Environmental Justice for the Bronx

This post is part of a series of reflections on the 37th annual Scholar & Feminist conference, held March 3rd, 2012 at Barnard College. The above video shows the Environmental Justice workshop Pam is responding to, featuring Elizabeth Yeampierre, Tanya Fields and Rachel Sapery James discussing their work in the EJ movement. As a staff member working at the Barnard Center for Research on Women, I have the opportunity to attend programming events on a wide range of topics including reproductive justice, domestic workers’ rights, and a range of other social justice issues. Every once in a while, the topic is one that is close to my heart, and the workshop on Environmental Justice at the Scholar & Feminist Conference on Vulnerability was one of those topics. Listening to the panelists articulate my thoughts about the injustices facing communities of color was refreshing. What I most loved about this workshop was its emphasis on solutions rather than problems. The panelists talked about empowerment, collaboration, coalitions and making sure people in their communities are “at the forefront of the decision-making process,” in the words of Elizabeth Yeampierre of Uprose, a community-based organization. The panelists spoke about issues including, but not limited to, lack of access, limited resources, air quality, prison and housing.  Skillfully, they informed participants that environmental justice is not just about air quality and health hazards, but is a conglomerate of injustices that are inter-related across several socio-economic injustices. Tanya Fields, Executive Director of the BLK Projek, noted,

Equality is only going to come if you are willing to say that my privilege cannot be had on the back of someone else’s disparity.

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