06/05/2020
The recent deaths of George Floyd, Ahmaud Arbery, and Breonna Taylor have brought to public attention the gross societal mistreatment of our black community members—a fact that is not new, but that many of us have had the privilege to ignore. Concurrently, the disproportionate number of black Americans affected by COVID has brought to light the inequity in our housing, economic, and health care policies. Such data calls to mind the environmental racism illuminated in places like Flint, Michigan, and the numerous black communities disproportionately affected by climate change and environmental toxins. All of these events are mere canaries in the coalmine of American’s broken system, and those of us with the privilege to turn a blind eye to the collective failing of our society must now take a moment (and another moment, and then another, and another, until forever) to acknowledge our own contributions to the anti-black sentiments that plague our society.
Here at the ESP, we’d like to acknowledge the fact that our office has failed our black students, time and time again. The environmental movement has repeatedly co-opted the achievements of black activists, minimized the overwhelming intersections between social justice and environmental justice, and served the interests of white, upper class folks while ignoring the concerns of black communities. The ESP is no exception. We would like to apologize to our black students for not serving your needs, for excluding you in our events, activism, and portrayal of environmentalism, and for ignoring your requests for better representation and allyship.
At this time, we to promise to work harder to uphold the “social justice” pillar of environmentalism. We also recognize that dividing environmentalism into different “pillars” or sectors is, in itself, problematic—our vision of sustainability should be more wholistic. A conversation about sustainability should always be a conversation about social justice, too. We recognize our failure to approach sustainability from a wholistic and inclusive place, and promise to do better in the future.
We promise to examine our hiring practices and to hold our non-black staff accountable for educating themselves in black history, black history within the environmental movement, the exclusive history of environmental movement, and the intersections between social movements—specifically the environmental movement and the social justice movement. We promise to ensure that the ESP and its events and programming serve the needs of black students. We promise to uplift the voices of black students, to hold our staff accountable, and to call out injustice when we see it. We recognize our responsibility to promote equity in our campus community, and the environmental movement as a whole.
