During Hurricane Katrina, Jacqueline Patterson, the director of the NAACP Environmental and Climate Justice Program, was watching the news, seeing Black people on roofs waving anything they could find to beg the helicopters above to save their lives.
It is this type of injustice, inflicted upon Black people across the globe, that makes Patterson stand firm in an undeniable truth: Racial justice and climate justice are one and the same, and have been for centuries.
Brands and corporations are clamoring to proclaim their commitment to the Black Lives Matter movement, and news outlets and organizations are seeking out more people who can speak about race and climate.
The real climate movement is global, led by Black, Indigenous and other colonized and racialized people.
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When the climate movement decenters Black and Indigenous people and other communities of color, it’s extremely dangerous for us all.
