Season 2 Episode 09: Earth Day 2021

Black and brown communities have always borne the brunt of environmental degradation. With redlining forcing their communities into highly polluted or natural disaster-prone areas, it’s hard not to see the intersection of race, class, and the environment. In this special Earth Day episode of Let’s Talk About Race, we dive into what environmental racism looks like in real-time. 

Equitably addressing climate change has been a decades-long struggle,  with most of the framing centering on the needs and perceptions of the middle-class. This framing has continued to put BIPOC communities at risk and being on the receiving end of illegal dumping, lack of access to green space, and ill-kept infrastructure. 

To add insult to injury when these communities do reside in desirable areas they are pushed out by developers with the backing of local government. The harbinger of this change can often have telltale signs, and as some would say, “If you want to know when gentrification is coming, look to see where they are placing the bike lanes.”