Being a good steward of the land

The relationship between humans and the environment correlates directly with physical and mental health. A positive relationship bodes well for excellent overall health. However, history is our biggest teacher and tends to shape future relationships. Unfortunately, in the case of Black Americans and the environment, there is a negative and unhealthy history. There are many environmental activists of color such as Wanjiku “Wawa” Gatheru who are working to change the negative narrative and push towards a more equitable and eco-friendly environment for Black citizens to live healthy lives.
Research demonstrates that there are only a mere 10.5 percent of Black individuals working in careers related to the environment. Black women are significantly underrepresented in the decision-making process with respect to issues regarding the climate. Gatheru is among the most prominent Black female environmentalists in serving as the founder and executive director of Black Girl Environmentalist, a national non-profit that is instrumental in providing a way into climate leadership representation for Black women and girls and members of the LGBTQ+ community. Gatheru, a native of the Mashantucket Pequot tribal nation in Connecticut, attended the University of Connecticut, studying environmental science and policy and is the first Black Rhodes Scholar, Truman and Udall scholarship recipient.
Her parents instilled in her a rich history of serving as a steward for the land and, while growing up, she was surrounded by rural wilderness. At the age of 15, Gatheru took an environmental class where environmental justice, climate issues and climate change were introduced.
“My teacher decided to include an environmental justice chapter and it was there that I finally got the language of what the climate crisis truly is-but I began to realize that climate change was here,” Gatheru said. “It was there that I started to connect the dots between the climate crisis that was disproportionately impacting communities of color, in particular Black communities.”
Black Girl Environmentalist’s website states that their organization’s mission “aims to address the pathway and retention problem in the climate movement for Black girls, women, and gender-expansive people through: community empowerment, green workforce development, and narrative change.” Programs include the HUB Program, Hazel M. Johnson Summer Fellowship and The College Mentorship Program. The HUB program facilitates spaces for aspiring environmentalists to connect, convene and build community. The Hazel M. Johnson Summer Program is a 10-week paid internship program at partner organizations invested in climate solutions. Lastly, the college mentorship program seeks to provide Black women and gender-expansive undergraduates mentorship and professional development support.
One current-day issue for Black communities is the prevalence of climate change and the close proximity to hazardous facilities, toxic waste processing plants and industrial facilities. Climate change is causing severe and frequent weather events including heavy rainfall, dangerous storms, droughts and heat waves. These events can increase the spread of infectious diseases and interfere with food sources. Climate change directly affects air pollution, making it even more unsafe. A recent study found that Blacks breathe in 56 percent more particulate matter than they consume. Climate change is having a direct effect on heat waves which is expected to increase as greenhouse gas emissions continue to rise. Black communities are especially exposed to extreme temperatures and by mid-century are expected to experience 20 more extreme heat days per year.
Environmental racism is a pertinent issue within the Black community. Environmental racism is a form of systemic racism that exposes communities of color to more health hazards than other communities. Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. coined the phrase, “environmental racism” as the intentional practice of causing pollution and placement of waste facilities in communities of color. Environmental racism occurs as a result of institutionalized systemic racism and can appear in many different forms. Some forms include food deserts or lack of supermarkets and fresh food, water contamination, stagnant polluting facilities in communities of color, failing to clean up toxic waste sites and developers building unwanted facilities.
The Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s made an attempt to address environmental racism with a focus on the public health dangers in communities of color. In 1982, Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. led a group of 500 people in protesting the dumping of 40,000 cubic yards of soil tainted with cancer-causing chemicals in a Black community. Dr. Chavis Jr also conducted and published “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States of America” in 1986.The work demonstrated statistically the correlation between race and location of toxic waste throughout the United States.
Housing discrimination was a part of the local, state and federal policy while Black Americans migrated from the rural South into the North. Policies implemented resulted in federal housing programs (i.e. ghettos) where Blacks ended up living. Segregation and redlining were often shaped and enforced through land use policies and local zoning codes. Redlining is the refusal of a loan or insurance to someone because they live in an area deemed to be a poor financial risk. Redlining created disparities for Black Americans where they were denied opportunities to live in more affluent areas.
During the 1930’s redlining played a major part in the environmental racism that Black Americans faced. The Federal Housing Administration (FHA) refused to insure mortgages in Black communities during the 1930s, forcing them into urban housing projects and leaving suburban areas to Whites. The FHA continued to subsidize builders and mass produce subdivisions for White communities. According to an article at the website www.americanprogress.org, “Lenders, with the encouragement of the federal government, employed underwriting rules that preferred and sought to maintain racially white neighborhoods, a now discredited practice called redlining.”
Gatheru confirms that previously redlined communities have an infrastructure that creates extreme heat as opposed to White, upper-scale communities that have more green spaces. She further alludes that there is a correlation between impoverished previously redlined Black communities and extreme heat. Previously redlined communities had fewer green spaces, excess concrete, and a number of warehouses. Although redlining has since been outlawed, communities such as South LA remain impacted by climate change.
According to a report by Tishman Environment and Design Center, polluting industries placed facilities where the value of land was low. Black communities further had their rights squandered by the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), which had a history of favoring White communities. According to an article in https://seas.umich.edu, “neighborhoods marked as high-risk for investment over eight decades ago are 74 percent low-to-moderate income and 64 percent minority today.”
According to an article published on scopela.org, “A legacy of racist land use decisions has brought polluters in and has kept health-promoting land uses out, disproportionately burdening low-income communities of color.” South Los Angeles communities such as Compton, Lynwood and Vernon have extremely high pollution rates, hazardous waste, impaired water bodies, traffic and pesticides. They also have fewer green spaces, grocery stores, healthy food, parks and walking trails, but instead have excess oil wells, manufacturing facilities, truck routes and freeways. Freeways cause air pollution affecting resident’s health and 9 percent of South LA residents live within 500 feet of truck routes, which exposes them to diesel emissions. Air pollution from nearby factories and facilities causes a great deal of health issues such as asthma, diabetes and heart disease.