During the (Dis)Orientation unit of Climates of Resistance, we recognised the reality of systemic injustice and the need for an intersectional approach to anti-racism. The course’s second unit explores Disparate Distribution. The purpose of this unit is to compare similarities and differences between the environmental inequities experienced by various marginalised people in the US and around the world, especially Black, Indigenous, Latinx, Pasifika, and diasporic Asian communities.
This week, “Revealing Divisions” will help us understand how the systemic racism we explored in Unit 1 plays out through exposure to environmental hazards.
Read: a bit about the history of environmental racism as a concept in the sections on “Anti-Toxics Movement and Early Studies” and “Environmental Racism: Injustice That Drives a Movement Forward” (pages 29-33) from Rickie Cleere’s senior thesis on Environmental Racism and the Movement for Black Lives: Grassroots Power in the 21st Century.
Rickie Cleere is a young ecologist committed to addressing climate change, advancing social justice, and restoring natural landscapes. Cleere grew up in Southern California, where he pursued undergraduate studies in environmental biology while attending Pomona College. His thesis explored how the environmental justice and Black Lives Matter movements are part of the same struggle: a struggle against environmental racism, police brutality, and – above all – the violence of economic oppression.
Listen: to this interview with the “father of environmental justice” about his discovery of environmental racism trends. While you watch (and/or read the transcript on YouTube), pay attention to the various arenas in which environmental racism plays out, as explained by Professor Bullard.
Identify: some of the environmental risk factors contributing to the inequalities shown below through Sergio Maciel’s depiction of environmental segregation in Chicago. Professor Bullard’s interview should give you some ideas!
Sergio Maciel grew up in Chicago, a city that is no stranger to environmental racism and unequal experiences. Maciel’s work is influenced by his Hispanic culture and life experiences, as well as the people and cultures around him.
As an artist, Maciel believes there is a responsibility to create and connect with the viewer as a form of communication. The intention of his work is to question stereotypes within society, to receive a better understanding of the commonalities between ideas, respect the differences, and admire the beauty. These issues and stereotypes have forged Maciel into who he is. “They are not meant to celebrate, disapprove, or stand in judgement, they are merely a catalyst of my work.”
(Photograph by Sebastian Hidalgo for NRDC)
Understand: that these environmental divisions are so systemically entrenched that they are evident even when politics try to interfere with demographic science – check out this review from Vann Newkirk for The Atlantic.
Note: You can watch the video at the end of the article if you prefer watching and listening to reading!
Vann R Newkirk II is a journalist, editor, and data-centred policy analyst. He is a senior editor at The Atlantic, where he focuses on politics and health. He has covered the battles for voting rights since the 2013 Shelby County Supreme Court decision, the fate of communities on the front lines of climate change and disasters, and the Black vote in the 2018 and 2020 elections. He hosts the Floodlines podcast, a narrative series about Hurricane Katrina. His forthcoming book, Children of the Flood, chronicles Black America’s fight against climate crises.
Optional: if you would like to learn more about the study of environmental racism, chapter 7 on “Environmental Racism: Inequality in a Toxic World” by David Naguib Pellow in The Blackwell Companion to Social Inequalities (pages 147-164) is freely available and provides a good overview.
Professor David N. Pellow is the Department Chair of Environmental Studies and Director of the Global Environmental Justice Project at the University of California, Santa Barbara, where he teaches courses on environmental and social justice; race, class, gender, and environmental conflict; human-animal conflicts; sustainability; and social change movements that confront our socio-environmental crises and social inequality. He volunteers and researches with organisations that are dedicated to improving the living and working environments for people of color, immigrants, Indigenous peoples, and working class communities.
Learn: about the history of nuclear violence against communities in the Marshall Islands through this video using dance as a platform for protest and resistance.
Tony de Brum (the nuclear witness speaking in the video) served as Foreign Minister of the Marshall Islands three times, including during the international climate negotiations that culminated in COP21 in 2015.
De Brum helped organize the Marshall Islands’ independence from the United States and was the Minister in Assistance to the President of Marshall Islands from 2012 to 2014. He was an activist for climate justice and a proponent of ocean thermal energy conversion technology.
During the 2015 United Nations Climate Change Conference, de Brum built a new partnership between over 90 developed and developing countries. His High Ambition Coalition was credited with galvanising the conference around the goal of holding global temperatures to a 1.5°C increase, and continues its work today, several years after de Brum’s passing.
Billma Peter (the anti-nuclear dance activist) holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Healthcare Administration from the University of Arizona. A passionate advocate for healthful living, education, and care, she has volunteered for several health-aligned charities and non-profits and is currently pursuing a Masters Degree in Health Administration.
In October 2019, Billma was crowned Miss Marshall Islands. Since then, she has served as a Cultural Ambassador for the Republic of the Marshall Islands, representing the country in formal ceremonies, advocating for volunteer and community work throughout the nation, and promoting local products, events, and history.
Watch: the music video of “Immigrants (We Get The Job Done)”. The piece was inspired by an iconic moment from the musical Hamilton. New rap verses were created and performed by a collection of political activists critiquing injustice around the world.
Notice: lyrics and scenes about environmentally related risks that disproportionately impact refugee and immigrant communities.
J.Period is a DJ, mix-tape creator, and hip-hop producer based in Brooklyn. J.Period’s introduction to the piece broadcasts a news-style commentary:
You know, and it gets into this whole issue of border security, you know,
who’s gonna say that the borders are secure?
We’ve got the House and the Senate debating this issue and it’s...
it’s really astonishing that in a country founded by immigrants,
“immigrant” has somehow become a bad word.
So the debate rages on and we continue....
K’naan, born as Keinan Abdi Warsame, is a Somali immigrant who learned English via rap and hip hop. K’naan reflects on the mismatch between immigrants’ dreams of America and the reality they often face, saying:
I got 1 job, 2 jobs, 3 when I need them
I got 5 roommates in this one studio, but I never really see them
And we all came to America trying to get a lap dance from Lady Freedom
But now Lady Liberty is acting like Hilary Banks with a pre-nup
Man, I was brave, sailing on graves
Don’t think I didn’t notice those tombstones disguised as waves
I’m no dummy, here is something funny:
You can be an immigrant without risking your lives
Or crossing these borders with thrifty supplies
All you got to do is see the world with new eyes
Snow Tha Product (born Claudia Alexandra Madriz Meza) is a Mexican American rapper. Her verses call out unjust labour patterns:
It’s a hard line when you’re an import
Baby boy, it’s hard times when you ain’t sent for
Racists feed the belly of the beast
With they pitchforks, rich chores
Done by the people that get ignored
Ya se armó (And it started)
Ya se despertaron (And they awoke)
It’s a whole awakening
La alarma ya sonó hace rato (The alarm went off a while ago)
Los que quieren buscan pero nos apodan como vagos (Those who want, search, but they label us hoodlums)
We are the same ones hustling on every level, ten los datos (Here’s the details:)
Walk a mile in our shoes; abróchense los zapatos (better buckle your shoes)
I been scoping ya dudes, y’all ain’t been working like I do
I’ll outwork you, it hurts you; you claim I’m stealing jobs though
Peter Piper claimed he picked them? He just underpaid Pablo!
But there ain’t a paper trail when you living in the shadows
We’re America’s ghost writers, the credit’s only borrowed
It’s a matter of time before the checks all come
But…
Immigrants, we get the job done
Rizwan Ahmed, or Riz MC, is a British Pakistani Muslim actor, rapper, and activist who points out how it is Western colonialism and military action that drive so much forced migration:
Ay yo aye,
immigrants we don’t like that
Na they don’t play British Empire strikes back
They beating us like 808’s and high hats
At our own game of invasion,
but this ain’t Iraq
Who these fugees?
What did they do for me
But contribute new dreams
Taxes and tools, swagger and food to eat
Cool, they flee war zones, but the problem ain’t ours
Even if our bombs landed on them like the Mayflower
Buckingham Palace or Capitol Hill
Blood of my ancestors had that all built
It’s the ink you print on your dollar bill, oil you spill
Thin red lines on the flag you hoist when you kill
But still we just say “look how far I come”
Hindustan, Pakistan, to London
To a galaxy far from their ignorance
‘Cos immigrants, we get the job done
Resīdεntә (René Juan Pérez Joglar) is a Grammy-winning Puerto Rican rapper, writer, and filmmaker who advocates for Indigenous people’s rights and educational access. Resīdεntә speaks of the resilience of undocumented workers in the face of colonial violence:
Por tierra o por agua (By land or water)
Identidad falsa (False identity)
Brincamos muros o flotamos en balsas (We jump over walls or float on rafts)
La peleamos como Sandino en Nicaragua (We fight like Sandino in Nicaragua)
Somos como las plantas que crecen sin agua (We are like plants that grow without water)
Sin pasaporte americano (Without an American passport)
Porque la mitad de gringolandia es terreno mexicano (Because half of Gringolandia is really Mexican terrain)
Hay que ser bien hijo e puta (One has to be a real son-of-a-bitch)
Nosotros Les Sembramos el árbol y ellos se comen la fruta (We planted the tree, and they reap the fruit)
Somos los que cruzaron (We are the ones who cross)
Aquí vinimos a buscar el oro que nos robaron (Here we come to look for the gold that was stolen)
Tenemos mas trucos que la policía secreta (We have more tricks than the secret police)
Metimos la casa completa en una maleta (We packed our entire house in one suitcase)
Con un pico, una pala y un rastrillo (With a pick, a shovel, and a rake)
Te construimos un castillo (We built you a castle)
¿Cómo es que dice el coro cabrón? (How’s the chorus go again, asshole?)
Immigrants, we get the job done
Prepare: for your Learning Log for this session via the form below.