- Hi friends.
So I talk a lot about
activism and civic engagement
on this channel.
You might be surprised to
learn that my personal history
of political involvement
didn't start with learning
about feminism or racial justice.
It started with
environmental sustainability.
I grew up having a vegetable
garden and composting at home.
So when I went off to college
in Milwaukee, Wisconsin,
I wanted to do something
about all of the food waste
I saw around me.
I lobbied school administrators
and organized some of my fellow students
to eventually bring a composting program
to the campus dining halls.
I even became president
of the Students for an
Environmentally Active Campus club.
Environmentalism, specifically
around food sustainability
was my first experience of learning
that I, as an individual,
could build power
and change my community.
That said, when I graduated,
I kind of fell off because
it never really seemed
like the climate movement
had a place for me.
Everybody else in it looked like this.
This is my girlfriend, Miriam.
She has a climate channel
on YouTube called Zentouro,
she's also working on her
PhD in climate science
and she's moderately to severely,
okay, I'd say severely Caucasian.
So Miriam, why does the climate
movement seems so white?
- I mean, like everything,
it's systematic racism.
I don't need to tell you that,
I don't need to tell you that,
but it's everywhere and it's
in the environmental movement
and it's in the climate movement.
We've talked about this before.
So if something really big is happening
in the climate world, like
a huge protest is happening
or a big report is released,
I ask you if you've seen it.
- What makes it to my Twitter
is Bill Nye,
Al Gore, Greta,
and Jane Fonda sometimes, yeah.
- So it's more complicated than that
- I'm not trying to throw
Jane Fonda under the bus.
- There're a lot of big
groups and white activists
kind of sucking up all the
air, and money and attention.
It's not that there haven't
been people of color working
in their communities and
on a global scale trying
to change things.
It's just that the biggest groups
and the most popular
activists are all white
because of how our system
props up white people.
And that discrepancy is really ridiculous
and honestly pretty
upsetting because the people
that are already impacted
and are going to continue
to be impacted the most
are people of color.
- It's clear to me now that climate change
and environmental degradation
is a racial justice issue.
Remember how I was organizing
for sustainability in Milwaukee?
Well, Milwaukee is also
a deeply segregated city
with a history of redlining,
so strict that in the 60s,
a council of black youth,
along with local leaders
like Vel Phillips, Milwaukee's
first black older woman
and one of my civil rights
heroes marched for 200 nights
over the 16th Street
Bridge from the north side,
where black Milwaukeeans
had been confined to living
to the South side, where only white people
were able to rent and buy property.
I in the 2010s lived on 15th Street
and I remember the 16th Street Bridge
and that nobody really walked over it
because there were just power plants
and industrial smokestacks and stuff.
And that was my introduction
to the concept of environmental racism.
It's the idea that disproportionately
communities of color
are subjected to higher
pollution, poor air
and water quality, even
fewer parks in green spaces.
You may have seen examples
of this in the news,
like the lead poisoned water
in mostly black Flint, Michigan
or the Dakota Access Pipeline being built
through the Standing
Rock Sioux reservation
and threatening their clean water.
Milwaukee has also had a
water lead poisoning crisis
in recent years, primarily in,
you guessed it, the north side.
And this kind of thing
is happening everywhere,
not just with pollution either.
The effects of climate
change stand to threaten
the homes, land, job and food supplies
of black and indigenous people first,
even though they've done
the least to cause it.
So why is it that it feels
like the loudest voices
in the climate movement
aren't from these communities?
So I'm here with Raya Salter.
Raya is a climate justice
activists, lawyer, organizer,
that she's also a creator here on YouTube.
She's making a project
that I think is super interesting,
counteracting climate anxiety with ASMR.
So it's a climate, ASMR channel.
So I'll have links in the
description to go check that out.
But I really wanted to talk to you, Raya,
to learn a little bit
more about climate justice
and what it is.
Is it the same thing, as I also hear,
the terms environmental
justice tossed around?
Can you tell us a little
bit more about that?
- Hello and I'm delighted
to be here with you today.
So yes, they build on each other in time.
Environmental justice involves
both the unequal distribution
of environmental benefits
and harms based on race
and other factors over time, including
the cumulative impacts and
the unequal enforcement
of environmental laws due
to race and other factors.
Climate justice really came
out of environmental justice.
And I think that's important.
Climate justice has always
been racial justice.
And it started in black and
indigenous activist communities
as well, as it has both a local
and a international frame.
Those who have done the most
to contribute to climate crisis
are experiencing those impacts the least.
And those who have done
the least to contribute
to climate crisis are experiencing
those impacts first and worst.
And that that needs to be
recognized and repatriated.
And so that is the climate justice frame.
- Being a black climate activist yourself,
I know that you're probably
not alone in this fight.
Can you tell us a little
bit about the history
of the leadership in this movement
and what we can learn from it right now?
- And I don't think that
it will surprise you,
but there is a long and strong tradition
of black and indigenous
women leading this fight
from Winona LaDuke, Dr. Dorceta Taylor.
This tradition continues on today
with Little Miss Flint, AOC
and folks like Tamara O'Laughlin,
who is a North American Director for 350.
And it is us,
(both laughing)
unheralded as climate and
environmental justice activists
then and now.
We need to step up, and get involved
and build our power together.
- 'Cause I talk so much on
this channel about how we build
our collective power towards
voting and organizing
in a political space,
but of course, race is political,
climate is political now
in ways that maybe it shouldn't be,
but that's the reality that we're in.
How do we seek out and
also be part of the black
and indigenous led
environmental justice movements?
- The big reason that you
don't see more visibility
for black and indigenous
environmental leaders
has been just a massive
inequity in funding
to environmental groups.
Massive.
Whereas a group like the
NRDC, that I used to work for,
has a above $100 million
yearly budget, way above.
And a group like New York Renews literally
has 1%, 1/2% of that.
And a lot of that goes towards
organizing and messaging.
We are out here, so you can take a look
and you can look us up, be it on Twitter.
Now in this pandemic, social media
is actually a really good
way to start figuring out
who is nearby you and
also in the universe,
in terms of leadership.
Check out the New York Renews coalition,
the Climate Justice
Alliance, the National Group,
there are a lot of groups nationally.
And this movement is not
nascent in its origin,
it has been established in longstanding.
However, there is this
continued and ongoing need
for more leadership.
So especially if you may be
in a place, perhaps in a white area
where there aren't a lot
of black activists period,
don't be afraid to step up yourself.
Anywhere where BIPOC people
are talking about these
issues, issues related
to racial and social justice,
you can enter that conversation
with this intersectional frame.
I think that's how we're going
to build this movement together.
It could very well be a youth group,
a church group, a civic group,
an NAACP or like-minded group.
And you know what?
The journey to sort of
establishing an engaging community
can happen at several levels
and also has to happen
as you were able to do it at the time.
You may be in a place where
you're immunocompromised,
perhaps where you really,
you can't be out there in
the streets protesting,
or doing mutual aid or
finding community that way.
And that's okay.
So,
if you are following some of
the national movements online
and taking advantage
of those opportunities
that organize that way, that's okay.
Just where people are being active,
you can be an intersectional agent
for climate environmental justice.
Right now, a Category 4 hurricane
is barreling towards Louisiana and Texas.
This is about us, about our
people, about our survival.
Let's speak it.
I really encourage people to
step up and not ask permission.
As much as it's important
to get in community,
and important to learn
from activists before you,
and important to work intergenerationally
and a lot of other things,
sometimes the leader is you.
- Raya is right.
Black and indigenous
climate leadership exists,
but it's often hard to
find this leadership
because it exists at a deeply local level,
rather than these super well-funded
national legacy organizations.
For my white viewers out there,
we need you to support black,
indigenous and people of color
in climate leadership now.
And that doesn't mean to get on a plane
and go to Standing Rock
and suck up all the air,
but do some research on who
is leading climate activism
in your own community
and listen to the people
who are most vulnerable before
you get your little Tevas
to the front of the March.
You know what I mean?
For people of color,
I hope that watching this
has gotten you thinking
about how we can center
and build our power
without asking for permission.
You can start by Googling
environmental justice
and the name of your town or
city to see what local groups
might already exist that
you can get involved with.
Or if there aren't any that
exist or feel welcoming to you,
all it takes is you and
at least one other person
to start your own.
You could choose
something like researching
the air, or water quality
or major polluters
in your community and
bring that information
to your city council member.
Or make an emergency preparedness plan
with your neighborhood
as climate change brings about
more extreme weather events.
And of course, voting is
only one of your many tools.
But you can vote in leaders
who care about environmental justice
and have plans to address it.
You can text EJ
to 97779
to get more information
about how to be an
environmental justice voter.
Raya, Thank you so much.
I feel like we've learned a lot from you.
People wanna continue to
learn from you and continue
to be in community with you.
Where can people find you?
- I am on YouTube, I'm Sweet Soul Whisper,
I'm also Raya Salter.
I'm on Twitter, EarthtoRaya,
I'm on Instagram @greengirlmagic.
Check out the New York Renews
climate justice coalition,
newyorkerenews.org
- In the comments, let
me know about one way
that you see climate
change affecting your life
or the world around you.
Or if you know of any
climate activists of color
that everyone else should go follow,
give them a shout out down below.
And I will see you soon.
Bye.
(host claps)
