Video Response: Climate Justice, Black Lives Matter, and the Healing of Black Women

    Video Link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Di-JmGwjoOs&ab_channel=Goodful 

    The Black Lives Matter movement was started in 2013 by three Black women, after George Zimmerman murdered-- and was not charged with murdering--17-year-old Trayvon Martin. The movement has focused on the deaths of multiple Black individuals as a result of police brutality. In June of 2020, the masses of the United States responded in protests to the brutal murder of George Floyd, who was suffocated by the knee of a cop. Some of Floyd’s last words, “I can’t breathe,” were adopted by activists all over the country. However, this statement can be more widely applied to Black and communities of color across the United States. Black communities  disproportionately suffer from both the climate crisis and racial injustice. Access to nature can be a very important and valuable tool in healing the spirits and mental health of those who suffer this trauma. As Leah Thomas, the environmental communications specialist featured in this Goodful video stated, making nature accessible via intersectional environmentalism is an important tool in the spiritual healing of Black communities and, specifically, Black women in the United States. 

Black communities in the United States have suffered intense racial trauma for centuries. Thomas discusses her experience with Michael Brown’s murder in Ferguson Missouri, and the Black Lives Matter protests as her community’s response to this trauma. Because of the compounded trauma Black women experience, their trauma is, as a group, even more intense. (Collins 26) 

When she was studying environmental science in Los Angeles, Thomas learned about the healing effects that nature can have on one’s mental health and spirit; however, these conversations never seemed to include Black communities--those who, as a group, needed the healing more urgently than most. 

Southern Black women have a legacy of connection to the land and access to nature--however, many Black women living in other parts of the country’s urban centers do not have the luxury of access to safe natural spaces, or even healthy organic produce. History has had a very important impact on the shared experiences of Black women (Collins 28). One of the tenants of Africana Womanism is strength: “[The Black woman] has persevered centuries of struggling for herself and her family.” (Weems 66) Even those who do not subscribe to Africana Womanism can agree that strength is the legacy of Black women. However, healing oneself is essential to liberation from personal and ancestral trauma--and nature can play a very important role in this healing. (Walker) 

Accepting and adopting womanist -- and Black feminist -- approaches to climate justice, as Leah Thomas has publicly done, can aide in this healing of Black women. The Black female experience in the United States, particularly in the past century, has been heavily impacted by the climate crisis. In order to adequately address the ancestral and generational traumas experienced by Black women, we as a society must make it a priority to make natural spaces easily accessible to Black women and their communities. Without approaching the issue of climate injustice as an intersectional issue, those most harmed by it cannot know justice--and it is the responsibility of environmentalists to accept this perspective and address this inequity.