By Glenna Huber
As an undergraduate, I volunteered in a community-based, after-school program for young children run by The Episcopal Church. The kids came from all over the neighborhood to enjoy tutoring, arts and crafts, and a safe place to play until they were picked up in the early evening. It was here, attending organizing meetings after the children were picked up, that I gained a firsthand understanding of the real-life implications of environmental racism.
This neighborhood was in proximity to the upcoming epicenter of events for the Olympic Games. The area served as a place where they would host the buses used to transport participants to numerous sites throughout the city. After the Olympics concluded, the local government decided that this city neighborhood would be a designated bus depot. Meaning that, by the time of my arrival, the residents had suffered years of environmental emissions from the idling and starting of these buses. Residents were missing work and school as a direct result of the elevated toxins resulting in breathing issues, missed work, education lapses, and shortened life expectancy. The residents were determined to shift the narrative. They were organizing to apply political pressure to get the bus depots moved.
Environmental racism is the policy or practice of pushing hazardous environmental issues disproportionally into neighborhoods or areas inhabited by those who are African American, Latinx, Indigenous, Asian American, Pacific Islander, and migrant farmworkers.
The impact of environmental racism has garnered national attention as organizers, lawyers, and faith leaders have mobilized in areas such as Flint, Michigan, Standing Rock, North Dakota, and Afton, North Carolina. Yet, the dominant environmental movement continues to have undertones of colonialism and racism while not adequately addressing the systemic racism that allowed for the devastation to take root initially.
As people of faith, we are called to not only organize and stand in solidarity with those directly impacted by these injustices, but also to repair the breach. This next step is understood as environmental reparations, which seeks to restore the generational wealth stolen because of environmentally devastating policies, development, and land seizure.
In Washington D.C., where I serve, some of our faith communities have been organizing with local groups to address the environmental concerns that are plaguing historically African American neighborhoods. As a diocese, like many others, we have been in conversations about reparations. Questions worth considering include the ways in which the diocese may have participated in race-based harms that have been environmentally detrimental. This could include silent complicity as redline practices have plowed through neighborhoods, taking the revenue from the land sales where a historically African American church once stood, or worshiping in neighborhoods where toxic chemicals are being processed. Are there ways that we can collectively confess, lament, repent, and repay outstanding debts? Recently, in the state of Georgia, organizers celebrated a $157 million grant to mitigate the negative environmental effects of the construction of the downtown connector. This is a bold step toward environmental repair.
As we move toward Beloved Community, taking the time to acknowledge the racist undertones around the dominant environmental movement broadens the conversation. This expansion may allow the faith community, The Episcopal Church, to be leaders in this important climate discussion. The journey toward a culture of environmental reparations provides the church with a pathway to repair the breach and restore the community to health and vitality.
Digging Deeper:
“Reconsider the Lilies: Challenging Christian Environmentalism’s Colonial Legacy”
By Andrew Thompson
More about climate reparations
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The Rev. Glenna Huber serves as the 15th rector at Church of the Epiphany in Washington, D.C. She also serves on the 81st General Convention Legislative Committee for Creation Care, and as co-chair for the Reparations Policy Working group in the Episcopal Diocese of Washington.