Opinion

NO JUSTICE, NO EARTH opinion BY Cathye Williams I’m often casting about for environmental supplies of low-income communities; writing inspiration. This month, I thought building low-income housing on flood of Northern Michigan exploding into its plains; and depleting funding for emergency summer colors, themselves accompanied by response and preparedness resources from the calls of birds, frogs, and coyotes. Working minority neighborhoods. These examples in my garden, I worried about farmers facing could all lead to poor outcomes in health, uncertainty in the midst of a pandemic. I education, and economic opportunity in scanned the news for items that call out for affected communities. In short, they kill. attention and reflection. Let’s see … Line 5 They are the knee on the neck of BIPOC and had some important court actions coming all marginalized people. up. What about the water? So much water! Lake Michigan was lapping at roads, homes, Like many others, I joined in recent protests and businesses; torrential rains overwhelmed against racism and police brutality. I saw dams and drains. Clearly, I had lots of options many of the same faces I have seen at other to cover. marches for climate, water, immigrants, Then, on Memorial Day, the world saw police these struggles are intertwined, the idea of Artist Amy Ferguson murder a man on a street in Minneapolis, intersectionality becomes clearer: We can’t and everything else shattered and fell away. separate environmental work from the work

The Suttons Bay Art Festival Postponed The brutal killing of George Floyd by a white officer was a tipping point. It sparked an of racial justice. I have tried this, thinking that working on one counted for working on until August 7 and 8, 2021 uprising across the United States and around the globe, driven by sadness and anger, demanding justice and the dismantling of the other. I was wrong. As Sam Grant, longtime organizer, educator, The Committee for the Suttons Bay Art Festival is disappointed to announce systems of oppression. and head of grassroots advocacy group MN350, said, “Mainstream environmental that the 41st annual SBAF is postponed. We are looking forward to next year’s SBAF in the Marina Park in Suttons Bay. Sadly, this murder wasn’t shocking for its rarity. Cell phones, security footage, and body cams tell the stories now, but the stories have been organizations have bought into the myth that the objective of environmentalism is to protect nature from people. They don’t www.suttonsbayartfestival.org - email: sbaf30@gmail.com told throughout time. The history of violence and oppression toward Black lndigenous and realize that our objective is to protect people, who are part of nature.” People of Color (BIPOC) goes back centuries. Even the environmentalism movement, so and work and play in a clean environment.” women, and science. As I begin to see how Our country was built on stolen lands, Many believe that we won’t solve the climate genocide, and the broken bodies of enslaved crisis without racial justice or BIPOC. Why? people; our institutions were founded on lofty Because marginalized people tend to have ideals of equality and fairness that were never more concern about the crisis and will likely intended to include them. see the most harm. Solutions that don’t work for them won’t work. They have knowledge of Civil Rights and other social movements their communities, and the organizing skills might have ended some of the overt vestiges and relationships needed to build coalitions of inequality, but oppression and violence are and drive action on the ground. Many perpetuated by systemic racism. Whether environmental groups struggle with diversity by practice or design, racial inequities in and inclusion. Does our focus on goals and finance, housing, education, transportation, data-driven models leave room for dialogue and law enforcement all operate to maintain and new ideas? Do we create a welcoming the power of the dominant class to this day. space? Can we accept discomfort and tension near and dear to the fair liberal heart, was A mother might be worried about the planet, founded by privileged white men whose but right now she is more worried that her vision was to preserve wilderness for the child has clean air to breathe. If your solution enjoyment of people who looked like him. to the problem leaves her homeless or The style was to dominate the landscape, with without a paycheck, then it’s not a solution. no regard for the lives, wisdom, or culture of For BIPOC, it’s is a matter of survival. Death people who were there first. by police brutality or (a slower) death from Concern about environmental damage having same death, rooted in systemic racism. Other a disproportionate impact on poor and BIPOC and marginalized groups face the marginalized groups — and even the term peril of sinking islands, snaking pipelines, “environmental justice” — is relatively new. melting permafrost, and hurricanes and Explains Dr. Robert Bullard, often described wildfires. They might need more immediate as the father of environmental justice: “It’s the relief. Together we should find solutions that principle that all people are entitled to equal will work for all people caught across a range environmental protection regardless of race, of situations and build the movement needed color or national origin. It’s the right to live to see these solutions realized. when needed to learn? diabetes, asthma, or lead poisoning, is the If you want to learn more about the necessary Landmark legislation such as the Clean Air intertwining of minority rights and the and Clean Water Acts did not acknowledge environment, please consider reading www. the greater environmental injuries borne ejnet.org/ej/principles.html. New Styles for the Whole Family! by vulnerable groups, nor did it offer them more protection. Examples of environmental Cathye Williams serves as a volunteer and 144 E FRONT STREET TRAVERSE ITY, MI 49684 plamondons.com MO-TH 10-6 FR-SA 10-8 SU 1-5 racism include things like building coal plants in close proximity to low-income residential neighborhoods; dumping industrial or agricultural waste near water media liaison for the Grand Traverse area chapter of the Citizens Climate Lobby, www.citizensclimatelobby.com. She writes from Benzie County. 8 • june 22, 2020 • Northern Express Weekly