The Necessity of Black Women’s Standpoint and Intersectionality in Environmental Movements
“The male leaders / of Earth / appear to have abandoned / their very senses … / They murder humans / and mountains / every day /they are in office / and never seem to notice it. They eat and drink devastation. Women of the world / Women of the world / Is this devastation Us?” — Alice Walker, “Democratic Womanism”
In 1989 Kimberlé Crenshaw coined the term “intersectionality” to provide language for how black women are oppressed by race and gender. A lack of intersectional frameworks, that Crenshaw warns about, is evident in modern environmentalism, as there is no environmental movement that centers black women’s standpoint, the importance of which Patricia Hill Collins emphasizes in “The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought,” (1989). As Collins explains, without black women’s standpoint, there can be no black women’s theory. When applied to environmental movements, this means there is no movement that truly addresses the intersectional oppression black women face from sexism and environmental racism.
Ecofeminism lacks black women’s standpoint and only focuses on white women’s oppression. Ecofeminists argue that environmental degradation and the exploitation of nature and women are rooted in the same capitalist, patriarchal, dominant culture. However, as Dorceta E. Taylor discusses in “Women of Color, Environmental Justice, and Ecofeminism” (1997) the ecofeminist movement, like the mainstream environmental movement, has been mainly white and middle class dominated and lacks intersectionality.
There also exists critique that there is a lack of recognition for black women’s work combating environmental racism within the environmental justice movement. In addition, the environmental justice movement does not specifically address intersections of environmental racism with sex.
Both movements exclude black women’s standpoint which is problematic because as Taylor says, black women of degraded communities are “the waste products of capitalist production and excessive consumption,” and at the front lines of environmental degradation (Taylor 39). The critique of ecofeminism and fact that the environmental justice movement does not focus on how sexism affects black women in its intersectional approaches supports the argument that there needs to be an environmental movement centered around black women’s standpoint to create an intersectional black feminist environmental movement.
Black women’s specific experiences within environmental racism can be seen in the Flint Water Crisis where lead poisoning threatened reproductive justice. Such chemical poisoning can result in issues like miscarriages and reduced fertility. In addition, many black mothers in Flint lack the financial ability to purchase water bottles and water filters frequently or to move away from Flint, making their oppression regarding motherhood applicable on daily basis, past reproductive justice.
Due to the intersections of environmental racism and sexism seen in Flint, black women have been involved in environmental movements in order to survive. Dorceta E. Taylor in “Women of Color, Environmental Justice, and Ecofeminism” (1997) argues that the environmental justice movement has the largest amount of black women in leadership in comparison to other environment movements, as “49% of 205 people-of-color environmental justice groups had women as founders, presidents, or chief contact persons,” (Taylor 58). Black women are involved with the environmental justice movement because environmental racism often directly affects their homes, families, and communities.
A major example of black women’s work within the environmental justice movement is Majora Carter. She established the “Greening the Ghetto” movement to bring sustainable initiatives to improve people’s lives in communities subjected to environmental racism. Her work was inspired by her home and the fact that is has been subjected to environmental racism.
A concluding point that emphasizes the need for black women’s standpoint in environmental movements is how climate change has and will continue to affect black women. Beyoncé’s “Formation” video alone depicts how the intersections of oppression in environmental racism and sexism have occurred and will continue to in the face of climate change.
The devastation that occurred in the Ninth Ward during Hurricane Katrina due to climate change and environmental racism placing black people in areas most vulnerable to flooding, intersecting with black women being the most oppressed within this group, made black women’s experiences most devastating in Hurricane Katrina. Jamesia J. King’s study “Recovery & Recognition: Black Women and the Lower Ninth Ward,” shows that black women’s “experiences were not the same,” as anyone else’s during Hurricane Katrina, and that “…It is important to note that, ‘Low-income African American women faced different, and often more challenges because they were more likely to be displaced to unfamiliar places, to lack agency in that decision, and to have fewer resources’ (Peek & Fothergill, 2008, p. 97),” (King 22–23).
Climate change will continue to be a huge environmental and social threat in upcoming years. Evident in Hurricane Katrina, climate change will affect black women the most as it exacerbates existing systems of oppression. This emphasizes the need for an intersectional, black feminist, environmental movement that center black women’s standpoint to combat these threats.
Works Cited
Beyonce. “Formation.” Beyonce. N.p., 2016. Web.
Carter, Majora. “Greening the Ghetto.” Ted Talk, Feb. 2006. Web.
Collins, Patricia Hill. “The Social Construction of Black Feminist Thought.” Signs: Journal of Women in Culture and Society 14.4 (1989): 745–73. Web.
Crenshaw, Kimberlé. “Demarginalizing the Intersection of Race and Sex: A Black Feminist Critique of Antidiscrimination Doctrine, Feminist Theory and Antiracist Politics.” The Black Feminist Reader. Oxford, UK: Blackwell, 1989. 207–238. Print.
King, Jamesia J., “Recovery & Recognition: Black Women and the Lower Ninth Ward.” 7esis, Georgia State University, 2011. h8p://scholarworks.gsu.edu/aas_theses/6
Laughland, Oliver, and Ryan Felton. “’It’s All Just Poison Now’: Flint Reels as Families Struggle through Water Crisis.” The Guardian. Guardian News and Media, 2016. Web.
Taylor, Dorceta E. “Women of Color, Environmental Justice, and Ecofeminism.” Ecofeminism: Women, Culture, Nature. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1997. 38–81. Print.
