It’s Time to Do the Work: Dismantling Structural Racism in the Climate Movement
Photo credit: DisobeyArt
This blog is Part Two of Susan Kruse’s blog on the intersections of racism and climate. Her first blog We Can’t Look Away: Why Indifference to Racism Imperils the Climate Movement was published June 11th .
The Community Climate Collaborative (C3), a Charlottesville-based nonprofit, was founded in 2017, the same year that white supremacists invaded our town and terrorized our community, resulting in numerous injuries and deaths including the tragic death of Heather Heyer. Since that time, our community has been working toward greater equity and justice, though we do not always succeed. The killings of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, Breonna Taylor, and Rayshard Brooks are unconscionable and have shown us how very far we still need to go.
Now during the current global pandemic, while white communities have sought refuge in the outdoors, Black and Brown communities must make a calculated risk assessment before hitting the trail, camping, or even bird watching. The recent racist attack on a black bird watcher is yet more evidence of how difficult it is for Black and Brown communities to feel safe in the world of outdoor recreation and conservation. Dr. J. Drew Lanham, distinguished professor of wildlife biology at Clemson University and author of “Birding while Black” notes that for this to change, Black and Brown communities need to see more of themselves in the environmental and climate movements.
In my recent article, We Can’t Look Away: Why Indifference to Racism Imperils the Climate Movement, I address the connections between racism and climate change and why it is essential that we take action against racism, including within our own movement. In order to engage a broader community, we’ve got to do the work to dismantle the structures that consciously or unconsciously keep people out. Truly transformative action will have to go beyond a mission statement or a single new board member of color: we must dig deeper in order to rebuild the very foundation of our movement.
Diversifying our Staff and Boards must be more than a Mission Statement
Many environmental and climate organizations are participating in diversity, equity, and inclusion trainings and creating statements regarding their organizations’ commitment to equity. These are good first steps, but we need to do so much more. Organizational culture often perpetuates bias and white privilege. Does your organization give preferential treatment to candidates who have had internships or volunteered with environmental organizations? Does it gravitate toward candidates who use the right environmental buzzwords and insist upon college degrees in relevant fields? These biases fail to recognize that our movement has historically excluded communities of color, thereby putting diverse candidates at a disadvantage with these standards.
Our old standards limit our pool of candidates, and the result is a movement with less depth and talent. Instead, organizations should look for applicants with strong writing skills (absent of buzzwords) and a history of successful employment. Before you begin the interviews, consider a voluntary – and anonymous – racial and gender identity survey to make sure you have a diverse pool of candidates, then make sure that you are advancing diverse candidates to the in-person interview stage.
Organizations should also reconsider unpaid internships. Internships have long been the recruiting ground for future salaried positions. Low-income and diverse students may need to work during their college years and taking on an unpaid internship on top of school and work is untenable. Interns are our future leaders. We need to pay them a living wage, and we need to do even more work to ensure that we are expanding these opportunities to communities of color.
Climate Work is already being done by Communities of Color
“How do we recruit more diverse members to join our cause/organization?” That is a question which is frequently raised by environmental organizations. While the instinct to include greater diversity might be a good one, we are asking the wrong question. Instead, we should be exploring—and uplifting— the ways in which other organizations are already doing climate or environmental work without explicitly naming it that way.
For example, transportation emissions are the largest source of emissions for the state of Virginia, County of Albemarle, and one of the top three sources for the City of Charlottesville. Lack of affordable housing near places of employment, service providers, and community centers pushes lower income residents out to surrounding counties and into longer commutes that increase transportation emissions for everything from earning a paycheck to visiting a doctor or going to church.
The climate community should support increased funding for affordable housing within our urban centers and “show up” to support organizations like the Charlottesville Low-Income Housing Coalition, Legal Aid Justice Center, and Piedmont Housing Alliance who are leading this work. Instead of asking why we aren’t recruiting more diverse members, we should be asking ourselves why we aren’t supporting more diverse communities.
Addressing Inequity Requires Proper Resourcing and Wealth-Building within Impacted Communities
Talking about equity in speeches or strategic plans isn’t enough. As a white advocate, I have built personal financial stability through salaried positions in nonprofit organizations. Every job is a privilege. If we truly want to address climate justice, we must also provide salaried positions and paid internships to communities who will feel the greatest impacts of the climate crisis. We cannot address inequity if we are not helping to build wealth within the communities we are attempting to serve.
As nonprofit leaders, we know what every dollar invested means for our ability to impact change. We make choices everyday in how we allocate our precious time and financial resources. We choose which community events we participate in and which positions we pursue for grant funding. Are we investing resources to build a broader coalition, or are we perpetuating our comfort zones? Let’s develop systems to evaluate outreach opportunities to determine whether or not they will help us to reach new audiences and evaluate new programs that reach beyond the choir often populated by white and privileged communities.
It’s also time to abandon the paternalistic mindset that our organizations and our largely white staff members are the only ones with the expertise to “help” communities of color fight environmental racism. Instead, let’s engage intended beneficiary communities at the outset of programs, invite participation throughout the process, and listen to feedback at the program’s conclusion. These choices can have a dramatic impact on the ultimate success of climate justice initiatives.
Infographic created by the Community Climate Collaborative
It’s Time to do the Work
C3 is a stronger organization because of the racial diversity of our staff and board. I have learned so much from diverse colleagues and board members. As a white leader of a climate organization, my privilege comes with responsibility, and I have a lot more to learn and a lot of work to do. I encourage you to embrace your own responsibility. Climate change is an urgent issue. To have an impact, we must broaden our coalition, and that means dismantling structural racism where it exists. Our communities and our movement will be stronger for it. Let’s get to work.