Trigger warning: The article below discusses the racial injustices of police brutality and the need for the Sierra Club to participate in ending white supremacy and taking antiracist actions in New Hampshire every time, everywhere.
April 2021
So much has happened since June 2020. We struggle, survive, endure, and build resiliency through the police brutality, systemic racism, and a global pandemic. The local and national conversations addressing the varied manifestations of harm from white supremacy are critical and demand our attention - even, for the environmental community in New Hampshire. Eventhough, the average white person feels separated from
June 23, 2020
The events of the past month and days have brought the violent racial abuse by the police on the street into homes across the country. The videos show the stark reality that Black people in particular experience regularly. As a predominantly historically white organization in a predominantly white populated state, it is not enough to witness and declare our opposition to racism. As an organizer and leader of this local organization, I am committed to using my whiteness to reject the white supremacy in our society or organization. We cannot address the inequities of environmental impacts by race, income, geography, age, sex, or gender identity without seeing white supremacy clearly as a social virus that must be cured. We must be actively antiracist.
In a recent conversation with a white member, they expressed their concern about saying “the wrong” thing or being called a racist while attempting to be supportive. My response continues to encourage action and reject silence to racism. The words from Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr’s Letter from a Birmingham Jail dated August 1963 resonate today in many ways.
One paragraph reads:
I must make two honest confessions to you, my Christian and Jewish brothers. First, I must confess that over the last few years I have been gravely disappointed with the white moderate. I have almost reached the regrettable conclusion that the Negro's great stumbling block in the stride toward freedom is not the White Citizens Councillor or the Ku Klux Klanner but the white moderate who is more devoted to order than to justice; who prefers a negative peace which is the absence of tension to a positive peace which is the presence of justice; who constantly says, "I agree with you in the goal you seek, but I can't agree with your methods of direct action"; who paternalistically feels that he can set the timetable for another man's freedom; who lives by the myth of time; and who constantly advises the Negro to wait until a "more convenient season." Shallow understanding from people of good will is more frustrating than absolute misunderstanding from people of ill will. Lukewarm acceptance is much more bewildering than outright rejection.
The Sierra Club is calling on our members and supporters to speak as antiracists. To our white members and supporters, take the steps to learn and liberate yourself from the silence of white supremacy. I know it sounds cliché but read a book.
There is a list of resources in this newsletter of blogs, twitter feeds, books, movies, and more.
If you are white, there are discussion groups that help white folks find the tools to break the chains of racism and white supremacy so that you can speak with confidence and from your heart. Further, the Sierra Club implores you to do more and we will conspire with you to act for racial justice. The Chapter will reach out to our members and supporters to do more to address racism and equity, just as we ask you to protect our planet.
For Black, Indigenous, and people of color members and supporters, the Chapter must do more to include your voices and initiatives. The Chapter recognizes that in our efforts to improve the local, state, and federal response to the pandemic and the climate crisis, we must acknowledge and face the role race plays in the application and access to resources.
As reported in last month’s newsletter, the state reported COVID19 cases and deaths by race. At the time of this writing, according to the state’s reporting, the pandemic cases and deaths are impacting communities of color disproportionately - see the table – source: WMUR
The enduring systemic racism limits access to healthcare, education, fair wages and much more. This systematic oppression is not new. The indignities and harm of the constant everyday inequities faced by the Black, Indigenous, and communities of color have become plain during the pandemic and with the advent of cell phones. In fact, structural racism is tied to the systems that plunder our natural resources and pollute our communities — especially those same communities of color terrorized by police violence.
Again, for our white members and supporters, I implore you to take on the challenge to improve your community for all. We must step up and take an active role to address racism and white supremacy for a better future with our Black, Indigenous, and communities of color friends, neighbors, co-workers, family, and, ultimately, for ourselves.
Resources:
- Sierra Club's statement on George Floyd's murder
- Sierra Club Magazine's article, Racism is Killing the Planet, by Hop Hopkins
- Green groups back protestors. But they're grappling with how best to address their own issues with race. (Touches on the issue of environmental racism too.)
- This letter, which Sierra Club has co-signed, demands congressional action on police violence
- Knowledge is the antidote to discomfort as well as necessary for being the best ally possible; it is power. For ways to be anti-racist and to learn about systemic racism, see this resource list.
--Chapter Director Catherine M. Corkery