I’d never get anyone’s name tatted on my body, but if I could get Environmental Justice tatted on my body I would. The day I had my first day of classes at Swarthmore and took a course on Environmental Justice was the day my life changed and I’m being so serious right now. If you don’t know by now, I am an Environmental Studies major, which is crazy to say because if I track down my first grade self I don’t think she’d ever imagine that this is what I’d be doing in college. When I was in elementary school, I wanted to be a fashion designer. I had that kit with the stencils and the pre-made models drawn in black-and-white; I’d trace the stencils, which had outlines of different clothes, and then color them in. It was supposed to resemble a portfolio, one you’d use if you were an actual fashion designer. I got that kit and was convinced that fashion design was my calling.
A while later I got real with myself and admitted that fashion designing probably wasn’t gonna pay the bills (and I eventually got bored with my kit). I then did the dash to a more practical career and decided that I wanted to be an author. Yes my friends, I wanted to write books. English was always, and always will be, my favorite subject, so I just knew I wanted to dedicate my life to that. But, yet again, I thought a more creative pursuit would still not pay the bills (and I was terrible at writing Fiction), and so from then I just floated through high school having no clue what career I wanted to attach myself to for the rest of my life. After watching Soul, and being inspired by multiple teachers who quit teaching to pursue new careers like coding in San Francisco or going back to school, I realized that I did not have to tie myself to one career for the rest of my life. I can just bop from one career to the next, which sounds fun. So, I wasn’t too worried about what my career would be, I knew I’d figure it out.
Being an Environmental Studies major seems kinda left field for me because I was never particularly into nature. I’ve killed almost every plant my aunt has given me, I was never outdoors a lot as a kid--I was always in the house playing with my dolls or playing sims, I’ve never had a pet and wasn’t really into animals or wildlife, and apparently I don’t eat my vegetables, so again greenery and eco-ness aren’t really large factors in my life. To be honest, I don’t know how I got here, it kinda just happened.
I don’t know how I got to be so passionate about climate change. It was something I knew about and something I worried about because my mind’s place of residence is the future. If climate change takes us out then there'll be no future! Climate change worried me (or should I say worries me) because I knew people were gonna lose their homes, people already have. In sixth or seventh grade, my middle school went on an end-of-year trip to New Orleans; when we were there we got a tour of the city and the residential areas where homes had been destroyed due to Hurricane Katrina. We learned about the overcrowding of the Superdome and just the overall disaster the predominantly Black community experienced. Looking back, learning about Hurricane Katrina and her lasting impacts is one of the earliest memories I have about ‘natural’ disasters and their impacts on Black and low income communities.
I wish I had a specific moment where everything went “Eureka!” and I knew climate change was something I was passionate about. It happened so randomly--I was looking for summer internships I could do over the summer of my junior year of high school (a COVID year, 2021) and my guidance counselor sent out a list of internships to my grade. There was this program at the Climate Museum, and I figured, “Hey, I care about climate change, shouldn’t suck too much, let’s try it!” I applied and quite literally never thought about it again until I received an email from Maggie (love Maggie) that I was a finalist and they wanted to interview me! We did the interview over the phone and I got accepted for the internship.
I learned a lot that summer; the program gathered high school students from across the US and even some students internationally. We all had different stories and experiences with climate change which guided our discussions. We also had panels from people in various sectors of the industry who had jobs dealing with climate. I wish I knew all the names, but I fear I cannot tell you. We did meet the guy who made that climate simulator, I think it’s called Crossroads? Something like that. He spoke with us and taught us how to use the simulator. I even ended up using it in one of my classes at college, so when my Professor assigned it to us it was cool because I literally met the dude who made it.
Anywho, I did the internship at the Climate Museum that summer and decided that I wanted to focus on climate education, meaning that I wanted more people to know what climate change is and how it will affect their community. I was interested in providing information sessions at my community center to educate my community so we could have a community discussion about the climate crisis. The fun part about that internship is that we just put the word climate in front of words, like all words. There was climate art, and climate justice, and climate conversations. This all makes sense to me because they feel like actual terms, but whenever I type I see how it just seems like I’m putting the word climate in front of everything to make it mean something. The one that stands out is climate conversations--did you know that over 60% of Americans believe that climate change is real and are worried about it, yet only about 30% actually talk about it with other people (rough statistics but believe me because I wouldn't lie!). We all think we’re alone in the worry that our planet is dying, but in fact we are not!
When the program ended, I was so grateful for the experience and knew that this was something I wanted to continue. Everything was held over Zoom, but my memories of the program are full of nothing but color and liveliness, as if we were all in the same room with each other.
That takes us back to where we started. I went to college. When I came to college, I had no clue what I wanted to study, this was part of the reason I wanted to attend a liberal arts school. I wanted to float across different disciplines and see what I liked. Looking back now, I know that I want to be a holistic person--meaning I don’t want to know a lot about one thing (even though ENVS is my shit), but a good amount about a lot of different things. Being at a liberal arts school has provided me with that. My classes are in various subjects like Anthropology, Philosophy, English, Peace & Conflict Studies, Religion, and Environmental Studies (of course), but I have found connections across these courses and utilized those connections in each of my class assignments. I feel like my brain is so massive because of the connections I’ve made between Anthropology and Environmental Studies, or Philosophy and Environmental Studies, or even Religion and Environmental Studies.
I’ve taken classes in these different fields because of just a general interest that I allowed myself to explore. Next semester I plan to take my first Art History class and Film & Media Studies class. The Art History class is on Indigenous culture & art in Philadelphia, it’s cross listed with Environmental studies (I win!!); The film studies class is cross listed with English and is about Feminist Media--I’m a bit hesitant about that because we can sometimes stay in the realm of white feminism which can be a bit annoying for lack of better words, but I’m excited because I like the world of feminism.
I wanna focus on the convergence between Black feminism/womanism and environmental justice--that is my passion project and it has been so fun seeing it unfold. I’ve officially declared my major as Environmental Studies with a minor in English, and been accepted by both departments. It’s so weird going from saying I’m a prospective so and so major to now it actually being my major. College is going by fast!
My college experience has been beautified by my time with C4 (Campus Coalition Concerning Chester), an environmental justice organization on campus. The experience has been once in a lifetime. I’m so lucky and grateful for the relationships and experiences I’ve gained from being apart of C4 and working with Chester Residents Concerning Chester (CRCQL), it has truly became a family away from home and I am so so so appreciative of all the CRCQL members I’ve met who’ve been so welcoming and kind and full of praise for me and my fellow Swarthmore students. When I came to college I was afraid that I’d be really lost, alone, and like I had no purpose--but I have really found a purpose, a cause bigger than myself, and amazing humans along the way.
C4 got me when I was merely a fledgling first-year who had hopes of getting global warming to stop and had no idea where to start. My beef with global warming has turned into a beef with corporations, governmental bodies, and environmental racism. Yes, the climate is changing and that will always be my focus, but humans of color are dying--Black and Indigenous people are being murdered (slowly and immediately) over profit, as a result of continued colonialism, capitalism, and racism tied directly with the land. Did you know that? ‘Cause I had no fucking clue.
You ask any Black person who’s lived in an inner-city or in a rural area about polluted environments and they can point you to a building, a lot, or an area that is environmentally hazardous. A smoke-stack, an incinerator, a factory, a plant of some kind--it’s all around us, and we see it, but we don’t realize what it's doing to us. Higher rates of asthma, cancer, and other health problems. This is all tied in with the environment. The environment is where we live, work, and play--and our environments are being sabotaged and neglected. Some of us are able to pick up and leave these toxic environments, but a lot of us can’t. Chester is just one example of an environmental justice community that exists amongst a multitude of others across the nation and globally.
So when I say that I’m an environmental studies major, I don’t want people to think that it's just about saving the trees, but rather protecting the air we breathe, ensuring that the next generation has a future not plagued by environmental toxins, that communities of color don’t continue to have their health sacrificed. I want you to think about Flint, Michigan, and New Orleans, Louisiana, and Chester, PA, and the Bronx, NY and a plethora of more communities. Play around with this map--see if your neighborhood or a community near it is an EJ community. I don’t say this to fearmonger, or make you all convert to environmental studies majors, but rather to make you privy to what’s going on around you and to support those doing environmental efforts in whatever way that you can.
You’ll hear the word environmental justice thrown around a lot more now that its become more mainstream, you’ll see the word sustainability, and the word “green” a whole fucking lot, but remember who this fight is about. It’s about people of color, it's about just transitions--ensuring that as we move towards renewable energy that people of color and low-income people who work in factories, or mines, or other places that produce fossil fuels, don't get left behind.
My interest has always been protecting the future of my family (especially my baby little cousins--love them much), my friends, and all people. Innocent people who had nothing to do with the degradation of the Earth, people whose agency was taken from them, people who in another life would’ve taken great care of the earth, people who if given the chance can show us how to take care of the Earth--how to be sustainable, how to maintain a reciprocal relationship with the land. Black people, Indigenous people, people of color.
(Some) White environmentalists care solely about animal populations and that has irked my entire soul because it does nothing but add on to the dehumanization of people of color. Save the fucking polar bears yes, but also find moral fault in placing toxic trash incinerators in communities of color, find moral fault in the astronomically high asthma rates in Black children who die from asthma attacks. This fight is so personal to me because I believe everyone has the right to a bright future, the right to breathe, the right to experience joy, the right to not have to spend their life fighting for the right to live.
My work gravitates towards and is rooted in climate optimism (there I go putting the word climate in front of a word again, I promise it's a thing!). This world will be better, Black kids will experience joy and a full life, Black elders who have spent years in activism will get to rest.
My purpose in life is not activism and it never will be. Activism is not aspirational, it should not be a thing, and we should not have to dedicate our lives to it. My purpose in life is ensuring that the people around me experience joy, triumph, and life in its simplest forms. I just want everyone to be happy and free. Whatever I can do to help them achieve that I’ll do it. In addition to the struggle, there has been so much joy, triumph, and love in this fight and I’m so honored to be around to witness it.
great stuff