Just over a year ago, Black Lives Matter UK successfully shut down London City airport. Our aims were to call attention to three things: Britain’s historical responsibility for global temperature changes, while the UK remains among the least vulnerable countries to the direct effects of climate change; second, that black people and poor people globally suffer the most from environmental impacts; and third, that safe freedom of movement is a reality only for the privileged, wealthy and mostly white.
Many people are increasingly being forced to flee their homes owing to environmentally driven conflicts, such as those in Sudan, whose plight was named by the UN as the tip of a melting iceberg when it came to increased forced climate-related migration and conflict. Ten years on, we are witnessing another year in which hundreds do not survive their attempts to reach British and European shores.
After the direct action, there came a storm of backlash. We were told that Black Lives Matter UK had been hijacked, that we were pushing a “white” agenda. That Black Lives Matter in the US is a single-issue movement with a sole aim, to abolish the police state.
These are false facts. Black Lives Matter UK and the Black Lives Matter US network need to set the record straight:
1) Black Lives Matter is a global black queer femme-led intersectional movement and network that works across multiple issues. We do not believe in single-issue stories.
2) Environmental injustice has always been an issue and a fight taken on by black and poor communities. We are the first to die, but we are also the first to fight on the frontlines.
3) The inequalities that turn an extreme weather event into a disaster or human catastrophe mirror the inequalities that cause the disproportionate loss of black and poor life globally – and the exact systems that Black Lives Matter fights against.
In the last few weeks, from Houston to central Nigeria, Sierra Leone to South Asia and the Caribbean, we are once again seeing coastal and vulnerable areas hit by catastrophic extreme weather.
Climate change is global, and its impact will be felt globally by most, but when we assess factors such as death, disease, access to resources/aid, insurance policy holders, land ownership, means to evacuate from danger zones, quality of and access to housing, displacement, and forced migration, these harsh realities disproportionately affect black and poor communities after a disaster, not white ones.
We are not saying that white people do not feel the impact of climate change. We are saying that if you are black then you are more likely to die as a result of it – and, if you survive, are more likely to struggle to replace what was lost and will receive little support in doing so.
Unfortunately, due to rising global inequality – that remains part of the legacy of imperialism and colonialism, and part of the present reality of globalisation and capitalism – we also know that the resources required to respond to climate change’s impact are often not placed in the hands of the people who need them most. Donations, such as those to the Red Cross after a disaster in Haiti often do not find the way to the frontlines and those in need – mostly black and poor folk – are left waiting as charities play with bureaucracy, respectability and budget lines to ensure that their staff’s salaries are covered before they take action.
Post-disaster our communities fall into long-term poverty spirals. Healing from disasters costs vasts amount of money. And in the case of the Caribbean islands, our healing and rebuilding is dependent on what the former colonial powers deem acceptable. The scale and impact of the destruction cannot be fully understood without reference to the racism that underpins climate change and state responses to it. The Conservative government has shown once again that it systematically fails black and poor people – take its response to the Grenfell Tower disaster – providing inadequate protection prior to the disaster, and insufficient allocation of time, resources and care in the face of our communities’ pain and loss.
Governments’ response to these disasters is an indicator of how they value black lives. They simply do not. Yet they can find the time and resources to send officers to police our pain and control our outpouring of grief. Rightwing governments may excuse their response, say it’s sufficient, but they have proven time and again that they are incompetent to govern. We must collectively demand accountability for the ways they treat our communities in times of crisis. Crises that they largely created. Inequalities – whether those that compound the impact of the floods in Sierra Leone, or the lack of response and resources received post Hurricane Irma, or those that leave black and poor lives more vulnerable to pollution-related illness in the UK – are all part of the same system.
None of this is incidental. Just as individual black deaths in police custody must be understood as part of a wider system founded upon racist ideology and practices, so must the tragic case of Ella Kissi-Debrah, who was exposed to illegal levels of pollution in the UK. The same system which props up the violent policing of our children on the streets is responsible for allowing dangerous toxins to be emitted in our backyards.
While the media favours whitewashing, atomised, “single-issue” stories, we must recognise that it is only by challenging this unjust system from every necessary angle, as well as by connecting the dots between our daily struggles and global crises, that we can truly begin to build a better world for all black lives and protect our communities from the impact of climate change. As long as black and poor people are seen as disposable bodies, not worthy of the care afforded to other citizens, then we will be there, making noise, taking space, and saying it loud and clear: climate change is a racist crisis.
Patrisse Cullors is a native-born Angeleno and an artist, organiser and freedom fighter. She is a co-founder of Black Lives Matter. Follow her on Twitter at @osope