Week 4 - Diversifying the Movement

As we know the lack of women taken seriously in the environmental movement is at an absurd level. However, the lack of black/brown women is even more absurd. The article “The State of Diversity in Enviormental Organizations: Green 2.0 Report” how many of the women and men involved and taken seriously in the movement are white. It says “Despite the growth in ethnic minority population in the U.S., the percentage of minirities on the boards or general staff of enviornmental organizations does not exceed 16%...” The ethnic diversity in this movement is even more troubling than the gender diversity. With only 16% of all minorities in America being involved as staff. The article also explains how the number of minorities in leadership positions is even less than that at 12%. However there are some truly great minorities that’s don’t great things in this movement; The article “Ghostbusters in Enviornmentalism: Black Women (Re)Shaping Enviornmental Justice” father explains this. This article goes through many great black women that are involved in the movement. For example, Majora Carter a primer urban environmental consultant, and the founder of Green for All, Sustainable South Bronx, and Majora Carter Group, LLC. Majora Carter is an black women who set out to reform and bring about environmental justice to South Bronx, and then the U.S. Founder of these companies she has accomplished a lot and made big steps for minority women.

These articles are both sad and inspirational. When you see such a gap between the percentage of whites and blacks it reminds you of the truth. The fact that this fake sense of equality given by us from the government is exactly that; a false sense of freedom in order for us to get complacent and content with our situation. However from the “Green report” article underlining minorities being 16% of these institutions and 12% leaders of these institutions we can clearly see that we still need to do work in order to reform this country. However, the “Ghostbusters in Enviornmentalism” article brings hope. This article shows that there will always be a few that get through the barriers. It gives us a path and leaders to follow in order to push the rest of us through that barrier.

Vocab :
Diversity - “The state of being diverse; variety”
Minority - “The smaller number or part, especially when the number is less than half of the whole”
Enviornmentalism - “Concerned about and action aimed at protecting the environment”