‘The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis’: Structural Racism, Inequality and Climate Change

Sealey-Huggins, Leon

doi:10.5040/9781350225480.ch-010

Cited by 41 publications

(16 citation statements)

References 19 publications

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“…As Nixon (2011) makes clear, slow violence is built on the bedrock of social inequality, with 'those people lacking resources [becoming] the principal casualties of slow violence' (4). Just as the impacts of anthropogenic climate change will not be felt equally, nor too will other drawn-out instances of slow distress (see Sealey-Huggins, 2018). Put another way, the concept of slow violence has a purview that extends beyond the speed of social harms, and includes a desire to expose inherent inequalities.…”

Section: From Structural To Slow Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom?

Davies

2019

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

177

126

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Toxic pollution is a form of violence. This article explores the gradual brutalities that communities surrounded by petrochemical infrastructure endure over time. Contributing to political geographies of violence and environmental justice, this paper puts the concept of 'slow violence' into critical comparison with work on 'structural violence'. In doing so, the paper makes two key contributions: First, it emphasizes the intimate connections between structural and slow forms of harm, arguing that structural inequality can mutate into noxious instances of slow violence. Second, the paper pushes back against framings of toxic landscapes as entirely invisible to the people they impact. Instead of accepting the standard definition of slow violence as 'out of sight', we have to instead ask the question: 'out of sight to whom?' In asking this question, and taking seriously the knowledge claims of communities who inhabit toxic spaces, we can begin to unravel the political structures that sustain the uneven geographies of pollution. Based on long-term ethnographic research in a postcolonial region of Louisiana, nicknamed 'Cancer Alley', this paper reveals how people gradually 'witness' the impacts of slow violence in their everyday lives. Finally, drawing on the notion of 'epistemic violence', the paper suggests that slow violence does not persist due to a lack of arresting stories about pollution, but because these stories do not count, thus rendering certain populations and geographies vulnerable to sacrifice.

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Section: From Structural To Slow Violencementioning

confidence: 99%

Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom?

Davies

2019

Environment and Planning C: Politics and Space

177

126

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“…This amounts to universalizing a theoretical conclusion drawn by looking at a particular class and society to other communities, classes, and peoples without looking at these other communities empirically. Similarly, the concept of ecological rift suggests that there is a fundamental break in the metabolism of society and human–nature relations, but this is not always reflective of Indigenous communities' or other racialized communities' experience (Kimmerer 2013; Schulz 2017; Sealey‐Huggins 2018; Whyte 2016).…”

Section: Capitalism: Driver Of Climate Crisismentioning

confidence: 99%

“…A growing literature links underlying systems of power like racial and colonial capitalism or settler colonialism to climate crisis (Gonzalez 2021; Norgaard 2019; Pulido 2018; Sealey‐Huggins 2018; Sultana 2022; Whyte 2016). Such literature allows us to see environmental racism as systemic, linking it to underlying political and economic systems as well as to what Pulido (2017) calls “the essential processes that shaped the modern world, such as colonization, primitive accumulation, slavery, and imperialism” (p. 526).…”

Section: Environmental Racism and Environmental Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

“…However, capitalism alone cannot explain the racial inequities produced by climate disruption, nor can it account for the disproportionately large contributions of the Global North toward this crisis. While certain climate justice movements and academics have framed these dynamics in terms of environmental or climate‐related racism, a small but growing number link this form of racism to underlying global social formations like colonialism or racial capitalism (Gonzalez 2021; McGee and Greiner 2020; Sealey‐Huggins 2018; Sultana 2022; Whyte 2018). These formations have long been articulated by marginalized scholars like the black radical W.E.B.…”

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confidence: 99%

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Climate Scholarship Needs Du Bois: Climate Crisis through the Lens of Racial and Colonial Capitalism*

Ramanujam

2022

Sociological Inquiry

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A large literature is proliferating on capitalism's role in driving climate breakdown. In this literature, capitalism is seen as the endless pursuit of growth, under which nature and its finite resources are exploited for profit. The climate crisis is the result of these processes. However, capitalism alone cannot explain the racial inequities produced by climate disruption, nor can it account for the disproportionately large contributions of Global North countries toward this crisis. In this article, I develop a Du Boisian approach to the climate crisis, showing how his conception of racial and colonial capitalism can develop our understanding of the causes, dimensions, and effects of the climate crisis. I explain how a Du Boisian approach furthers our understanding of racial and global inequalities in the development and impacts of global warming and in the production of fossil fuels, as well as how racism can shape climate inaction. Finally, I name some limitations of Du Bois' theory and elaborate on how a contemporary, decolonizing approach to the climate crisis might address these.

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“…Systemic climate racism here refers to the political, regulatory, and economic factors that unfairly discriminate against black, indigenous, and marginalised people (Williams, 2021). Systemic climate racism includes, but is not limited to, discriminatory zoning policies, poverty that makes black populations vulnerable to adverse weather events, higher unemployment rates, violence, and lack of access to adequate health care (Sealey-Huggins, 2018). Thus, rather than conceptualising individual and systemic racism as different, scholars and activists have rightfully pointed out the need to interrogate the link between ‘racist actions and racist structures’ as vital to understanding climate racism (Williams, 2021, p v).…”

Section: Racism Denial and The Politics Of Apologymentioning

confidence: 99%

Racism, climate activism, and the politics of apology: the image exclusion of Black youth activists

Barnes

2022

South African Journal of Psychology

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Global heating is associated with historical and contemporary climate racism. Apologies for (climate) racism have the potential to facilitate meaningful discussions about a way forward. However, apologies are complex and can reveal assumptions about privilege. There has been very little work on understanding apologies concerning climate racism. I focus on the apologies received by three Black women activists who (separately) had their images excluded from reporting about their climate activism. The activists alleged that the acts were racist at the individual and systemic levels. I analysed the apologies, online responses, and actions to repair the damage using thematic analysis. I argue that the apologies were not meaningful. Apologies also reveal how privilege operates, including controlling the narrative, drawing on unconscious racism, silence, and ignoring victim reparations. I discuss the importance of apology expectations for climate change from countries in the global North towards the global South. I also discuss the implications for future psychological studies on climate racism.

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‘The Climate Crisis is a Racist Crisis’: Structural Racism, Inequality and Climate Change

Cited by 41 publications

References 19 publications

Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom?

Slow violence and toxic geographies: ‘Out of sight’ to whom?

Climate Scholarship Needs Du Bois: Climate Crisis through the Lens of Racial and Colonial Capitalism*

Racism, climate activism, and the politics of apology: the image exclusion of Black youth activists

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