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Bluedot Living’s BuyBetter Marketplace newsletter includes affiliate links, including to Amazon. If you purchase a product through one of our links, we may earn a commission. These commissions help us fund the great journalism that you see on Bluedot. Thank you for supporting us! |
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Dear Readers,
It’s been a painful few days. I grew up in Los Angeles. Like almost everyone there, I know several people who have lost their homes, and others who remain under evacuation orders (as of the 15th). As I doomscrolled over the weekend, one post in particular hit home: an image of burned-out homes and the words, “The question NOT to ask right now: What can I do for you?” The author, Reform rabbi Steve Leder, elaborated, “Asking someone this question in a time of need actually puts the burden on them to give you an answer rather than relieving them of a worry.”
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“It would be fatal for the nation to overlook the urgency of the moment.”
– Martin Luther King Jr., Aug. 28, 1963
(Martin Luther King Jr. National Historic Park via Wikimedia Commons) |
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While reflecting on Leder’s words, I contemplated how I might help my friends in LA. I thought back to the people who showed up when my mother died. And I remembered an evening in 2015, when my father and I went to hear Ta-Nehisi Coates speak at the LA Public Library about his then recently-released memoir, Between the World and Me. The powerful book about Blackness in America takes the form of letters to the author’s teenage son. During the question-and-answer session, a white man asked: “So, what can white people do?”
Coates replied, “That’s the whole purpose of the book … I mean this as no offense to you, but you are putting your burden onto me … Black people have enough trouble figuring out how to get through their lives … The real first step is to … ask those questions of yourself.” (You can listen to the entire talk here. This question comes just before the one-hour mark.)
Today, on Martin Luther King Jr. Day, I’d like to share a few books that may help us ask ourselves — and hopefully begin to answer — tough questions regarding climate change and its disproportionate effects on people of color. The authors of these books come from diverse backgrounds, and at least one of them is bound to introduce you to a new perspective.
If you’re interested in one of the foundational texts on environmental justice, read Dumping in Dixie. If you’re hoping to help grassroots movements lead to policy change, consider Climate Change from the Streets. And if you’re wondering where everyone who lost their homes in the recent L.A. wildfires will go, check out The Great Displacement. There are many more suggestions.
In addition, please take a minute to read a note from Bluedot’s president on the wildfires, who grew up in one of the communities that was recently destroyed. You’ll find it below the book list.
Wishing you a peaceful week and happy reading,
– Elizabeth Weinstein, Marketplace Editor
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Environmental Justice Books for Everyone |
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The Intersectional Environmentalist
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Subtitled “How to Dismantle Systems of Oppression to Protect People + Planet,” this book examines the intersection of social justice and environmentalism. Author Leah Thomas paints a vivid picture of the disproportionate impact that climate change has on people of color. Civil rights, Thomas argues, are crucial to creating a more sustainable future. |
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Dumping in Dixie
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Dr. Robert D. Bullard, this book’s author, is widely revered as the “father of environmental justice.” Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality follows five communities as they fight lethal pollution as well as the systemic issues that led their homes to become dumping grounds. The book, now in its third edition, also explores why the early environmental movement generally did not resonate with members of marginalized communities. |
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The Great Displacement
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During the Great Migration of the 20th Century, around six million Black Americans moved away from the South. In The Great Displacement: Climate Change and the Next American Migration, journalist Jake Bittle shows how climate events interact with racial politics and long-standing capitalist systems to affect where — and why — Americans stay and go. |
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Soil: The Story of a Black Mother's Garden
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Poet and scholar Camille T. Dungy recounts her seven-year journey to diversify her garden against the strict restrictions of what can and cannot be planted in the town of Fort Collins, Colorado. As she grows various plants, herbs, and flowers in the predominately white community, Dungy reflects on the relationships between homogeneity, nature, social justice, and climate change. |
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Climate Change From the Streets
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In Climate Change From the Streets: How Conflict and Collaboration Strengthen the Environmental Justice Movement, professor and legislative consultant Michael Mendéz centers the voices of low-income people of color whose wellbeing is dramatically affected by government policy, and argues that environmental protection and public health are inexorably connected. |
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All We Can Save
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This collection of essays, poetry, and art comes from over 60 women across the U.S. who are fighting the climate crisis. The book’s editors, Dr. Ayana Elizabeth Johnson and Dr. Katharine K. Wilkinson, went on to create the All We Can Save Project, which aims to empower women and girls to be leaders in the climate movement. |
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There’s Something in the Water
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Ingrid R.G. Waldron’s book, There’s Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities, begins with a useful overview of environmental justice and environmental racism. Waldron then brings us to Canada to further explore legacies of environmental racism in Indigenous and Black communities. Academic and well thought-out, There’s Something in the Water will expand any reader’s understanding of environmental injustices. |
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Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability
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Sustainable agriculture, local eating, going meatless — discussions of climate change often include terms like these. But how accessible is local, sustainable food? In this short book, editors Alison Hope Alkon and Julian Ageyman document the inequalities built into our food system, and envision alternatives for a more sustainable and just world. |
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As Long as Grass Grows
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This 2020 book by Indigenous Studies professor and Colville Confederated Tribes descendant Dina Gilio-Whitaker covers a long history of injustice perpetrated against Native Americans. As Long as Grass Grows: The Indigenous Fight for Environmental Justice, from Colonization to Standing Rock offers valuable lessons for activists, governments, and organizations engaging with Indigenous communities and spaces. |
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A Note From Bluedot Living’s President |
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I grew up in the Pacific Palisades. As a teen I routinely went to the “show” on Saturdays to see a double bill with my best friends, and happily wander the small shops in the Village. The Palisades was a small town in a sprawling city where everyone had a sense of community and neighborhood pride, a place people loved. My old friend Bill Bruns, once a top editor/reporter for Life Magazine, ran the Palisadian Post with the same dedication he gave to his award-winning national assignments. His wife, Pam, taught journalism five days a week as a volunteer at the local high school, my high school. She inspired hundreds of kids. Their house is gone. So are the homes of dozens of my friends, too many to mention, but among the thousands lost from the Palisades to Altadena on the other side of Los Angeles.
Today I set aside my optimism to shed tears for my friends, my old town, and the planet. These raging weather events are part of a much bigger picture that we need to grapple with. Maybe it’s time to truly embrace a post-fossil fuel future and remember, we’re all in this together.
Thank you for being a Bluedot reader.
– Victoria Riskin
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These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease. |
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Want to get in touch? I’d love to hear from you. Tell me about your favorite sustainable products, topics you’d like to see covered, or anything else that’s on your mind — email marketplace@bluedotliving.com.
I’ll see you again in two weeks.
– Elizabeth |
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Elizabeth Weinstein, Bluedot’s Marketplace Editor, lives in Manhattan with her husband; her papillon, Finley; and her cats, SanDeE* and Modell. When she’s not asking the folks at Bloomingdale’s and Nordstrom to try on all of their sustainable sneakers in a size 9½, she can be found at the Union Square Greenmarket or gardening on her rooftop terrace. |
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