Environmental Justice at the Root of Everything: Diplomacy, Business, Life, and Law
Watch a panel conversation about the relevance of environmental justice in the following domains: - national security, represented by Lizzy Shackelford, former diplomat and author of The Dissent Channel: American Diplomacy in a Dishonest Age - business, represented by Sonal Gerten, who teaches Marketing at Hamline and serves on the Juxtaposition Arts Board of Directors - Black life and law, represented by T. Anansi Wilson, Director of the Center for the Study of Black Life and the Law and Associate Professor of Law, Mitchell Hamline School of Law Part of the CJL's 2022-2024 theme of Environmental Justice and the Law
Welcome and Introductions
Anansi Wilson introduces ideas about how environmentalism includes how people, especially Black people, are able to move through space and how relationships to land and space are policed.
Lizzy Shackelford introduces how National Security is directly connected to Environmental issues and justice.
Sonal Gerten introduces how marketing and business is directly connected to environmental justice.
Gerten’s perspective on Coca-Cola sponsoring COP 27. For more information, check out Patty Born’s debrief of the UN Climate Talks:
Where are possibilities that you see in your various areas for change? Shackelford, Wilson, and Gerten discuss how to make environmental justice important to different groups of people. Shackelford notes it needs to reach the defense dept’s bottom line. Wilson notes the electoral college, racial gerrymandering, education, and SCOTUS are important to consider. Gerten notes the importance of social media putting power into the people but presents some dangers.
Building vocabulary: Key words and questions we should consider. Shackelford notes that we need to break down vocabulary that is used in each field to be able to put environmental justice and national defense in the same sentence. Gerten talks about the usage of the term greenwashing and internet pollution. Wilson discusses people washing and how companies talk about supporting groups while not creating real change as well as the importance of storytelling to break down the language of emotions and people instead of focusing on the statistics and cost of environmental issues. Wilson also talks about the language of furtive movement and its roots in slavery and indigenous claims on land. Gerten and Shackelford note the importance of studying history.
Who are some of the people and spaces we should be learning from? Are there analytical frameworks that are useful? Shackelford mentions that W.E.B. du Bois was a brilliant foreign affairs writer and wrote for Foreign Affairs. Wilson recommends going back and reading the texts of former enslaved people, indigenous people as land was being stolen, and the texts of people witnessing their own lives, without the input of those in power. Gerten challenges us to listen to ourselves and challenge our own perspectives and habits.
What does the transnational space and conversation look like? Valentine Cadieux talks about land conversations between Minnesota and New Zealand. Wilson talks about the work in Ghana and other African countries to consider the impact of the Atlantic Slave Trade.
Audience Questions. Questions on reaching conservatives, using science to address problems, and religious traditions and their relationship to environmental justice.
Conclusion
