Dear Supporter,

In the face of this moment of mass uprisings against police brutality and systemic racism, millions of us are being challenged to recognize our individual and collective role in maintaining systems of inequality and discrimination.

The Sierra Club is a 128-year-old organization with a complex history, some of which has caused significant and immeasurable harm. As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, we must also take this moment to reexamine our past and the fact that some of Sierra Club’s early members played a substantial role in perpetuating systemic racism.

This conversation is not new, even within the Sierra Club. But the time of actively ignoring calls for justice is over. It is our responsibility to go deeper into our past and critically examine some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the history of the Sierra Club. We’ve published the first in a series of posts on the Sierra Club’s history and our plans to rebuild the organization with a renewed focus on racial and social justice. It will be followed by posts about our history from the mid-20th century onward. In these posts, we will talk in depth about steps we’re taking to make the Sierra Club an actively anti-racist organization, and to understand and help repair the harms we have caused.

Addressing the climate crisis requires dismantling systemic racism. As our director of strategic partnerships, Hop Hopkins, wrote, "You can’t have climate change without sacrifice zones, and you can't have sacrifice zones without disposable people, and you can't have disposable people without racism." [1]

We are called to actively and thoughtfully dismantle racism in all of its forms and combat exclusion wherever it occurs—in our parks and wilderness areas, in our own communities, in the halls of power, and especially among our own staff, volunteers, and 3.8 million members and supporters. Although we see these posts as an important first step, we know that they aren't enough by themselves to ensure that we can build an inclusive and equitable Sierra Club for the 21st century. That's why we will also shift power and money within our organization to make sure we are working to address the root causes of the climate crisis and decades of environmental injustice.

In the coming weeks, we'll be creating a space for open and honest discussion of this work through a series of panel discussions and town halls for Sierra Club volunteers with members of our Board of Directors and chapter and volunteer leaders. We want to take the time to listen to your questions and thoughts as part of this process, and we encourage you to submit those on this Sierra Club Community Ask Us Anything form. In addition, please stay tuned for invitations to those events.

You are a valued part of our organization and a crucial part of our grassroots work to advance climate solutions, act for justice, get outdoors, and protect lands, water, air, and wildlife. Thank you for coming with us on this journey.


Ramón Cruz
Sierra Club President

[1] Hop Hopkins, “Racism Is Killing the Planet,” in Sierra magazine.

 

Rincon Group / Our Blogs / Blog on Equity. . .