by Cecil Scheib

This blog post is 1 of a 3-part series on the Office of Sustainability’s efforts to be proactively anti-racist, combat white supremacy culture,¹ and embed anti-racist actions into our work. The blog series is intended to document and provide transparency about the work we are doing internally and externally and to share our process, begun in 2018 and accelerated in 2020, that is far from complete.

When you hear that someone is an “environmentalist,” who do you picture? If you’re thinking of a comfy sweater, “Save the Whales” bumper sticker, and Sierra Club membership card, you’re not alone. But you’re also probably not correct. In fact, across the US, people of diverse backgrounds and communities consider themselves to be environmentalists, and calling oneself an environmentalist isn’t linked to education or income.² This self-identification extends to action, with people of color showing greater willingness for political advocacy than those who you might assume are taking part in campaigns to reduce global warming.³

These national statistics are similar to how the NYU Office of Sustainability understands the composition of our own community. White students comprise 29% of NYU’s student population. White students compromise just 22% of the students on our mailing list.⁴ Similarly, Black students are 7% of the NYU student population. Of the students on our mailing list, 8% are Black. Overall, it seems engagement with sustainability at NYU is equal to, or perhaps even greater than, the diversity of the student population as a whole.

So why does the stereotype persist that to be an environmentalist you have to be from a certain background, including income and education as well as race? Maybe it’s because the widespread perception of sustainability limits itself to things environmentalists of a certain background are popularly perceived to care about, like saving charismatic megafauna and preserving natural areas for recreation. If so, then the belief that “sustainability is for those people” is basically tautological; those people care about sustainability because sustainability is things those people care about. Of course, the truth about sustainability lies far from this simplistic formula.

To move away from these myths and old habits of thought, new definitions of and expectations around what “sustainability” means are critical to a just and sustainable world. As a Columbia Climate School blog put it, “The same racist policies, practices, and institutions that create economic, social, and health disparities by race also predicate how people of color are unduly impacted by environmental hazards. We do not have to look very hard for examples that display how people of color are more likely to be impacted by environmental issues in the U.S.”⁵ This way of thinking extends its impact to what work and careers are valued in our culture, and defined as sustainability work to begin with. In actuality, sustainability includes addressing environmental issues from reducing asthma from diesel trucks passing through or parking in low-income neighborhoods, cleaning up industrial toxics located in minority communities, and much more. That work is as much of a sustainability job as advocating for policies to preserve Antarctic ice sheets, but doesn’t command the same visibility, or pay, within the sustainability world.

Another myth is that environmental justice and sustainability are merely “related.” In fact, they are practically the same thing. Bill McKibben, noted author, environmentalist, and co-founder of 350.org, wrote “having a racist and violent police force in your neighborhood is a lot like having a coal-fired power plant in your neighborhood.”⁶ As he has said, this is because they have the same root: the concentration of money and control in the hands of a powerful few, with the consequences borne by the many without. It seems likely that a single solution may be how we resolve two problems that stem from the same essential cause.

Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson, founder of multiple ocean research and conservation organizations (as well as the amazing podcast How to Save a Planet, and a past NYU faculty member) has said “I work on one existential crisis, but these days I can’t concentrate because of another…So, to white people who care about maintaining a habitable planet, I need you to become actively anti-racist. I need you to understand that our racial inequality crisis is intertwined with our climate crisis. If we don’t work on both, we will succeed at neither. I need you to step up. Please. Because I am exhausted.”⁷ We must all step up to ensure the many BIPOC doing great sustainability work can do so as unimpeded as possible. At this time of crisis, we need all hands on deck. Everyone should have access to high-profile, good paying jobs aiding sustainability, in all its forms, and unfettered ability to work for a better future, without fearing for their economic security or physical safety.

As a result, the Office of Sustainability believes anti-racism and environmental justice are part and parcel of our sustainability mission, and we have developed an internal plan to support these goals. Learn more about it in Part 2.

<sub>1. There is a range of opinions over whether to capitalize “white” in this type of discussion. While it is not the preferred style of many, failing to do so may center “whiteness” as the default. In these blogs, we have chosen to write in a style that generally avoids use of the term, except in quotes from other papers, where we have retained the original capitalization or lack thereof, and in phrases like “anti-white supremacy culture” or “combat white supremacy culture”, where the intention seems clear.
2. “One-third of African-Americans, half of whites, and two-thirds of Latinos and Asians in the US consider themselves to be environmentalists, and calling oneself an environmentalist isn’t linked to education or income”: Pearson A.R. et al. “Diverse segments of the US public underestimate the environmental concerns of minority and low-income Americans.”, Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences. 2018
3. “Hispanics/Latinos (69%) and African Americans (57%) are more likely to be Alarmed or Concerned about global warming than are Whites (49%)…compared to Whites, Hispanics/Latinos and African Americans also report greater willingness to join a campaign to convince elected officials to take action to reduce global warming.”: “Which racial/ethnic groups care most about climate change?”, Yale Program on Climate Change Communication, April 16, 2020.
4. Data as of June 2020, based on internal analysis of our Emma mailing list and the NYU Factbook. The NYU data is for current students as a whole; the composition of individual classes may differ from the aggregate number.
5. Bortfeld, V. “This ‘Green’ Space Shouldn’t Be So White”, State of the Planet, Earth Institute, Columbia University, August 21, 2020.
6. “Racism, Police Violence, and the Climate Are Not Separate Issues”, The New Yorker, June 4, 2020.
7. “I’m a black climate expert. Racism derails our efforts to save the planet.”, Washington Post, June 3, 2020.</sub>