The Environment and Racism can seem like separate problems, but would you believe me if I told you they were connected? Environmental Racism is a big problem around the world, and in this Episode we try and understand what it is. To understand the issue, I talked with Tina Johnson. She is the director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. We ask her, what Environmental Racism is, how the environment and racism are connected, and why it is such a problematic issue.
There is nothing like being able to connect to your hometown and be given the opportunity to connect with a friend, talk about old times and to share the work of environmental justice on the Chester Blog Live with Stefan Roots.
Between The Lines’ Melinda Tuhus spoke with Tina Johnson, a writer, consultant and director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. Here, she explains the goals of the meetings, which for now are taking place virtually due to COVID health restrictions
The idea that conservationism somehow is just about conserving the planet and the animals negates the need to include humanity as a part of that. I think it’s just a flawed approach. Especially when we understand that, you know, yes, the planet could survive without us, but, in fact, we are part of this ecosystem.
As the Biden Administration takes steps to address the climate crisis, new opportunities for shared action are emerging—if we can understand and coordinate across divides. In this video, Tina Johnson of the National Black Environmental Justice Network (www.nbejn.org) talks about how environmental racism has made COVID-19 so deadly, and what environmental justice really means during these times.
Racial equity and justice in philanthropy is essential in dismantling systematic racism. And it is clear that depending on where the money is placed will determine the effectiveness of BLO to lead in ending systemic racism. In order for NBEJN to be successful, effective, influential and to have longevity we need the philanthropy community to lean in and to get comfortable with being partners with us.
In the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the Black Lives Matter movement has gained sweeping momentum, sparking sustained nationwide protests and a national conversation on systemic racism. An element of that systemic injustice is environmental racism. Tina Johnson, director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN) joined CCL for our September 2020 monthly meeting for a conversation on these topics.
As the COVID-19 pandemic unfolds, we see disproportionate numbers of Black people becoming infected and dying from the disease. Leaders in the environmental justice community know this disparity all too well, and in June the National Black Environmental Justice Network was relaunched to help communities of color address the inequities that place them in harm’s way. Tina Johnson, director of NBEJN, joins us to talk about those disparities and how the network is fighting for environmental justice.
The pandemic and the killing of George Floyd energized a response from the environmental-justice movement that had been building in recent years, says Bullard of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. “The convergence of threats now calls for a new emphasis on the urgency of bringing attention to the underlying conditions that create the economic, health, and environmental disparity that relates to policing and criminal justice,” he says. But understanding the disparity, he adds, requires knowing its history.
Since its founding, environmental justice has been grounded in dismantling systemic racism. Those who have experienced environmental racism, social and racial inequities, an overburden of climate change consequences and the disproportionate impacts of COVID-19, understand that what will help move the United States forward — whether from the coronavirus, economic and climate crises — is an administration that lifts them up and act in their best interest. Sen. Kamala Harris (D-Calif.), who is now the Democratic Party vice presidential nominee, has the opportunity to propel the fight for environmental and climate justice into a broader conversation.
“The historic presidential ticket of Biden-Harris is a proud moment in America. Black women have been leaders in the United States from the abolition of slavery, Suffrage, Civil Rights, Human Rights, Education, Community Organizing. They have been the soul of the Democratic Party. By choosing Kamala Harris for his running mate Joe Biden has acknowledge the intelligence, power, and leadership of Black women to lead. It's long overdue but this is a step in building a united and stronger America,” said Tina Johnson Principle of Johnson Strategy and Development, NBEJN Director.
"The FERC system and process is not fair, it's not just, and it's screwing people who are already being screwed by a system that says it's OK to dump on them despite the research that says this is killing them," said Tina Johnson, the director of the National Black Environmental Justice Network. "That makes me sick to my stomach."
‘It was the perfect storm of these two events,’ said Tina Johnson, the network’s director to Inside Philanthropy. ‘The one was a virus, and then the other virus that was systemic racism.’
