ONLINE: Pollutants in the Neighborhood: The Environmental Movement & the Fight Against Racism

Find Zoom info at https://www.facebook.com/events/277513503347487/

press release: "When you live in an environmental justice community, you don’t feel community from no police officer. You know, these people are literally a pollutant in your neighborhood along with the trash, along with everything else.” --Kari Fulton, Climate Justice Alliance

In spite of a long history of mainstream whitewashing of environmentalism, the environmental movement today is more multi-racial than ever before. It is vital for us to link anti-racism to environmentalism and anti-capitalism. Since the murder of George Floyd, we have seen the largest uprising against racism in recent memory. The call to defund the police has become a central demand of the movement. Black Lives Matter has forced many to reckon with the bloody history of the United States and what a just society would look like.

The United States was founded on racist ideas and a capitalist economic system. Notions of race and racism grew out of the need to justify slavery, segregation, Indigenous removal and more. And now, capitalism’s endless expansion has become an unsustainable threat to us all.

Join People’s Green New Deal Madison for a discussion of anti-racism and the environmental movement. Learn why environmentalists should be standing with today’s demands of defunding and abolishing the police.

Speakers include:

M. Adams is a community organizer and co-executive director of Freedom Inc. Born and raised in Milwaukee, Adams has been in Madison since 2003.

Charlie Aleck is a non-binary Nuu-chah-nulth and Creole maker and shaker currently based in Chicago. They recently wrote a piece about Indigenous and Black solidarity in Chicago. https://rampantmag.com/2020/07/17/black-and-indigenous-solidarity/

Max Prestigiacomo is a member of the Madison Common Council, representing District 8 in Madison, Wisconsin. He founded the Youth Climate Action Team dedicated to fighting the climate crisis and uplifting disenfranchised youth voices in Wisconsin. Max is also a member of the Democratic Socialist of America.

Dayna Long is a member of People's Green New Deal Madison.

Co-sponsors:

People's Green New Deal - Madison

Democratic Socialist of America - Madison

Extinction Rebellion Madison

The Red Nation-Great Lakes

Sierra Club - Four Lakes Group