Why We Need Intersectional Environmentalism
The environmental movement doesn't exist in a bubble. Countless other social movements interact with and influence environmentalism. In this post, I explain what intersectional environmentalism is and how activists can use intersectionality to their advantage.
What is intersectional environmentalism
Intersectionality is the concept that different types of injustice are sustained by overlapping systems of oppression. In the U.S. and many other Western countries, those systems of oppression all stem from our racist and patriarchal capitalist society. This society creates multiple streams of related inequalities, which intertwine to burden every individual to varying degrees.
So, intersectional environmentalism is the concept that environmental issues do not stand alone. Instead, they overlap and interact with issues in many other social movements, including but certainly not limited to Black Lives Matter, feminism, prisoners' rights, LGBTQ+ rights and socialism.
Activists often capitalize on intersectionality by connecting with and learning from activists in different social movements. For example, as environmentalists fight to mitigate climate change, they inevitably hear stories from Black and Brown communities being polluted by large corporations. In these cases, anti-racist and environmentalist groups can work together to reach their goals.
In joining forces to reach their intertwined goals, activists can amplify each other's voices to help create broader and more lasting changes. After establishing connections with other social movements, activists can continue leaning on each other and learning about each other in the future. This collaboration is the heart of intersectional environmentalism.
Why environmentalists need to recognize intersectionality
Environmentalism has racists roots
From preservationist John Muir writing about his disdain for "dirty" Native Americans in the late 1800s, to conservationist Madison Grant supporting National Parks as a space for White recreation in the early 1900s, to Nativist John Tanton attempting to take over the Sierra Club in the early 2000s, the environmental movement's history is filled with racism.
Today, this racist legacy continues. Black people still visit National Parks much less frequently than White people, are featured less in environmental media and hold far fewer positions in environmental organizations. In 2019, White men with eco-fascist beliefs commit two public shootings, one in El Paso, Texas and one in Christchurch, New Zealand.
Given this history and current reality, staying silent about social justice movements is not an option for modern environmentalists. We need to work with other social justice movements and amplify minority activists in the environmental movement to distance ourselves from racist strains of the movement.
Bottom Line: environmentalists need to work harder to reject the movement's racist past
Minorities are experiencing the worst of environmental issues
Non-white people are currently experiencing the worst environmental problems in our world. In the U.S., Black and brown communities are more likely to live near toxic waste sites, live in communities with fewer environmental amenities, be harmed by climate change, inhale fine particulate matter and more. Globally, indigenous people and people living in island nations and Central Africa are facing the brunt of climate change and waste dumping.
Likely due to this first-hand experience, a recent study found that Black and Latinx people are much more concerned about climate change than white people. Witnessing the toll of environmental issues can help environmentalists more fully understand the problems we're facing and share in these communities' concerns. And amplifying stories from these minority communities can hopefully convince policymakers that environmental issues are real and deserving of immediate attention.
However, as Ayana Elizabeth Johnson pointed out in a recent Washington Post article, many people will not fully empathize with minority communities until we confront and extinguish our individual and societal racism. We have to help minority communities overcome racism to convince policymakers to listen to their concerns. Only then will politicians be motivated to take action on environmental problems.
Bottom line: we need to confront racism so that policymakers will listen to minority communities on the frontlines of environmental problems
Sustainability encompasses social wellbeing
Most modern environmentalists embrace the concept of sustainability. At its core, sustainability is about creating a quality of life on our planet that people can maintain for endless generations in the future. To create a truly resilient planet, environmentalists need to consider not only biological sustainability but also social sustainability.
Currently, the Black Lives Matter movement is fighting for a better quality of life for Black people. Black protestors have made clear that police brutality, racial microaggressions, exclusion, tokenism, and other forms of racism cannot continue for future generations. In other words, the Black community's current quality of life is not socially sustainable.
To create a society that can stand the test of time, environmentalists cannot ignore the non-environmental problems in our world. We must work alongside other movements to create an environmentally and socially sustainable society for all.
Bottom line: To create a high quality of life for generations to come, we need to focus not only on the planet but also on people.
Environmental problems have intersectional solutions
As the concept of intersectionality tells us, the systems in our racist, patriarchal capitalist society work together to create many forms of injustice. Overcoming these injustices will require addressing many different problems at once. However, some of our biggest problems could have similar solutions.
For example, the U.S.'s current form of capitalism creates huge financial inequalities. This allows some people to make millions of dollars per day and others to make less than one hundred dollars per day. Those who earn millions of dollars (and many who earn much less) usually spend a lot of their income on frivolous material goods. Producing these unnecessary goods creates a lot of pollution and waste, which is a major environmental problem.
Meanwhile, those who make less than a hundred dollars per day often do not have access to healthcare, educational resources, and other social goods. This lack of resources is a major social problem. In theory, reducing wealth inequalities by adopting more socialist economic practices can help solve both social and environmental ills.
Although this is a simplified example, the principle still stands that some societal changes can solve both environmental and social problems. When presenting policy-makers with our preferred solutions to environmental problems, we need to consider which solutions can help other social justice movements as well. And to properly account for other social movements in our solutions, environmentalists need to stay informed and active in those movements.
Bottom Line: when creating solutions to environmental problems, we need to favor solutions that can simultaneously help other social movements
How to be an intersectional activist
Educate yourself
You will never be able to keep up with every social movement. However, you can come close by paying attention to current events, getting news from a variety of sources and seeking out many different opinions. Before dismissing an issue or jumping on the bandwagon, learn more about that issue.
Books tend to be the most thorough and reliable form of education, but educational social media accounts, self-reflection and websites are other great resources for learning more about social movements. The more you educate yourself on current issues, the more able you will be to speak to those issues. Once you've informed yourself about multiple topics, you'll be able to talk logically about them and help inspire others to join the cause.
Speak Up
If you have any social media account, you have a platform to spread information about multiple social justice movements. Even if you only have a few followers, you can help social justice movements gain traction by contributing to hashtags or convincing your followers to learn more about current issues. Seeking out and actively participating in social justice movements on social media can help get media and government attention, which is key to creating change.
Speaking up in person is another necessary tool. Openly discussing social justice issues with people who aren't on social media is a powerful way to create generational changes. For example, being actively anti-racist might include shutting down jokes that your family members make or telling your child that something their grandparent said is wrong. Using verbal communication to advance multiple social justice movements can help break cycles of injustice and make your activism more intersectional.
Donate
If you have the means, you can donate to intersectional organizations or multiple single-issue organizations. Organizing protests, holding meetings, lobbying and litigating require tons of resources, so money can really help advance movements. I talked about some of my favorite single-issue and intersectional anti-racist organizations in my last post.