Published on July 1, 2020 by Frank Black, Burmingham Watch
In the weeks since the death of George Floyd, environmental advocacy groups have been checking their mission statements and action plans for any hints of racial insensitivity and to examine how best to support movements such as Black Lives Matter and unite against injustice in environment and race.
The phrase “I can’t breathe” is the link that joins the environment and the racial justice movements. That was George Floyd’s and Eric Garner’s plea and also the cry of people of color whose health problems are associated with air pollution and other toxicities that disproportionally surround their lives. Garner, after all, lived in a neighborhood that received an F grade from the American Lung Association’s 2018 State of the Air report….
…The Rev. Michael Malcom of Birmingham, a black man who heads two groups focused on grassroots environmental activism, said nonprofit groups should “put your money where your mouth is – let me see justice, not hear it. Let me see resources going to the community that needs them because of the historical oppression that has happened.” Read more here
