Our friends at the Ohio Environmental Council continue to hold fantastic events for our community to plug into the environmental movement and expand their understanding and thinking on climate action!
This past week they hosted a discussion about Confronting Racism from an Environmental Perspective. Our colleague, and President and Founder of our partner, Laura Recchie, joined the League of Conservation Voters, the Sierra Club Ohio Chapter, Showing Up for Racial Justice Ohio- SURJ Ohio, and OEC Emerging Leaders for a necessary discussion on how today’s Environmentalists need to address our past failures, and move forward with a dual lens focused on both environmental justice and racial justice.
As OEC described it: “In order to secure a healthy, sustainable environment for all, we must reckon with a past that has perpetuated a system of racist inequities, from park access to policymaking. Historically, the American environmental movement has largely been driven by upper-class, white citizens and has often excluded or actively harmed people of color, lower-income communities, Indigenous peoples, and immigrants. Meanwhile, grassroots environmental justice organizers have fought to protect their communities from destruction and oppression. The reality is, racial justice is environmental justice”
