Gather is diving even deeper into our dedication to greater sustainability practices, partnering with other BIPOC land cultivators and protectors, and exploring the harmful structures that create inequity. We understand that the connection between education, business, environmentalism, and black and brown children is not always clear. So wanted to share an excerpt from a 2019 article I wrote on my website.
Before his death, Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. moved into a very environmental and economic justice space (Poor People's Campaign). In fact, the day before he died, he was leading the sanitation worker's strike.
Some believe that his fight was only one of equitable wages. That was an essential part, but it was more than that. It was also the environmental aspects of the harm being done to the workers. The black workers were forced to work in dirtier environments than their white peers, thus seeing the health effects of working in environments lacking clean air. In fact, many environmentalists link him to the beginning of environmental legislation like the Clean Air Act and the Clean Water Act. Your health deteriorates when you don't have access to clean air and clean water. Let me backtrack: one of the reasons I created this website is that "getting outside" isn't as simple as just a stroll outdoors for me. I often read articles that pushed outdoors or slow intentional living that, while beautiful and pleasant, didn't resonate with my lived experience. Even the "nature-y" sites that gently discussed environmental issues stopped at pushes to eat less meat, use fewer straws, recycle, and compost more. All of these things are valid and beneficial BUT as a woman of color - specifically a black woman - environmental issues are systemic and structural. The ecological problems are more deep-rooted than only individual actions - social justice and civil rights issues. Because if it were just about our actions, from the black woman's lens, we have been doing enough. We ride public transportation and reuse our plastic bags, among other things. I know FEW black women who don't have their reusable bag drawer or that space underneath the kitchen sink. We cook outside, walk outside, relax at the pools and the lakes, and we are farmers and beekeepers. People of color are the originators and sustainers of America's cooking-from-scratch meals. We've been eating ALL the parts of the animal since we arrived on Earth. Finally, very few products in a black home are one-use items. Vaseline is for lips, face, feet, ring removal, and plenty more. Let's not even go into apple cider vinegar, baking soda, rubbing alcohol, etc. Wearing and mending our clothes is another example - everyone's granny has a sock drawer where holes would be sewn. We know the backwoods - we have always been hikers (i.e., Queen Harriet Tubman, Buffalo Soldiers and others). There are generations of environmentalists within the black community. We are nature, and nature is us; we must reclaim our truth. But with the beauty of nature and our environments comes hard facts - we are disproportionately affected by environmental issues.
Environmental Racism
“Trees and plants always look like the people they live with,” Zora Neale Hurston once said.
Environmental racism is a real thing. Before
we immediately go into a socioeconomic conversation, please take the word of the Father of Environmental Justice, Dr. Robert D. Bullard's words. Dr. Bullard found that "race to be more important than socioeconomic status in predicting the location of the nation's commercial hazardous waste facilities" (Bullard et al. 2007). According to Lumen Sociology, his research found, for example, that African American children are five times more likely to have lead poisoning (the leading environmental health threat for children) than their Caucasian counterparts and that a disproportionate number of people of color reside in areas with hazardous waste facilities (Bullard et al. 2007)."
YES, socio-economics profoundly matters in environmental issues. There is no question that the more money that you have, the more you can resist pollutants. But in a recent Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) study, it was found that "people of color in 46 states live with more air pollution than whites; African Americans are exposed to 1.54 times more fine particulate matter than whites; Hispanics are exposed to 1.2 times; those below poverty are exposed 1.35 times more than that above poverty." This was the findings of the current administration.
We see that even when looking at socio-economics, race is dominant. And then, when we look at environmental issues, nature, and our Native American brothers and sisters, the problem becomes expanded. This is in addition to what environmental justice means for people worldwide, but more on that in a different article. To narrow all of the environmental justice matters in one piece - with all its complexity and nuance - would be wildly inappropriate, so I will stick to the point of this article.
At The End of The Day:
And the point of this article is that the love of nature and being natural isn't just about yoga outside, using essential oils, and composting. Goodness, I wish it was that simple! And believe me, yes, all of those things are necessary as individual responsibility, and self-care is a critical component of caring for the world.
But there is also the fact that caring for the earth and all of its living inhabitants is also opening up our eyes to see that there is damage being done at structural/systemic/political levels. The harm is a form of violence against people of color and low-income communities in America and around the world.
Whether you believe in climate change or climate catastrophe, the truth is children born into low-income homes are getting more severe and persistent asthma and being born at lower birth rates. There is so much more, but this is why an eco-educational child-focused business must have an interconnectivity and environmental justice lens.
We will continue to share how we are working towards a more eco-centered business.
Peace, Community!
Shelby
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