Black America and COVID-19

            Environmental Justice is defined as "the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies". This definition by the EPA, while basic, covers a lot of ground. Environmental Justice supports the idea that policy should be informed by the community - those directly affected by such policy - rather than crafted strictly in government offices. Environmental Justice is involving people of all identities in the decision making process. Too often, we see polluting industries placed in Black, Brown, and low-income communities. Pollution infringes on these communities' right to live in a safe and healthy environment - another crucial part of Environmental Justice. Expanding the definition of EJ to the right to live in a safe and healthy environment, regardless of race, ethnicity, national origin, or income allows for it encompass a wider range of scenarios. It allows us to view the environment as not just the physical place we stand on, but the space in which we exist. Chronic health issues as a result of air pollution where you live? An issue of environmental injustice. Lack of access to healthy food, safe drinking water? An issue of environmental injustice. A global pandemic disproportionately taking the lives of Black and Brown people in America? An issue of Environmental Justice. Prisons blowing up as COVID-19 hot spots? An issue of environmental justice. Everywhere we look there are issues of environmental injustice. COVID-19 has only begun to make some of these injustices more stark, but this global pandemic is only the tip of the iceberg. 

Co-Curator: Clio Gates, Georgetown University, Class of 2022.
I am a Georgetown University student studying Environmental Justice. I was first introduced to the concept in 2017, when I was an intern for the National Resources Defense Council, an environmental law firm. Sitting in on one of the Environmental Justice team's meetings, I remember being horrified by a case they were discussing: a chicken processing plant was spraying the surrounding area with the plant's waste on a daily basis, covering the adjacent properties in waste and making the community's residents sick. Since then, I've worked to more fully understand the both root causes of and ways to address environmental injustices. 

Social Media Tags: #environmentaljustice, @greengirlleah, @intersectionalenvironmentalist 

Environmental Justice: Mapping Awareness
With Clio Gates, LyLena Estabine, Sarah DeMott, and George Clark
An audio-guided walking tour to alert one’s senses to the ways that environmental racism operates, especially during the pandemic. 
The goal is to build awareness around life with environmental injustices and covid-19,  heal from the social isolation of the pandemic, and to build good living!  
It is our hope that participants will take a walk where they live/work/play and then contribute back.

Workshop Materials with Audio Tour. 
Google Drive Folder with Audio Tour, PFD Tour, Participants Folder, Instructions for Listening (here)
Audio Tour: (here)  
tinyurl.com/mappingawareness (here)

AUG 20:  Zoom Recording of Workshop with integrated audio transcript  (here)
AUG 27: ZOOM Recording of Workshop with integrated audio transcript (here)