July 23, 2020
It would be natural to wonder how Sierra Club staff and volunteers are processing the major Washington Post story on Sierra Club that came out yesterday.
National Director Michael Brune said in a same day post (English/Spanish), "As defenders of Black life pull down Confederate monuments across the country, we must also take this moment to reexamine our past and our substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy. It’s time to take down some of our own monuments, starting with some truth-telling about the Sierra Club’s early history."
Maryland Chapter Director Josh Tulkin notes that "for some folks there will be a mourning period as we begin to ground-truth our past heroes. But any challenges in becoming a truly anti-racist organization pale in comparison to the struggle of being a person of color in a racist society, or working in an orgnization that in practice can fall short of its anti-racist objectives. Maryland Sierra Club is working every day to better use our voice and actions not just for narrow environmental issues but for Black Lives Matter and racial and social justice."
Sierra Club's history is difficult indeed, and Sierra Club has been grappling with its history for years, evidently with some in the staff having open discussions about the true legacies of the people who founded the institution.
While there were people in Sierra Club Founder John Muir’s lifetime who spoke out against the genocide and displacement of Native peoples from their lands, Muir failed to see the injustice inherent in the forced removals of Native peoples from the lands he was so dedicated to protecting. Muir's writings on nature are famous, but his writings also included hateful and dismissive references to Indigenous and Black people. His early colleagues espoused blatant white supremacist ideas and some even promoted forced sterilization and worse.
The whiteness and privilege of our early membership fed into a very dangerous idea -- one that’s still circulating today. It’s the idea that exploring, enjoying, and protecting the outdoors can be separated from human affairs. The persistence of this misguided idea is part of the reason why we still get comments from our own members telling us to “stay in our lane,” and stop talking about issues of race, equity, and privilege.
-Michael Brune, Director
But the environment is for everyone, and it can't be separated from the dynamics of society, power and race. So all those issues are our issues.
Michael Brune goes on to say, and we agree: "The Sierra Club that I want to belong to not only acknowledges that reality, it also works to counter racism and exclusion wherever it occurs -- in our parks and wilderness areas, in our communities, in the halls of power, and especially among our own staff, volunteers, and 3.8 million members and supporters."
It is critical to reckon with this difficult past because, by failing to acknowledge the truth about the racism of early members and founders, the organization has hurt its own members and staff of color and other communities. The early members were not the only ones to perpetuate racist ideas within Sierra Club. Sierra Club admits it has made a lot of mistakes on its journey to solidarity and partnership with communities of color.
Today, however, in the words of Michael Brune,
We are redesigning our leadership structure so that Black, Indigenous, and other leaders of color at the Sierra Club make up the majority of the team making top-level organizational decisions. We will initiate similar changes to elevate the voices and experiences of staff of color across the organization. We know that the systems of power that got us here will not enable the transformational change we need. Pending approval from our board, we will shift $5 million from our budget over the next year -- and more in the years to come -- to make long-overdue investments in our staff of color and our environmental and racial justice work.
Maryland Chapter Chair Rosa Hance acknowledges: "It is painful but necessary to speak out about the early founders of the Sierra Club so we can weed out any traces of white supremacy and transform into the organization that can fulfill its mission to provide opportunities for all people to explore, enjoy, and protect the planet. White supremacy has no place in this organization and is inherently antithetical to the sustainability and healing of our planet."
Maryland Chapter Director Josh Tulkin sees this reckoning with history as an overdue but important step in a process. "Part of creating a better future is being honest about our history. This reconciling is an important step for the Sierra Club. The Washington Post article discusses how Sierra Club and other environmental organizations are addressing racism, in the past and the present. As the article notes, Sierra Club is taking some important steps, but this work is long overdue and we have a long way to go."
Chapter Deputy Director Paula Posas, herself a person of color with Honduran, Black and Indigenous Heritage, is glad to be a part of Sierra Club during this time of institutional soul-searching and rapid growth and change. Posas reflects, "We are all learning, there is so much to learn. I am proud of the commitment to change made in the highest levels of Sierra Club leadership, grateful to work with like-minded colleagues, and eager to support Sierra Club in its expanding role and activism for racial and social justice."
Volunteer responses have ranged from disappointment and disgust to appreciation that the organization is making bold and decisive steps to align its actions with its principles of equity, inclusion, and justice.
Maryland Chapter Political Chair Rich Norling says, "We still have work to do in transforming the organization, but I am proud to say that last year the national leadership expanded the criteria for endorsing candidates in elections beyond the traditional narrow environment issues to include equity, inclusion and justice. We now recognize that the environment includes not just natural places but also the conditions in which people live and interact. We will continue working to improve our own structure and behavior, and our actions that affect electoral politics."
Lily Fountain, chair of the Natural Places Committee, added that "Black, Latinx, Indigenous, and People of Color have always enjoyed natural places. White people have been blind to the fact that it is structural racism, such as lack of public transportation in parts of the state, lack of nearby natural places, lack of a living wages causing people to need to work extra jobs, and the need to choose jobs that pay better than ecological policy and naturalist jobs. These structural barriers can prevent participation in Sierra Club activities. The Natural Places Committee is dedicated to making natural places more available to all through supporting structural change, as well as locating outings throughout the state, and making our leadership and membership more accessible to all:"
Sierra Club volunteer leaders, including Teresa Ball, are actively shaping the conversations and spaces in the community that Sierra Club is part of. Ball is on the Maryland Sierra Club Executive Committee and is Charles County NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Chair. Last week Sierra Club hosted and Ball moderated the "Southern Maryland Environmental Justice Forum" with leaders from the NAACP, Cedarville Band of Piscataway Indians (indigenous to Maryland), and a climate and justice activist. One panelist called it "a courageous and honest conversation about environment and climate," with 60 people registered and many watching the recording later.
Ball closed the forum saying, "Now, now is the time. It's critical that we get involved in these conversations and this advocacy work. ... It is critical that we do something, start now ... involve yourself in awareness, advocacy, testimony, testifying, joining an organization, educating yourselves."
Below are some supporting materials and writings on environmental and racial justice, and here are some further actions Sierra Club is taking to be more actively anti-racist.
Hop Hopkins, “Racism is Killing the Planet” (2020)
Ramon Cruz, “A Movement Moment” (2020)
Xavier Boatright, “We Must Dismantle Racism to Achieve Social, Environmental and Climate Justice” (2020)
Jackie Ostfeld, “Outdoors for All in 2019: Equity and Empowerment” (2019)
Nellis Kennedy-Howard, “Charting a New Path for Equity at Sierra Club in 2018” (2018)
Heather Moyer, “Sierra Club and the Jemez Principles” (2017)
Allison Chin, “Sierra Club Invests in Equity, Inclusion and Justice with Growing for Change Workshop” (2017)
Allison Chin, “A More Diverse, Welcoming, and Inclusive Sierra Club” (2013)