Audience: African Americans

Environmental nonprofits often need to alter their board practices, build connections, and create co-powered solutions in order to recruit and retain Black members on their boards. This report argues that philanthropic funders don’t trust BIPOC-led organizations as much as white-led organizations, and this causes fewer Black placements onto nonprofit boards. Environmental nonprofit boards need to be “ready” for Black board members by showing true dedication to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion and to combatting racism. Boards need to “recruit” by creating and network and pipeline of potential board members, and they need to “retain” by doing comprehensive onboarding, dealing with microagressions and overt racism, and not tokenizing Black board members. This report breaks down all these lessons in more detail.

Young Coloradans believe in a future where everyone is treated equally, resources are abundant, and we use innovative and creative solutions to solve big problems such as climate change and racial inequality. 57% of all youth named “equality” as a top value, and 44% named “relationship with Earth” as a top value. Among BIPOC youth, 60% named “technology and innovation” as a top value (with 52% naming “equality” as a top issue). Top issues named by all youth include: racial justice (60%), mental health (58%), healthcare (56%), education (40%) and climate change (40%). Many young people are unsure of where to start to create change but desire to be more involved and learn through experience. Young people strongly value the impact of voting, yet also believe it is insufficient on its own to create change. This report includes lots more specific survey questions and answers.

Many people communicating for social change are exploring how to tell diverse and inclusive stories that center marginalized communities while building understanding about how inequality persists. Intersectionality is an important tool to help us tell great stories that help us understand systemic issues. Five guiding principles to telling intersectional stories: Show, don’t tell; Provide historical context; Uplift the voices of marginalized people; Tell whole stories; and, Radically reimagine the world.
  

Lack of racial and ethnic representation among journalists may relate to the common misperception that White Americans are the most concerned about climate change. Although news reporting on climate change plays a crucial role in shaping public understanding of the issue, little is known about racial/ethnic representation in climate change reporting. In a survey of over 1,000 professional journalists, this resource finds that White journalists were much more likely than Black, Hispanic, or multiracial journalists to have reported on at least one local climate change story in the past year. This lack of representation may contribute to the common misperception that concern about climate change is the domain of affluent Whites, when, in fact, people of color are actually more vulnerable to, and more concerned about, the impacts of climate change than their White counterparts. This resource also reports journalist perceptions of, and interest in, climate change reporting by race/ethnicity.

Understanding the root causes of the climate crisis is important when thinking about the type of rigor that is required to organize for social change. The implications of understanding the systems of oppression that have led to climate crisis will inform our response to it, so it is relevant for advocates like us to explore this to ensure we are developing programming that is unapologetic about building the people-power necessary to win. People-power requires we understand how ALL people are affected by the issue at hand.
As we’ve seen the words just and equitable pop up ever more frequently over the last year, I often think about what that means for those who are the most vulnerable to climate disasters. A group of people I seldom hear spoken about are our comrades who are victims of the carceral system. This month we honor Black people and communities who fight for liberation and environmental justice. This month we celebrate Black August.
In this Insight, we will discuss Black August and its importance, racial capitalism and its connection to the climate crisis, the interlocking systems of oppression we face, prisons as sites of environmental justice, and abolition as a path forward.