Environmental Justice and the Challenge of Black Lives Matter

2021 ◽  
Vol 14 (6) ◽  
pp. 391-392
Author(s):  
David N. Pellow
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Black Lives Matter

Dismantling White Privilege: The Black Lives Matter Movement and Environmental Justice in Canada

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Cheryl Teelucksingh
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Critical Race Theory ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
White Supremacy ◽  
Jim Crow ◽  
The United States ◽  
Conceptual Tool ◽  
Public Monuments ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Jim Crow Era

On August 12, 2017, in Charlottesville, Virginia, alt-right/White supremacy groups and Black Lives Matter (BLM) supporters came face-to-face regarding what to do about public monuments that celebrate key figures from slavery and the Jim Crow era. White supremacists and White nationalists did not hide their racist ideologies as they demanded that their privileged place in history not be erased. The BLM movement, which challenges state-sanctioned anti-Black racism, was ready to confront themes of White discontent and reverse racism, critiques of political correctness, and the assumption that racialized people should know their place and be content to be the subordinate other.It is easy to frame the events in Charlottesville as indicative of US-specific race problems. However, a sense that White spaces should prevail and an ongoing history of anti-Black racism are not unique to the United States. The rise of Canadian activism under the BLM banner also signals a movement to change Canadian forms of institutional racism in policing, education, and the labor market. This article responds to perceptions that the BLM movement has given insufficient attention to environmental concerns (Pellow 2016; Halpern 2017). Drawing on critical race theory as a conceptual tool, this article focuses on the Canadian context as part of the author’s argument in favor of greater collaboration between BLM and the environmental justice (EJ) movement in Canada. This article also engages with the common stereotype that Blacks in Canada have it better than Blacks in the United States.

scholarly journals Equality in the Air We Breathe

2018 ◽  
pp. 246-270 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsey Dillon ◽  
Julie Sze
Keyword(s):  
Social Justice ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Toxic Exposure ◽  
Black Lives Matter ◽  
Politics Of Difference

This chapter brings an interdisciplinary and social justice perspective to the concept and practices of "sustainability" by foregrounding the work of anti-racist struggles in U.S. cities, like Black Lives Matter. It asserts that anti-racist struggles have always been struggles about life-sustaining environments, at least as "the environment" is defined by the environmental justice movement as the place where people "live, work, and play. It suggests an alternative notion of sustainability, as it has long been theorized by and lived through black and brown lives, focusing on breath and breathing as an intimate geography of race and toxic exposure. In so doing it contributes to the challenge to sustainability practitioners to rethink their ideologies and practices through a politics of difference.

Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. Timmons Roberts ◽  
Melissa M. Toffolon-Weiss
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice

Environmental Justice and Building Capacity Through Photovoice

2012 ◽  
Author(s):  
Laura P. Kohn-Wood ◽  
Michael S. Spencer ◽  
Rachel D. Dombrowski ◽  
Omari W. Keeles ◽  
Daniel K. Birichi
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Building Capacity

Indigenous Environmental Justice, Knowledge, and Law

2018 ◽  
Vol 5 (2) ◽  
Author(s):  
Deborah McGregor
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge ◽  
Knowledge Systems ◽  
Indigenous Worldviews ◽  
Indigenous Knowledge Systems ◽  
The World ◽  
Innovative Approaches

This article aims to introduce a distinct conception of Indigenous environmental justice (IEJ) based on Indigenous legal orders, knowledge systems, and conceptions of justice. This is not to suggest in any way that the existing environmental justice (EJ) scholarship is flawed; in fact, the scholarship and activism around EJ have been central in diagnosing and drawing attention to injustices that occur on a systematic basis everywhere in the world. This article argues instead that such discussions can be expanded by acknowledging that concepts of environmental justice, including distinct legal orders informed by Indigenous knowledge systems, already existed on Turtle Island for thousands of years prior to the arrival of Europeans. It also suggests that environmental justice framed within Indigenous worldviews, ontologies, and epistemologies may make significant contributions to broader EJ scholarship, particularly in relation to extending justice to other beings and entities in Creation. This approach acknowledges ongoing colonialism and emphasizes the need to decolonize in order to advance innovative approaches to IEJ. 

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