Anti-racism

Anti-racism is "the work of actively opposing racism by advocating for changes in political, economic, and social life. Anti-racism tends to be an individualized approach, and set up in opposition to individual racist behaviors and impacts." -Center for Racial Justice Innovation

Examples of anti-racism

Learning about, and actively working to identify and challenge, racial inequities	Racism is a part of all of our systems, including for example health care, criminal justice, income and employment, education and housing. One must learn about the history, impacts and/or experiences of racism.
Seek out media which challenges notions of race and culture	See the following for a list of recommended media on anti-racism, which includes recommendations for taking steps beyond educating yourself.
Organizing against racism	Fighting for equity, often in the form of a complete overhaul of our current systems (see abolition) and challenging the ways certain groups are disadvantaged is anti-racist work. Abolishing systems that perpetuate racism and building transformative systems that centre care is anti-racist work. See transformative justice for more.

Understanding why addressing racism is necessary for climate justice

The root causes of racial and climate injustice are the same	As described by Larissa Crawford for Oxfam Canada  : "If you look at where our understanding of race comes from and when it began to become "scientifically" proven that we were separate and unequal races, no longer one human race but separate races, it came in the early 16th century, which coincided with the birth of modern colonialism and the Transatlantic Slave Trade. So, at this time you were seeing colonizing nations, traveling out, exploring and then settling on Indigenous lands around the world ... in the interest of extracting natural resources. In the interest of dispossessing Indigenous peoples from their lands. You see these colonizers stealing Indigenous peoples from Africa, bringing them to their colonies and exploiting their labour under this capitalist system, in the interest of extracting resources. But if we also look at why they wanted to do that, we can then become more clear in how the root causes of systemic racism are directly the same, I'm not even going to say aligned, they are the same, as the root causes of climate change. These practices of colonialism and capitalism have led to the climate change that we see today. So, if we are to say that we are working in the environmental sector, that we're trying to address climate change, then we cannot do that work, without recognizing how certain people have been dehumanized in the interest of the practices that have led to climate change. Some people working in the climate sector, in sustainability or in climate change work think 'You know what? That's actually not that important to acknowledge' or 'If we just address the more direct or more obvious parts of climate change, everything else will fix itself. No. We need to recognize and actively recognize that the work that we do in climate justice work must create space for us to acknowledge and do the work that we need to, to restore relationships, to acknowledge the harm of systemic racism, and how it is interrelated with our work with climate justice."
BIPOC (Black, Indigenous and People of Colour's) communities are targets for toxic, environmentally-hazardous industries	Land pollution from industrial development disproportionately impacts racialized communities. See our page on environmental racism for more. "The neighbourhoods of poor and racialized communities are most likely to be situated next to packaging depots, highways, power plants and refineries. These communities breathe toxic air and experience significantly higher rates of respiratory illnesses and cancers."-Amnesty International Canada Around the world, environmentally destructive projects—such as mining, dams, logging, and tourism resorts—are imposed on Indigenous communities without any consultation or compensation. See Global South for more.
The carceral state targets BIPOC communities and their movements	The carceral state disproportionately impacts marginalized communities, while generating environmentally harmful infrastructure. For example, movements like Stop Cop City Atlanta highlight the links between environmental justice, racism and the carceral state (see our page How we Win! Summary of findings on successful climate justice campaigns in North America for more. The concept of incarceration is rooted in a settler construct linked to racial slavery. Today, it continues to disproportionately affect low-income communities, immigrants, and notably Indigenous and Black communities (see carceral state for more). In so-called Canada, police often target Indigenous and allied social movements through tactics of repression, surveillance, and criminalization. This is designed to exert control over these movements, rather than facilitating their expression and advocacy Legal injunctions, such as those placed against TMX and Coastal Gas Link protestors, intentionally target Indigenous racialized peoples movements. The carceral system, therefore, facilitates access to resources and lands through the unjust imprisonment of activists.
BIPOC climate professionals and activists face additional barriers	Black expertise including scientists, practitioners and activists are marginalized. European perspectives are generally prioritized and magnified. Black climate experts operate within racist structures, while trying to address climate change.

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