Racial Healing in Climate & Environmental Justice Organizing
/0 Comments/in News/by webdevHealing from the effects of racism takes more than one day. Yet, this is a great time and political climate to bring people together, cultivate trust, build relationships, tell the truth about your community or organization’s past and use authentic conversations to guide the future work of the Environmental Justice movement through dialogue about Anti-blackness.
Environmental liberation and injustice is a shifting landscape. We have recently experienced shifts in the demographic of nonprofit EJ leaders who succeeded within so many local organizations for the first time. Front-facing Anti-Black disruptions have been historically commonplace and even demonstrated by so-called values-aligned allies. Internal trust has not been built, the pace at which decision-making occurs trumps even identifying if the internal capacity is available to take on new and emerging work, politics are guiding the EJ movement more than the people especially those who identify as BIPOC.
The goal of our event is to demonstrate a united commitment to creating a safe space for Black people to be authentic, and to pave the way for future conversations that will change the ways EJ organizations work with one another beyond invitations to Black people to “the table”.
WHY RACIAL HEALING MATTERS
• It helps affirm the inherent value of all people in organizations and
communities.
• It cultivates a culture of belonging that can advance racial equity
and inclusion.
• It deepens our understanding of the differences in opportunities,
burdens and needs that exist related to how people racially/ethnically
identify.
• It restores individuals to wholeness by helping people share their
stories, lean into difficult conversations, constructively engage conflict
and face conscious and unconscious biases.
• It supports relationship building, trust, belonging, authenticity,
constructive dialogue and repairs the damage caused by systemic
racism.
• It builds community.
Learn more at: dayofracialhealing.org