Seemingly, there are two major movements\nactive right now. The first, \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d (BLM), highlights the grave\ninjustices that people of color have endured for several centuries and still\nendure. The second, environmentalism (aka, the Environmental Movement (EM)),\ndemands that humans stem the violence against all forms of life (e.g., the\nbees, the bats, the gorillas, the whales, the polar bears, etc.) and begin to\nlive with nature, not in domination of nature. How does one reconcile these two\nimportant struggles? Do these movements have anything in common? Must they work\nin separate domains? Are they mutually exclusive? Does one have to take\nprecedence in order to make real progress?<\/p>\n\n\n\n
These two movements are actually very\nconnected and interwoven. Once we realize this, they can more clearly work\ncohesively and in solidarity.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
A little history can serve us in\nunderstanding these two movements. Recall the \u201cCivil Rights Movement\u201d (CRM),\nwhich lasted from the mid-1950s through the 1960s? Recall, when the first Earth\nDay occurred and the Environmental Protection Agency was launched\u2014in the early\n1970s. Yes, the CRM laid the ground work the environmental movement (as well as\nother key movements\u2014women\u2019s and GLBT)! These two huge movements are, thus,\nintegrally connected.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, aren\u2019t nearly all environmentalists\n\u201cWhite\u201d and well-off and most BLM activists, people of color (POC)? \u201cNot at\nall,\u201d says research into these questions (see Poon, 2018). In fact, since POC\nbear the brunt of the worst of environmental degradation (especially globally),\nit is no surprise many POC care deeply about environmental issues and express\nthis concern through demonstrable action. And as anyone who has been to a BLM\nevent can tell you, there are many Caucasians who are advocates for the justice\nthat BLM demands (though there is obvious some frustration over who is leading\nthe cause, see Mann & Baker, 2020). Stereotypes and preconceptions are\nsometimes hard to overcome.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
But, hold on, \u201cThe BLM folks are calling for\njustice for victims of police brutality and environmentalists are protesting\nfor new energy reform to avert catastrophic climate change (C3). Their causes\ncannot appear more dissimilar.\u201d But are they really? Actually, they are very\nsimilar. Both demand justice. Both demand action, swift and decisive. Both\nrecognize that current economic and political practices must be modified and\nreimagined. Both want all of us (humans, animals, and plants) to\nflourish. In particular, both emphasize that the physical and mental welfare of\nhumans matters a great deal.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
We can see the overlap and interconnection\nbetween BLM and EM most vividly perhaps by considering another movement, the\nenvironmental justice (EJ) one. EJ (or Environmental Racism (ER) as it is often\nreferred to) is a fast growing component of mainstream environmentalism. Yet it\nowns its origin to POC who, in the early 1980s, used non-violent direct action\nto protest the dumping of PCBs in a rural (minority) community of North\nCarolina. More recent examples of EJ (or ER) struggles can be found in Flint,\nMichigan (water contamination) and New Orleans, Louisiana (climate justice).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Additionally, some of the most prominent\nenvironmentalists are POC as well. Robert Bullard, the most prolific author in\nthe EJ arena, is an African-American who grew up in rural Alabama. Alexandria\nOcasio-Cortez, a Hispanic Congresswoman, is one of the most aggressive\npromoters of the Green New Deal. David Suzuki, one of the most famous environmentalists\nand author of more than a dozen books, is Asian-Canadian. Winona LaDuke, who\nran for U.S. Vice President twice, works tirelessly for many environmental\ncauses (Honor the Earth and the White Earth Land Recovery Project) and is an\nOjibwe Native American living in Minnesota. Globally, obviously, most\nenvironmental work is performed by POC\u2014Wangari Maathai (Kenya), Ken Saro-Wiwa\n(Nigeria), and Vandana Shiva (India) quickly come to mind. Each of these\namazing humans (and there are many, many more\u2014see the long list of\ninternational Goldman Prize recipients, for example) understands the\ninterconnected nature of humans as well as the critical importance of human\nrights as a foundation for the well-being of all life forms.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
In the end, struggles to bring justice and\nequality are indelibly part of the same whole. The sooner we come to understand\nthis, BLM and EM advocates can more explicitly connect their struggles and\nbring actual peace and sustainability into a nascent LM movement (i.e., LM =\nLife Matters).<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Yet, this combined effort must recognize one\nvery important point. Our political economy must serve humanity (rather than\nthe other way around). We cannot continually privatize essential services and\nresources (be they police or tap water). Much of our current economy is based\non \u201cexchange value\u201d which holds that something\u2019s value equates to what it can\nbe exchanged for. But in this system what is the value afforded a battered\ncitizen (physically or emotionally) or a dolphin caught as bycatch? The human or\nbiological system collapses at some point and neither can be replaced (some\nchanges are irreversible; for more on human crashes due to our economic system,\nsee Wolff, 2020). Thus, both BLM and EM must fully embrace this realization as\nthey move forward and build alliances and coalitions in the LM struggle.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
References Poon,\nL. (2018) \u201c\u2018Environmentalist\u2019 Doesn\u2019t Just Mean White and Wealthy.\u201d Bloomberg\nCityLab.<\/em> November 2.\nhttps:\/\/www.bloomberg.com\/news\/articles\/2018-11-02\/who-is-an-environmentalist-study-refutes-stereotypes<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n Wolff, R. D. (2020) \u201cThe champions of capitalism are rushing into disaster and refusing to admit their ideology has failed.\u201d Independent Media Institute<\/em>. April 3. https:\/\/www.alternet.org\/2020\/04\/the-champions-of-capitalism-are-rushing-into-disaster-and-refusing-to-admit-their-ideology-has-failed\/<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Seemingly, there are two major movements active right now. The first, \u201cBlack Lives Matter\u201d (BLM), highlights the grave injustices that people of color have endured for several centuries and still endure. The second, environmentalism (aka, the Environmental Movement (EM)), demands that humans stem the violence against all forms of life (e.g., the bees, the bats, … Continue reading “Are \u201cBlack Lives\u201d and the \u201cEarth\u2019s Life\u201d Incompatible? (or does BLM + EM = LM?)”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false},"version":2}},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-279","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p7BrNb-4v","jetpack-related-posts":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=279"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":282,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/279\/revisions\/282"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=279"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=279"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/solarutopia.org\/onehuman\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=279"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
Mann, B. & E. Baker. (2020) \u201cBlack Protest Leaders to White Allies: \u2018It\u2019s Our Turn To Lead Our Own Fight.\u201d NPR. <\/em>September 22. https:\/\/www.npr.org\/2020\/09\/22\/913094440\/black-protest-leaders-to-white-allies-it-s-our-turn-to-lead-our-own-fight<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n