Hi everyone! My name is Faith ( @donthavefaith) and I’m going to be live tweeting the panel on Blackness, Feminism, and the Climate Emergency, you can watch along below! http://Earthdaylive2020.org 

I’m the Deputy Director of Operations for the climate justice group @ThisIsZeroHour and I’ll be sharing notable moments and my thoughts. First, I want to acknowledge that I am not a Black woman! I’m watching this panel to learn, not to try to represent an experience not my own

Ilyasah Shabazz & Khristen Hamilton are currently discussing the importance of having Black women lead in the climate mvmt, since they’re disproportionately affect by the climate crisis.

How can we reflect on white-washing within our movement’s leadership?

My sweet friend Khristen is now speaking with Patrisse Cullors about her work as one of the co-founders of Black Lives Matter.

Cullors just noted that we should be viewing jails and prisons as an environmental issue.

That’s right everyone, prison abolition (trust me it’s good) is also an environmental cause! Maybe we should all look into it :) Happy Earth Day :)

Cullors is now talking about how she and her peers felt the need to move away from environmentalists who never addressed environmental racism

Now maybe you’re thinking, what sort of environmentalists are those? (Hint: think Teddy Roosevelt)

That’s right! The white founding fathers of the American conservation movement.

It also includes many people who call themselves environmentalists today, and especially the ones who throw around “environmental racism” in class but lock their doors in “sketchy” neighborhoods

So how do we address this? How do we make sure that environmentalism, with its long history of racism and anti-Indigenous violence (google is free), actually steps up and addresses environmental racism?

(Hint: third tweet in this thread)