CUNY’s Environmental Justice Coalition is continually outraged by the racist killings in our country. Black Lives Matter. Breonna Taylor (whose birthday is today), Ahmaud Aubery, and George Floyd comprise just the most recent victims of anti-Black violence. We stand against their deaths and against every other Black life that has been taken by police brutality whose names we do not know. We fight in solidarity against the systemic oppression of BIPOC communities around the world, and urge every environmentalist and environmental organization to acknowledge that we cannot talk about our environment or the future sustainability of our planet WITHOUT addressing the institutionalized environmental racism in our communities and globally.
We stand in solidarity with BLSA and urge our community to read BLSA’s statement in support of the Movement for Black Lives (see attached).
As my favorite marine biologist has recognized, “Our racial-inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis. If we don’t work on both, we will succeed at neither.” As we’ve learned here at CUNY, white supremacy was, and still is, the law of “our land” since the taking of this country from Indigenous peoples. We MUST dismantle our white fragility through radical change, and fight to uplift BIPOC voices in all capacities.
Below is an action toolkit from Staff at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance as well as an important article on Design Justice by Bryan Lee Jr. that we hope you will read. As Peggy Shepard, Co-founder and Executive Director of WE ACT says, “The need to end police violence goes hand-in-hand with the need for clean air, clean water, health equity, safe and affordable housing, toxic-free products, and an equitable solution to the climate crisis. These are all issues we must address to achieve a healthy and just community.”
With love and support,
Phoebe Gittelson, on behalf of CUNY’s Environmental Justice Coalition
From Staff at the New York City Environmental Justice Alliance: We uplift the Movement for Black Lives Week of Action and we urge people to find safe ways to participate. In NYC specifically, we are uplifting the calls of groups like Communities United for Police Reform to reduce the bloated NYPD budget and allocate funds into critical services like education, health care, climate change and pollution mitigation, and green jobs in our communities as opposed to racist targeting and increased militarization. NYC residents who want to be involved in this effort are urged to take action using this toolkit. The budget priorities of the City at present are unacceptable and demonstrate a commitment to upholding rather than dismantling systems of oppression. We also offer suggested places to donate, petitions, readings, and other actions.