The Intersectional Environmentalist: How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet

Reviews

Brian

Indeed, she comments that ‘It is an immense privilege to create space for and hold a piece of their magic and legacies every time the word ‘intersectionality’ is said or written down. She cites Paul Mohai, an environmental justice expert and professor who found that ‘even when socioeconomic factors are similar across white and non-white communities, the community of color is still more likely to be near environmental hazards. ’ ‘Startingly, as of 2019, race is still the number one indicator of where waste facilities are located in the U.

I felt that it was not Thomas’s goal to finger point and blame, but rather to acknowledge the past and understand that our present is rooted in the past. ’ She continues that ‘Intersectional environmentalism argues that the same systems of oppression that oppress people also oppress and degrade the planet.

Together all of our voices are so powerful—much more powerful than we might think. As Thomas says, ‘The more we talk about our identities and the ways they influence how we experience the world, the better we can understand how they’re connected to both the privileges and prejudices we might experience.

’Thomas acknowledges that, in 2020, she felt ‘alone and unheard, without much acknowledgement from the wider environmental community. ’She argues that ‘This tenet of the pledge is one of the most important.

Thomas lays out in depth how climate injustice has impacted communities such as Black Americans, Latinx Americans, Indigenous communities, and Asian American and Native Hawaiians/ Pacific Islanders. ’ When her intersectional environment graphic went viral, Thomas realised that there was a global audience wanting to hear this message and that her identity and her voice, were part of the narrative.

’Thomas concludes her inclusive approach by saying, ‘One day I hope that when people think of an environmentalist, they’ll automatically envision a person who cares very deeply about both people and planet. ’ Am I being asked to listen and to understand? Thomas builds on the work of Professor Kimberlé Williams Crenshaw, who is a Black feminist legal theorist, who in the late 1980s, focused heavily on the intersecting identities of discrimination that were identifiable then in the legal courts.

Environmental justice is the goal. IE argues that social and environmental justice are intertwined and that environmental advocacy that disregards this connection is harmful and incomplete.