Environmental Racism: Biological Civil Warfare

Flint and Pittsburgh share an economic history that is heavily industry based; today two factors are in play. Firstly, deindustrialization that has led to urban decay and environmental contamination, and secondly, a long standing racial and economic inequality. This is biological civil warfare. Flint native, Michael Moore points out the atrocity, “…you cannot reverse the irreversible brain damage that has been inflicted upon every single child in Flint. The damage is permanent. There is no medicine you can send, no doctor or scientist who has any way to undo the harm done to thousands of babies, toddlers and children (not to mention their parents). They are ruined for life.”

A reading from The Rev. Dr. William J. Barber II - Author of The Third Reconstruction: Moral Mondays, Fusion Politics, and the Rise of a New Justice Movement:

“William Douglass taught us back in the 19th century that power concedes nothing without a demand. Because power blinds broken human beings to injustice, the most powerful among us will always ignore and laugh at the cries of those who suffer. But when the balance of power tips far enough to threaten those who think that are in control...then those in power fight back. Their resistance is our confirmation that we are gaining ground. When they stop laughing and start fighting, you can be sure they are worried that you are winning.”

To combat these discriminatory practices will require an environmental justice movement which is just as much social as it is environmental. There is a potential for great power in this movement.

Fusion history teaches us to see strength in coalition. Much like the First and Second Reconstructions, the forces fighting us on voting rights, educational equality, and racial disparities in the criminal-justice system are the same ones behind the attacks on LGBTQ rights. The advocates of huge tax cuts for the wealthy and greater burdens on everyone else are the same ones pursuing a new Jim Crow through voter-suppression bills and race-based redistricting. They are the forces who refuse to expand Medicaid and are driving the re-segregation of our public schools.

If these extremists are cagey enough to work together, we should be shrewd enough to unite against them. None of us can wait until our special issue is under fire and then try to rally the people.

Wanda Guthrie is Chair of the Environmental Justice Committee Project and GreenFaith Fellow.

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