Now What?

Something I have been struggling with since the election last Tuesday is how to use my privileges to continue to fight for environmental justice. In a time where so many people fear for the lives, I tend to forget about the needs of the environment and it feels more urgent to address the needs of those who are being hurt and killed. Hate crimes have spiked since Trump has become the president-elect, and it feels more important now than every to stand in solidarity with those who's rights are being threatened: LGBTQIA*, POC and undocumented folks, people who are disAbled, Muslims, women or any other marginalized person.

However, engaging with the Dakota Pipeline Access protests, talking to family members who live in Flint, MI who don't have clean drinking water, along with reading resources such as "Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality" by Robert. D Bullard (1990) and "The Right to the City: Social Justice and the Fight for Public Space" by Don Mitchell (2003), helped reinforce the fact that environmental justice is a race issue. It is a class issue.  It cannot be separated from social justice because environmental justice is social justice. 

We cannot forget about the environment in the fight for equality because it is so closely tied to one another.