Black Lives Matter and the Climate Crisis
“The climate crisis is a leadership crisis,” Ayana Johnson and Katharine Wilkinson point out in their new book All We Can Save. It is a book about female, multicultural and multiracial leadership in the environmental movement. I heard it on How to Save a Planet podcast, hosted and co-hosted by Alex Blumberg and Dr. Ayana Johnson. Recently, they put out an episode that covered exactly the premise of the book: who should be leading the environmental movement and how should they be leading it?
They reflect on this question by observing the Black Lives Matter movement. As a black woman and marine biologist, Ayana explains how she deals with two existential crisis daily. So she begins by asking a forward and honest question, “How can we expect black people to be focused on climate when [they’re] so at risk in the streets and in [their] communities and even in [their] own homes?” Especially when justice is rarely served.
The answer to her question? We can’t.
One of my biggest critiques of the environmental movement is how siloed it has become in addressing solely ecological issues. Currently, it does little to headline the negative experiences of environmental displacement or to use it as the engine of the movement. Disregarding these narratives fails at personalizing the movement. It also fails at examining which communities are being impacted the most by changes in climate and why. Unfortunately, the environmental movement continues to be led by white, heterosexual males, making it similar to other paradigms that still continue to marginalize immigrant/refugee, Latinx, Black, rural and indigenous communities. Why are decisions still being made for our most vulnerable groups by people who are so far removed from their experiences? It is just another faulty structure we have yet to dismantle.
On this episode, they had special guest Colette Pichon Battle — founder and executive director of the Gulf Coast Center for Law & Policy, a non-profit law firm focused on advancing “structural shifts toward ecological equity and climate justice” for Black and Brown communities (GCCLP). She has also had the opportunity to work with the Black Lives Matter movement and speak about intersectional solutions toward racial and environmental justice. Similar to my criticisms, Colette addresses the danger in shaping the environmental movement around “the privilege of enjoying nature” as a symbol of being an environmentalist — a particularly white, middle/upper class trend. Or, as Ayana puts it, showcasing Patagonias as emblems of being environmentally “woke.” Colette, a fierce, black woman from the bayous of Louisiana, even explains how “as a black person, environmentalist mean[s] white person.” A privilege outlook on the environmentalism is being able to “visit nature”; to put gas in a car, then drive that car to the river to go kayaking. But in the bayous, their daily lifestyle is adaptive to environmental changes. It is written in the architecture and design of their homes and resilience after massive climatic events, such as Hurricane Katrina. Yet, the environmental movement does not extend an invitation to Black and Brown leadership.
But who is it affecting most? Us.
This is like saying you have a headache, but somebody else gets to describe the intensity of your pain and decide how many Tylenols you get to take. No thank you, Andrew Wheeler — I use herbal remedies anyway.
So what do we do? Well, this is where we reflect back on the Black Lives Matter movement. As this podcast describes, the BLM movement is a “prism,” a framework that takes intersectional approaches to combating systemic inequalities. It doesn’t simply mean Black lives, but Latinx lives and Indigenous lives too. As Maurice Mitchell — nationally-recognized social movement strategist, community organizer and visionary leader for the BLM movement— explains, it is an ecosystem approach to criticizing and dismantling structures that perpetuate extreme levels of inequality: from the criminal justice system to the environmental movement. The BLM movement is also a platform for multiple leaders to share their stories, making it leaderFULL and collaborative in restoring the dignity to our most invisibilized communities.
And as you may have noticed in all of my reflections on social and racial justice, we need changes in narratives and leadership to have a cultural shift that finally gets to the root of the problem.
“Climate change needs to be associated with what affects people and what people are experiencing,” Colette says. And she continues explaining how we must relate some practical door to an experience an individual has had, and then introduce climate change so they understand that that is what they are experiencing. In simply shifting our approach to be more people-centered, we will start unraveling the stories and voices of those who have been the most negatively affected by climate change.
And maybe then we will understand that the environmental movement is about much more than ecological damage; but psychological and physical damage on the minds and bodies of our most impoverished communities. Because what perpetuates poverty? Systems dominated by white supremacy.
So who should be leading the environmental movement and why? Our communities most vulnerable to environmental displacement.
