Standing Up for Environmental Justice Now
We offer these statements about the connections between environmental justice and related forms of justice for specific communities to guide our own actions, and as teaching and action resources for others. We will be adding new statements on environmental justice for additional communities as they are drafted with members of these communities in the coming months.
See statements on environmental Justice for
- Standing Up for Environmental Justice for Latinx
by Jadzaí Solis, Sarahi E. Salamanca, and Jesica S. Fernández
Santa Clara University’s Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative recognizes the value, contributions, and presence of Latinx communities in the U.S., and the environmental and climate crisis conditions that impact them. The 62.5 million Latinx in the U.S., accounting for 19% of the population, are not homogeneous but comprise communities of unique lived experiences and expressions of Latinidad. The majority of Latinx, however, are immigrants or of mixed-status, constituting approximately 44% of the nation’s 44.7 million immigrants. The sociolegal status of Latinx also informs their socioeconomic status, with many being working-class or living below the poverty line, especially in the Silicon Valley . A combination of structural, sociolegal, and ecological factors shape the living environments of Latinx. Most Latinx reside in areas that are disproportionately impacted by food, housing, and economic inequities, which are intersections of environmental injustices. In California, Latinx often work and live in agricultural regions that pose multiple environmental health threats.
We commit to stand, learn, and work with Latinx communities, families, advocates, organizers, as well as students, colleagues, scholars, and practitioners to take the following steps.
1) Learn how Latinx communities are disproportionately affected by environmental injustices in places like California’s Central Valley, and by vulnerability to extreme weather conditions – such as heat waves, hurricanes, and floods – as a result of climate change and exclusion from disaster planning and response. Study the history of the Latinx fight for environmental justice, including the United Farm Workers’ campaigns against pesticides and SouthWest Organizing Project’s struggles for environmental and social justice in New Mexico. Understand how Latinx environmental discourses and Latinx Critical Race Theory offer an intersectional approach to environmental justice and Latinx identities. Educate ourselves about Latinx and Latin American environmental justice research traditions, and the contributions to environmental justice research by pioneering scholars, such as Laura Pulido, Manuel Pastor, Devon G. Peña, and Joan Martinez-Alier. Take inspiration on how to live in harmony with nature, and respect her rights, from Latin American approaches to agroecology and visions of buen vivir.
2) Support Latinx communities by contributing time, money, and other resources to organizations led by and for Latinx communities, such as Latino Climate Justice Framework, as well as grassroots community organizations in the Greater Silicon Valley, including SOMOS Mayfair and Latinos United for a New America. Support multi-issue organizations – such as the Dolores Huerta Foundation, CHISPA, Green Latinos, Environmental Health Coalition, and Little Village Environmental Justice Organization – that recognize how environmental justice issues are linked to economic precarity, food and housing insecurity, health inequities, racism and nativism, the need for immigration reform and civic engagement. Support organizations such as EcoMadres, Farmworkers Justice, and Centro Aztlan Chicomoztoc to stop the securitization and hyper-militarization of the Mexico-US border, which harms communities in both countries. Join Azul in engaging Latinx in ocean conservation. Celebrate and honor Latinx artists, performers, creators-curators, and cultural centers such as Movimiento de Arte y Cultural Latino Americana (MACLA) and Local Color SJ to depict environmental injustices, as well as community resilience and healing dreams.
3) Actively engage by challenging individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural barriers to the dignity, health, and rights of Latinx communities. Prioritize environmental justice issues in our work by contributing to community-engaged research and learning with Latinx farmworkers, youth, and community-based organizations addressing issues such as planning, gentrification, and water security in the U.S. Explain the impacts of environmental injustices in Latinx immigrants’ communities of origin, such as smallholder farmers in Central America and Mexico struggling with multiple hazards, including climate-induced drought and food insecurity, and the dynamics of climate migration. Provide mutual aid and demand that government services include Latinx communities, regardless of immigration status. Tell governments and institutions such as SCU to include bilingual Spanish speakers in emergency plans. Work with Latinx community organizers and advocates to strengthen their communities’ political and economic voice; allies can join organizations such as Faith in Action. Reverse the growing limits on immigration and citizenship, ensure that public meetings and documents include Spanish translation, register Latinx to vote and promote their civic engagement, and campaign for leaders who expand access to the ballot and listen to Latinx constituents.
To carry out these plans, we commit to:
- Affirm and encourage Latinx communities to demand and mobilize to meet their needs by creating spaces of sanctuary and care for people who fear eviction, deportation, or other retaliation.
- Include and engage colleagues, friends, and others from the faculty, student body, administration, and communities in meetings and events to discuss and learn about Latinx and environmental justice issues from each other, so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the linkages and become more effective in addressing them.
- Support and collaborate with Latinx communities, especially those in the Greater Silicon Valley, Bay Area, Central Valley of California, and Latin America on the environmental justice and climate change challenges they experience.
- Recruit and welcome more students, faculty members and staff, and university affiliates, to participate fully in our work and efforts to engage in accountability steps to support the inclusion, belonging, meaningful participation, and sustained engagement and leadership of Latinx on our campus, and in SCU initiatives.
Posted: April, 2023
- Standing Up for Environmental Justice for People with Disabilities
by Molly M. King and Emily Pachoud ‘23
Disability is widespread: one in four Americans has a disability– the largest U.S minority group, and a sizable minority worldwide. Santa Clara University’s Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative recognizes that ableism permeates systems and structures in the U.S., thereby creating disabling environments for folks viewed as having a disability. As a result, people with disabilities are disproportionately affected by pollution, rising temperatures, and natural disasters and yet disproportionately underprepared for the impacts. The view of disabled people as expendable and the absence of consideration for their rights and needs in many environmental spaces has caused considerable harm. We commit ourselves to work with and support scholars, students, colleagues, and community members with disabilities to combat these issues.
We call on ourselves and commit to support others to take the following steps to stand up for racial and environmental justice for disabled Americans now.
1) Learn about the history of the fight for disability rights, eco-ableism, and pushes for inclusion in the climate movement. Learn how disabled Americans are disproportionately affected by impacts of climate change, including rising temperatures and natural disasters, and how they are more likely to live near Superfund sites and hazardous waste facilities than those without disabilities. Educate ourselves on the expertise and knowledge that people with disabilities have to offer the environmental movement and about the lack of environmental justice research on disabled Americans. Study research that is being put out and include these topics in classrooms. Learn about the need for an intersectional approach to environmental justice that includes disability, as well as the disproportionate impact of climate change on Indigenous people with disabilities.
2) Support disability justice by engaging with and/or donating to organizations led by and for people with disabilities, such as the World Institute on Disability and grassroots groups like American Disabled for Attendant Programs Today (ADAPT). Consider amplifying, joining, and contributing to organizations that work for climate justice for people with disabilities, including the SustainedAbility network and The Partnership for Inclusive Disaster Strategies, in addition to groups that work for environmental justice through accessibility to the outdoors, such as Birdability and Rails-to-Trails. Support disability media and artists with disabilities through organizations like the Disability Visibility Project and Sins Invalid. Support intersectional racial and disability justice organizations, such as Native American Disability Law Center, National Black Deaf Advocates, Asians and Pacific Islanders with Disabilities of California (APIDC), and National Coalition for Latinxs with Disabilities. Support organizations focusing on policy advocacy for disability justice like the American Association of People with Disabilities (AAPD), Disability Rights Education & Defense Fund, and Disability Rights California.
3) Actively engage by challenging individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural ableism, particularly in the environmental movement. Respect the diversity of disabled peoples’ experiences and reject the medical model of disability. Ensure accessibility in environmental activist spaces by having a contact person for accommodations for events, a PA system at rallies, a platform for speakers, and an accessible path of travel for marches. Be aware of disability news related to the climate and environment. Help a friend, family member, or neighbor develop an emergency kit, train to be a CERT volunteer, and advocate for SCU and the city government to include people with disabilities in emergency plans. Vote and campaign for elected officials who promise to enact transformative policies for disability and environmental justice. Reshape our work to address environmental justice issues or prioritize them in our research agendas.
To carry out these plans, we commit to:
1) Engage colleagues, friends, and others from the faculty, student body, administration, and communities in meetings and events to discuss and learn about environmental and disability justice issues from each other, so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the linkages and become more effective in addressing them.
2) Support and collaborate with disabled communities, especially those in Northern California, on the environmental justice challenges they face.
3) Recruit and welcome more faculty members and staff with disabilities to participate fully in our work, and take responsibility for attracting the resources and creating an environment to support their meaningful and sustained participation.
Posted: February, 2023
- Standing Up for Environmental Justice for Asian Americans
Santa Clara University’s Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative supports faculty, students, and community partners to understand and combat environmental injustices, such as the uneven distribution of pollution and the lack of access to clean air, water, and food. We understand these environmental injustices as stemming in large part from structural and institutionalized racism, economic exploitation, and our individual biases and actions. These forces manifest in chronic violence, such as the contamination of people and communities of color and low income, and in acute violence, such as industrial disasters, genocides, and displacements of people from their land and homes, as well as racially motivated attacks.
At this time of growing harassment and assaults against Asian Americans, we condemn the history and ongoing legacy of violence against Asian Americans in the U.S., and commit ourselves to work with and support Asian American scholars, students, and communities to resist this violence.
We call on ourselves and commit to support others to take the following steps to stand up for racial and environmental justice for Asian Americans now.
1) Learn about the history of violence and environmental injustices faced by Asian Americans, including disproportionate exposure to carcinogenic hazardous air pollutants, and unsafe working conditions for Asian immigrants and migrants in farm work, and industries such as textiles and apparel, restaurants, nail salons, electronics, and electronic waste. Study Asian Americans’ contributions to the environmental justice movement, including groundbreaking organizing by Filipino American farmworkers and the pioneering activism of the Asian Pacific Environmental Network (APEN).
2) Support racial and environmental justice by donating to organizations led by Asian Americans that engage in community organizing and policy advocacy for environmental justice, such as APEN, Chinese Progressive Association, Pilipino Workers Center, Little Manila Rising, and Chicago Asian Americans for Environmental Justice. Support organizations that build AAPI political power, especially grassroots community-based organizations listed at the AAPI FORCE-EF network, AAPI Movement Hub, and the Asian Pacific American Labor Alliance. Support advocacy organizations that are part of Asian Americans Advancing Justice, the Asian & Pacific Islander American Health Forum, and Asian Americans for Civil Rights and Equality. Consider additional donations to national organizations such as Stop AAPI Hate, Hate is a Virus, as well as AAPI Women Lead’s #ImReady Movement to challenge and help end the intersections of violence against and within Asian American communities.
3) Actively engage with practicing antiracism against individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism. Respect the diversity of Asian Americans’ identities, experiences, and histories. Reject the model minority myth about Asian Americans, which seeks to divide people of color, and the silent minority myth, which suggests Asian Americans do not or should not call attention to anti-Asian oppression or engage in politics. Engage in racial and environmental justice organizing in ways that foreground and respect leadership by Asian Americans and other people of color: join and follow the lead of organizations like those listed above, sign their petitions, and circulate their calls for justice to our networks. Vote and campaign for elected officials who promise to enact transformative policies for racial and environmental justice. Reshape our work to address environmental justice issues or prioritize them in our research agendas.
To carry out these plans, we commit to:
1) Engage colleagues, friends, and others from the faculty, student body, administration, and communities in meetings and events to discuss and learn from each other about environmental and racial justice issues, so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the linkages and strengthen multiracial solidarity to address these issues more effectively.
2) Support and collaborate with communities of color, including Asian American communities in Northern California, on the environmental justice challenges they face.
3) Recruit and welcome more faculty members, staff, and students of color to participate fully in our work, and take responsibility for attracting the resources and creating an environment to support their participation.
Posted: April 2021
- Standing Up for Racial and Environmental Justice for Black Americans
As members of the Santa Clara University Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative, we study how structural and institutionalized racism and violence have greatly harmed Black and brown communities, including through environmental injustices such as the uneven distribution of pollution and the lack of access to clean air, water, and food. We have learned much and have much yet to learn from the groundbreaking work of Black scholars of environmental and climate justice. As we continue to expand and deepen our understanding of environmental justice and its relationship to racial justice, we seek to work with and support others, especially African American and other communities of color, scholars, and other colleagues on these issues.
We call on ourselves and commit to support others to take the following steps to stand up for racial and environmental justice now.
1) Learn about research and policies for stopping police violence and other forms of racism against communities of color. Study the history of resistance to the long-term, systemic harm of environmental racism and injustice. Learn about the global violence of climate change, and brown and Black activists’ and scholars’ work in the climate justice movement in the United States and around the world. Learn why racial justice is linked to environmental justice in policy statements such as the Platform for Black Lives and the Just Transitions Principles. Educate ourselves about state and local environmental justice policy advocacy.
2) Support racial justice by donating to organizations led by people of color that engage in organizing and policy advocacy against structural racial violence, such as the Movement4Black Lives, local Black Lives Matter chapters, Say Her Name, Critical Resistance, 8 To Abolition, and the Black Youth Project 100. Support people of colorled environmental justice organizations, such as the Climate Justice Alliance and the California Environmental Justice Alliance. Find and support local racial and environmental justice organizations in our area. If we donate to mainstream environmental organizations or causes, earmark our financial support for environmental justice issues.
3) Actively engage with practicing antiracism against individual, interpersonal, institutional, and structural racism, including in academia. Engage in racial and environmental justice organizing in ways that foreground and respect leadership by people of color: join and follow the lead of organizations like those listed above, sign their petitions, and circulate their calls for justice to our networks. White allies can join organizations such as Showing Up for Racial Justice, which has many local chapters that hold themselves accountable to black and brown leaders, while turning out support to end white silence on racial injustice. Support a free and fair electoral process, and vote and campaign for elected officials who promise to enact transformative policies for racial and environmental justice. Reshape our work to address environmental justice issues or prioritize them in our research agendas.
To carry out these plans, we commit to:
1) Engage colleagues, friends, and others from the faculty, student body, administration, and communities in meetings and events to discuss and learn about environmental and racial justice issues from each other, so that we can gain a deeper understanding of the linkages and become more effective in addressing them.
2) Support and collaborate with communities of color, especially African American communities in Northern California, on the environmental justice challenges they face.
3) Recruit and welcome more faculty members and staff of color to participate fully in our work, and take responsibility for attracting the resources and creating an environment to support their participation.
Posted: June 2020