In ‘I May Destroy You’, Michaela Coel is fearlessly unapologetic in bringing crucial conversations to the small screen. Through protagonist Arabella and her friends, Coel discusses consent and its nuance alongside the effects of trauma, race and more- including, in episode seven (‘Happy Animals’), white environmentalism.
This is an issue that every white person calling themselves a climate activist must engage with. When climate change was created by white people and funded by colonialism, attempting to tackle it whilst continuing to benefit from the institutional racism in its founding system is to stand on a soap box of hypocrisy.
On a global scale, this environmental racism comes in the form of eco-fascist, population-control ideology that we must all refute. The scapegoating of growing nations in the global south for the climate crisis is factually incorrect when the highest per-capita greenhouse gas emissions remain concentrated in the northern hemisphere.
As Coel so deftly spells out, this superiority complex exists on a micro scale too. The acknowledgement of privilege is troublingly rare within environmentalist movements. How can we police others on their diet, habits, or indeed fashion consumption without recognising the injustices that have allowed us to step onto that pedestal? Furthermore, how can we claim the sustainability movement as our own when it is our development of reckless consumerism that has made such activism necessary? Metal straws, pastel water bottles, bamboo underwear- this trend for sustainability is simply the capitalist version of a low-impact lifestyle that many have never strayed from living.
With the same vegan and green ‘influencers’ who regularly parade their opinions failing to speak up about Black Lives Matter, or centering themselves in the discourse rather than making space for historically hushed voices, intersectionality within the climate movement is a rightfully trending topic. Yet I May Destroy You reminds us that it is necessary to take this further: to stop hailing ourselves as the revolutionary solution to the problem whilst standing at the epicentre of its source.
