With Collins Khosa, Petrus Miggels, Sibusiso Amos, and so many black lives being disproportionately brutalised and killed at the hands of police and military in South Africa. With George Floyd and so many black lives being disproportionately brutalised and killed at the hands of police in the United States. The world over, we see time and time again that black lives are treated as disposable. We see why we must say that #BlackLivesMatter.
Saying Black Lives Matter is not just about police brutality though. It is also about political and economic systems that devalue black lives, black land, black culture, and blackness. If we are to truly recognise that black lives matter, then we must work to fix and if necessary overturn those systems.
Indeed, racial injustice permites every corner of our society and environmental issues are no different. At the heart of environmental injustice is racial injustice of many forms, and if we are to truly tackle environmental injustice, then we must also tackle racial injustice.
Take climate change, for example. Greenhouse gasses are predominately caused by and benefit the rich and wealthy whiter global north individuals, corporations, communities, and countries. The impacts, however, are disproportionately felt by the poorer, black and brown global south.
Study after study shows that those on the frontlines of climate change, of pollution, and of harmful extraction are disproportionately black and brown people. That is not a mistake or an accident of geography. The global economy is run on the devaluation of black lives and black land often in the service of predominately white capital and interests.
In the end, environmental injustice is in many ways an extension and continuation of colonial injustice. While colonial structures have mutated into new forms, they often still serve the purpose of exploiting black land and people to benefit predominately the global north. Let us look home to Africa to think a little more about this.
You are doing well. But will appreciate if you expand and use more simpler words
ReplyDeleteOkay sir. We'll try as much as possible to make more clearer and straightforward composition next time.
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