A purely ecological agenda for Earth Day isn’t enough: Racial justice must be prioritized.
Every year, Earth Day is observed April 22 and is a celebration of the modern environmental movement. The public is encouraged to take part in an Earth Day challenge Take climate action to the next step. However, concerns about the health and well-being of our planet must also be addressed for its people. Hate crimes against Asian Americans have risen by 339 percent 74 percentAsian American and Pacific Islander women (AAPI) Experience it personally racism and/or discrimination. Environmental organizations, however, have remained silent.
The Stop AAPI Hate movement is directly connected to the fight against systems of oppression like white supremacy that harm the environment. To achieve environmental justice, intersectional racial justice can’t be an add-on or an afterthought. A purely ecological agenda for Earth Day isn’t enough: Racial justice must be prioritized.
The attack on actress Karen FukuharaThe beating of a woman in YonkersThe deaths of two Asian American women in New York, and the anniversary of the Atlanta shootingsIt should be obvious that anti-Asian racism and misogyny are inseparable and are interconnected. As an Asian American woman and an environmental educator, the natural world always fascinated me but I’ve experienced racism, harassment and discrimination in the environmental space.
In second grade I was sitting at recess looking for treasures that would add to my rock and shell collection. A peer approached me and pulled back the corners of their eyes and said, “You’re really weird! It’s weird that you’re digging around in the dirt!” I felt like the air was knocked out of me and hot tears began to stream down my face. My joy for the environment immediately was taken, and I was told I didn’t belong.
I could hear my classmates laughing as they went down the slide. I was completely unaware of my tears. That same feeling returned when environmental organizations and environmentalists remained silent about the racism, hate crimes and violence experienced by AAPI women, despite the fact that Asian immigrant and Asian American communities care a lot about the environment and often Consider yourself an environmentalist.
Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have been crucial in advancing conceptions of the environment and in advancing community-based activist approaches to environmental justice. The Asian Pacific Environmental Network has been organizing and building power among Asian immigrant and refugee communities in the Bay Area since 1991. Chicago Asian Americans for Environmental Justice aims to provide an Asian American voice in the environmental justice movement.
White supremacyIt’s not just the All race-based violence is root but it has also shaped the environmental movement and perceptions about conservation. It is an ideology promoting white people and the ideas, thoughts, beliefs and actions of white people as superior to those of people of color. The system of White Supremacy also refers interlocking systems or institutions: Politically, economic, socially, culturally, educational, and many more. These systems provide white people with more structural advantages both individually and collectively. Systems with prominent white male founders are rooted in white supremacy.
John James Audubon was the founder of The Audubon Society. Slave holder. John MuirThe founder of The Sierra Club was? Described Native American and Black people as “dirty, lazy and uncivilized.” When promoting National Parks in 1901, he assured prospective tourists that, “Indians are mostly dead or civilized to an inexplicable innocence..”
Following the Green Movement’s racial reckoning in 2020, The Sierra Club Recognized its historical role in perpetuating white supremacy. The larger issue is not just about environmental organizations, but also how society views the environment.
Asian immigrant and Asian American communities care a lot about the environment and often consider themselves environmentalists. Asian Americans and Asian immigrants have been crucial in advancing conceptions of the environment and in advancing community-based activist approaches to environmental justice.
American environmentalism’s roots have long-standing prejudices against local communities and a focus on preserving the pristine wilderness and physical environment. This dominant narrative excludes people who live on these land, and local communities are often cut out of popular conservation narratives. This is what the environmental justice movement sought to change.
More than 30 years ago, the work towards environmental justice began at the First National People of Color Leadership Summit, where a delegation wrote the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice and the Principles of Working Together. They significantly redefined the meaning of environment to be where people (particularly people of color), live, work, study, play and pray. This allowed for the inclusion of issues like toxic pollution, worker safety, transportation, housing and health. Racial justiceThe environment aren’t mutually exclusive: They’re interconnected.
With the White House Council on Environmental Quality’s recent actions to Eliminate race in favor of a “neutral” approach, racial justice efforts are also threatened. The Dehumanization of Asian Americans and the racialized misogyny experienced by AAPI women are driven by white supremacy. Environmental justice is directly linked to fighting white supremacy, systemic racism, and other forms of oppression. The mainstream environmental movement must place racial justice and safety of AAPI women above heritage months and other mandatory check-boxes. Planetary success is dependent upon it.
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