Kudos to the Sierra Club Executive Director Michael Brune for his apology for the racist efforts of John Muir, the founder of the Sierra Club, who promoted sterilization for "the poor, physically and mentally disabled people, and those of 'unfit' races, including Black and Latino people, as well as Jews."
Now, Michael should do something about the Sierra Club's war on climate change that makes Latinos, Black folks, and other communities of color "unfortunate" collateral damage.
If Michael Brune is sincere about the steps the club is now taking, they are beginning an incredibly long process to rebuild the Sierra Club and try to repair the harm it has caused.
CCB remains willing to help him - Contact us, Michael.
Remember, this is the same Sierra Club who attempted to block the development of the first U.C. Campus in 40 years: U.C. Merced. Ironically, they didn't oppose the building of so many prisons in the Central Valley.
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Sierra Club distances itself from John Muir, apologizes for ‘perpetuating white supremacy’
SF Chronicle
By John Wildermuth [Jul 22, 2020]
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The executive director of the Sierra Club apologized Wednesday for its “substantial role in perpetuating white supremacy,” and said John Muir, the club’s founder and an icon of the environmentalist movement, was a racist.
In a post on the organization’s website, Michael Brune said that just as Black Lives Matter activists are pulling down monuments to Confederate leaders, the club must re-examine its past and “take down some of our own monuments.”
That includes Muir, who Brune admitted was beloved by many of the club’s members and whose writings “taught generations of people to see the sacredness of nature.”
But Muir also was close friends with paleontologist Henry Fairfield Osborn and others connected to the eugenics movement, which advocated sterilizing those whom white supporters pegged as “deficient”: the poor, physically and mentally disabled people, and those of “unfit” races, including Black and Latino people, as well as Jews.
Muir “was not immune to the racism peddled by many in the early conservation movement,” Brune wrote. “He made derogatory comments about Black people and indigenous peoples that drew on deeply harmful racist stereotypes.”
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Homing In: Musings on Poverty and Homeownership
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We just started a podcast!
On our most recent episode, staff member Julia Beauchemin interviewed Jennifer Hernandez, Two Hundred Leadership council member and partner at Holland and Knight.
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Environmental Injustice Is Another Form of 'Assault on Black Bodies,' Says Sen. Cory Booker
Yahoo News
By Sanya Mansoor [Jul 9, 2020]
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“We still live in a nation where so many Americans are suffering with environmental injustice but the biggest determining factor of whether you live around toxicity — whether you drink dirty water, whether you breathe dirty air — is the color of your skin,” Booker said in a TIME 100 Talks discussion with TIME correspondent Justin Worland. He added that “the environmental movement has to become a lot more diverse than it is.”
Booker spoke about contaminated drinking water, food deserts, safety concerns for workers in the meatpacking industry — which have come to the forefront during the coronavirus pandemic — as well as the importance of empowering local independent farmers instead of putting all the power in the hands of powerful multinational corporations. These farmers are being “driven out of business at astonishing rates,” he said.
Booker said climate is not a federal priority, particularly as many Republicans on a national level continue to deny that there is in fact a climate crisis. “It’s very hard to deal with a problem if you won’t even name it,” he said.
In general, by failing to prioritize solutions on the front-end, taxpayers end up footing a larger bill on the back-end in the form of emergency room visits and arrests that land people in prison, he notes.
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Thank you, Senator Cory Booker! Finally, the new national political awakening of young leaders has provided vindication that a pro-environment position is not immune to racist repercussions. For a number of years, CCB has been harshly criticized because we have dared to question the policies and practices of environmental elitists. Liberal environmentalists have assailed the integrity of our minority leaders who have challenged climate change policies that will have a disproportionately negative impact on communities of color.
CCB through its statewide coalition, The Two Hundred project, was forced to sue the California Air Resources Board (CARB) because they were indifferent to the concerns we raised about penalizing commuters who are forced to travel many miles to where they work because of failed housing policies. Too many times environmentalists have promoted ideas like subsidizing expensive electric cars for the rich while suggesting the working class needs to ride the bus.
The lack of diversity of environmental groups and government regulators is not only part of their dark past, founded by white supremacists and racists but is also responsible for a climate war that makes communities of color nothing more than collateral damage.
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Designed by Kaylie Chen, Executive Editor
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