“Green Life Matters”: Place and the Politics of Environmental and Commemorative Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Nicole Maurantonio
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Black Woman ◽  
The United States ◽  
Black Communities ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Live Oak ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
Oak Tree ◽  
Racial Divide

Abstract This article analyzes newspaper discourse in Richmond, Virginia surrounding the placement of a statue to Maggie Lena Walker, the first Black woman bank president in the United States, and the proposed removal of a live oak tree to make way for the installation of the Walker statue in the city’s Jackson Ward neighborhood, once known as the “Harlem of the South.” While at first glance, the heated debate surrounding the live oak tree’s proposed removal might conjure a familiar racial divide between white environmentalists and Black community members, this article suggests that the debate in the majority Black city instead captured a broader tension within Black communities torn between advocating for commemorative and environmental justice.

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 Environmental justice, settler colonialism, and more-than-humans in the occupied West Bank: An introduction

2021 ◽  
Vol 4 (1) ◽  
pp. 3-27
Author(s):  
Irus Braverman
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
West Bank ◽  
Settler Colonialism ◽  
The United States ◽  
Special Issue ◽  
The West ◽  
The Core ◽  
Waste Concrete

Our special issue provides a first-of-its kind attempt to examine environmental injustices in the occupied West Bank through interdisciplinary perspectives, pointing to the broader settler colonial and neoliberal contexts within which they occur and to their more-than-human implications. Specifically, we seek to understand what environmental justice—a movement originating from, and rooted in, the United States—means in the context of Palestine/Israel. Moving beyond the settler-native dialectic, we draw attention to the more-than-human flows that occur in the region—which include water, air, waste, cement, trees, donkeys, watermelons, and insects—to consider the dynamic, and often gradational, meanings of frontier, enclosure, and Indigeneity in the West Bank, challenging the all-too-binary assumptions at the core of settler colonialism. Against the backdrop of the settler colonial project of territorial dispossession and elimination, we illuminate the infrastructural connections and disruptions among lives and matter in the West Bank, interpreting these through the lens of environmental justice. We finally ask what forms of ecological decolonization might emerge from this landscape of accumulating waste, concrete, and ruin. Such alternative visions that move beyond the single axis of settler-native enable the emergence of more nuanced, and even hopeful, ecological imaginaries that focus on sumud, dignity, and recognition.

scholarly journals Ethical and policy implications of vaccinomics in the United States: community members’ perspectives

2021 ◽  
pp. 1-12
Author(s):  
Jennifer E. Gerber ◽  
Janesse Brewer ◽  
Rupali J. Limaye ◽  
Andrea Sutherland ◽  
Gail Geller ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Policy Implications ◽  
Community Members

What an [En]tangled Web We Weave: Emotions, Motivation, and Rethinking Us and the “Other”

Hypatia ◽  
2017 ◽  
Vol 32 (2) ◽  
pp. 439-451 ◽  
Author(s):  
Myisha Cherry
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
The United States ◽  
Moral Emotions ◽  
The Other ◽  
Racial Divide

In Entangled Empathy, Lori Gruen offers an alternative ethic for our relationships with animals. In this article, I examine Gruen's account of entangled empathy by first focusing on entangled empathy's relation to the moral emotions of sympathy, compassion, and other emotions. I then challenge Gruen's account of how entangled empathy moves us to attend to others. Lastly, and without intending to place humans at the center of the conversation, I reflect on the ways entangled empathy can help us solve some human problems—particularly the racial divide in the United States.

scholarly journals “Something Was Attacking Them and Their Reproductive Organs”: Environmental Reproductive Justice in an Indigenous Tribe in the United States Gulf Coast

2021 ◽  
Vol 18 (2) ◽  
pp. 666
Author(s):  
Jessica L. Liddell ◽  
Sarah G. Kington
Keyword(s):  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Gulf Coast ◽  
The United States ◽  
Reproductive Organs ◽  
Qualitative Description ◽  
Reproductive Justice ◽  
Land Loss ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Indigenous Groups ◽  
Oil Company

Environmental reproductive justice is increasingly being utilized as a framework for exploring how environmental exploitation and pollution contribute to reproductive health and reproductive injustices. However, little research explores how settler colonialism and historical oppression contribute to the physical transformation of land, and how this undermines tribal members’ health. Even less research explores the intersection of environmental justice and reproductive justice among Indigenous groups, especially in the Gulf South, who are especially vulnerable to environmental justice issues due to climate change, land loss, and oil company exploitation, and for tribes that are non-federally recognized. A qualitative description research methodology was used to conduct 31 life-history interviews with women from a Gulf Coast Indigenous tribe. Findings of this study reveal that central components of reproductive justice, including the ability to have children and the ability to raise children in safe and healthy environments, are undermined by environmental justice issues in the community. Among concerns raised by women were high rates of chronic healthcare issues among community members, and issues with infertility. Recognizing Indigenous sovereignty is central to addressing these environmental reproductive justice issues. This research is unique in exploring the topic of environmental reproductive justice among a state-recognized Gulf Coast tribe.

The Comparative Politics of Environmental Justice

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Kemi Fuentes-George
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Social Justice ◽  
Environmental Justice ◽  
Comparative Politics ◽  
Agricultural Development ◽  
Close Association ◽  
The United States ◽  
Industrialized Countries ◽  
Environmental Injustice ◽  
Environmental Advocacy

Although the terms “environmental justice” and “environmental racism” emerged due to race-based mobilization in the United States, justice is a constant feature of environmental struggles around the world. Pursuing social justice in environmental advocacy can be difficult, but case studies of activism in places including New Zealand, Mexico, Jamaica, Brazil, and the United States show that it is possible. Environmental injustice emerges when populations that are already politically and socioeconomically marginalized disproportionately bear the costs of environmental consumption, and they are often systematically excluded from the benefits of this consumption. Although different political systems vary in how they structure marginalization, this close association of social injustice with environmental injustice characterizes cases like fossil fuel extraction in industrialized countries and agricultural development in the Global South alike. While skeptics have argued that promoting environmentalism is counterproductive to social justice, because environmental regulations often constrain economic growth, combining the two can lead to more sustainable environmental practices.

scholarly journals Nonprofits and the Promotion of Civic Engagement: A Conceptual Framework for Understanding the "Civic Footprint" of Nonprofits within Local Communities

2014 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Micheal L. Shier ◽  
Lindsey McDougle ◽  
Femida Handy
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civic Engagement ◽  
Nonprofit Organizations ◽  
Rural Community ◽  
Community Education ◽  
The United States ◽  
Local Communities ◽  
Future Research ◽  
Community Members ◽  
Education And Awareness

ABSTRACT   The literature suggests that nonprofit organizations provide civic benefits by promoting engagement within local communities. However, there exists minimal empirical evidence describing the ways in which nonprofits actually undertake this role. In order to address this omission, we conducted interviews with personnel of nonprofit organizations in one rural community in the United States. Our preliminary findings indicate that nonprofit organizations promote civic engagement through programs and activities that: 1) engage volunteers and donors; 2) bring community members together; 3) collaborate with organizations within and beyond the community; and 4) promote community education and awareness. Together, these findings help to develop a working model to understand the civic footprint of nonprofit organizations with methodological implications for future research that would seek to measure the extent to which nonprofits promote civic engagement. Il est normal de supposer que les associations à but non lucratif favorisent l’engagement du citoyen dans les communautés locales. Cependant, il existe peu de données empiriques sur la manière dont ces associations assument véritablement ce rôle. Pour combler ce manque, nous avons mené des entretiens semi-directifs approfondis auprès du personnel d’associations à but non lucratif dans une petite communauté rurale aux États-Unis. Nos résultats préliminaires indiquent que ces associations motivent les citoyens à s’impliquer quand elles offrent des programmes et des activités qui : 1) intéressent les bénévoles et les donateurs; 2) rassemblent directement ou indirectement les membres de la communauté; 3) collaborent avec d’autres associations tant au sein de la communauté qu’au-delà de celle-ci; et 4) encouragent l’éducation et la conscientisation communautaires. Ces constats aident à établir un modèle pour mieux comprendre la présence civique des associations à but non lucratif dans les communautés et indiquent une piste à suivre pour des recherches futures qui examineraient l’influence de ces associations sur le niveau de participation civique.

scholarly journals School's Out

Elements ◽  
2021 ◽  
Vol 16 (1) ◽  
pp. 39-52
Author(s):  
Charlie Power
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Low Income ◽  
Education System ◽  
The United States ◽  
Current Evidence ◽  
Learning Loss ◽  
Summer Learning ◽  
Elementary And Secondary Education ◽  
Heated Debate ◽  
The Impact

The debate over the future direction of elementary and secondary education in the United States is fractious and contentious. Many of these are rooted in concerns over disparities in financial circumstances and race. While the full extent of the gaps, in addition to the United States' mediocre education system relative to other industrialized nations, has been a subject of frequent research and heated debate, one crucial component of this divide has yet to be analyzed: summer learning loss. This paper will closely analyze published literature in order to analyze the impact of summer education loss. Additionally, this paper will argue that summer learning varies by socioeconomic status (SES), with low-income populations gradually regressing over the years. This phenomenon has ramifications on students' achievement and explains the disparities that accumulate over a student's educational career. Finally, based on current evidence, this paper will make policy recommendations on how to change the current education system to better address summer's inherent inequities. 

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