white neighborhoods in the same cities. National parks are supposed to be a place where any American can go to experience nature, see some of the country’s most remote areas, and instill a sense of national pride. When you take all of this into account, it’s hard to think that something with such seemingly pure intentions contributed, in a major way, to perpetuating White supremacy. It is an ugly reminder of how pervasive racism is in this country. Even people who had great empathy and care for nature and animals didn’t have those same feelings towards other people.
Another example of this racism is the aforementioned white-washing of the whole conservation movement. Kaitlin Grable, an Indigenous woman, points out in an article published by Greenpeace that “long before modern technology and science, Indigenous people created complex systems to thrive off the land while caring for and maintaining it in turn. When European colonizers came to present-day America, they marveled at the seemingly untouched fertile landscape of possibility. But in truth, this landscape was a result of thousands of years of land management by Indigenous people,” When you take this into account it is easy to see that Indigenous people have historically been, for lack of a better word, the best environmentalist and conservationist. Despite all of this, many national parks displaced Indigenous people, Yosemite National Park, the most beloved national park in the country, was established by forcibly removing Anwahnechee people and those who remained lived in an “Indian” village where they were essentially put on display for white visitors. This is not only a disgusting example of commercialization dehumanization of Indigenous people, but it proves that national parks were never truly meant for all American people. Yosemite was already being conserved by Indigenous people, the establishment of Yosemite National Park was not the conservation of land, but rather another act of colonization. While the national parks are a great example of conservation, we need to remember that this conservation was already established by Indigenous people. National parks displaced and committed violence against the very people who had been conserving that land for centuries.
All of this is all especially upsetting, when you consider the pervasive inequities between affluent White people and poor BIPOC. Black and Indigenous people of color often face the worst health consequences due to pollution despite the fact that we do less polluting than affluent White people. Many studies show that the biggest predicting factor of where toxic waste sites will be placed is race, followed by income. Indigenous and Black people have often been the first people to act when there are acts of environmental destruction (despite being repeatedly ignored and brutalized for this advocacy) because these acts often directly affect our populations due to environmental racism. In her article, Grable writes about how radioactive pollution, caused by the Uranium boom, continues to affect Indigenous people, and many people are aware of the water crisis that Black communities like Flint, Michigan face. These are just two examples of the inequities and environmental racism that’s pervasive today. The fact that BIPOC often face the most pollution, and the fact that they are often the first to advocate for the environment in times of crisis is why we need to center their voices in the environmentalist movement and climate change discussion.
People/Accounts to Follow:
@evemeetswest on Instagram - The founder of @hikerclerb which is an intersectional women’s hike club based in LA, her account as well the Hike Clerb account has many helpful infographics about racism in the outdoors. She advocates heavily for accessibility to outdoor spaces for marginalized communities.
@intersectionalenvironmentalist on Instagram - In their owns words they are, “a platform for resources, information and action steps to support intersectional environmentalism and dismantle systems of oppression in the environmental movement, led by environmental activists and sustainability advocates”
@xiyebastida on Twitter - An 18-year-old Indigenous climate activist and organizer from Mexico, now based in New York, in her own words she says she brings, “Indigenous knowledge and cosmology,” to the environmentalist circle.
Discussion Questions:
How can we make the outdoors more inclusive?
In what ways can we center BIPOC voices in conversations about climate change and sustainability?