Dear Environmentalists, Lest We Forget
Black Trauma. An integral and favored element of oppression and racial hierarchy. The Sweet Spot. Smeared with the juices of “Strange fruit hangin’ from the poplar trees.” Fueled by white supremacy’s desperate thirst for _________.
Black Trauma is an unimaginable and all too familiar pain that will have you longing for the comfort and embrace of your mother. It will cause you to scream out for relief. For answers. For the ability to just breathe. It will bring you to your already bruised knees in desperation — but never surrender. In sadness — but never weakness. In anger — but never without faith.
Our collective consciousness was shocked in 2020, but for some of us this was not surprising at all. An 8 minute and 46 second scene that was somewhat of a rerun of the Black American experience. Stolen people on stolen land.
In the aftermath, it brought some healing to see that so many of our consciences were not just shocked but were shocked into action. Shocked into the streets. Into miles and miles of lines to vote out the instigators and enablers of Black, Brown, Indigenous, Immigrant, LGBTQ+, Gender-Based, Ableism-Based Trauma. This is our moment. All of us who have felt the evil grasp of oppression. And in this moment. No. Not a moment. A Portal. And in this Portal into a new way, we must honor and center that Sweet Spot born of Strange Fruit. That full and complete series of events in 2020 that shocked the conscience. That brought us to our knees and then lifted us up again. That flung us into the streets to demand justice. To demand peace. To heal. To awaken within all of us the courage to fight for racial justice.
We must ground ourselves in the fact that the openings we are seeing now in environmental and climate movement work were made possible by the brutal and state-sponsored killings of black bodies. They were made possible by Black Trauma being re-lived and on display for the greater part of 2020. Without this, Trump is still in office. Biden isn’t signing racial equity, climate, and environmental justice Executive Orders or appointing diverse cabinet members. Philanthropy isn’t moving into BIPOC spaces in historic ways. And companies are not posting solidarity notes and Head of Diversity openings on their websites.
Remember the poplar tree that bore the Strange Fruit in 2020 that is now fueling a new era for environmental and climate justice movements. And not to remember for the sake of remembering, but to make sure that what is centered moving forward are the people and the communities that sacrificed the most in 2020. If we do not do this, we are failing humanity. Because as long as that poplar tree is standing and bearing Strange Fruit, none of us, most importantly the generations to come, will know justice. And without justice, there is no peace.
Dear George Floyd, Elijah McClain and Breonna Taylor, We Will Remember
This is for you, for your families and for the communities of which you are a part. Your legacies and sacrifices will never be forgotten in our work for a just and sustainable world.
