Standing Up for Racial & Environmental Justice
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 color-led 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.
These resources were shared by SCU's Environmental Justice and the Common Good Initiative.