Report – Critical Race Theory & Climate Change
The American Coalition for Sustainable Communities (ACSC) has issued a new Report: Critical Race Theory & Climate Change: How government is stealing the American dream and how to stop it, to counter narratives developed by the government, nonprofits and health agencies in the country.
Why should people care? Americans need to understand what is going on so they debate issues. Though convoluted, the issues are not hard to understand.
According to nonprofit groups, the narrative of the George Floyd trial has highlighted deeper concerns of health disparities in people of color due to racism and exposure to the environment. The solution to this is “health equity.”
On April 8, 2021, Rochelle P. Walensky MD, MPH, director of the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) declared racism a serious public health threat. She stated that people have been infected by COVID-19 and that, “across the country people are suffering”; however, “these painful experiences and the impact of COVID-19 are felt, most severely, in communities of color… where the social impact of the pandemic has been most extreme.” These are bold claims.
The idea of “racism is a public health crisis” is a confluence of environmental justice and critical race theory; both seek to redistribute wealth through equity. The argument is that racism from the past is still here today; therefore, it is “systemic.” Systemic racism applies to people of color.
According to critical race theorists, since most people of color are poor: “poverty is structural, embedded, institutionalized, and systemic requirement to maintain capitalism’s efficacy; it is an ongoing outcome of hegemony, patriarchy, and a capitalistic economic structure.”
Health agencies and health departments across America have been given extraordinary emergency powers during the COVID-19 pandemic. Therefore, they have the ability promote political agendas and influence public policy. By deeming racism a public health crisis, “racism and health equity” have been thrust front and center to argue increased subsidies for minorities and undocumented populations.
The report, provides a quick overview of the events that led up to CDC deeming racism a public health threat and provides a detailed review how it ties in with recent events.
- The report provides a brief historical perspective of how climate change solutions, under environmental justice, intercede with policy
- The report shows how these solutions are embedded in local cities/counties and how international climate change solutions influence work at the local level to build consensus for National policy changes.
- The report examines the genesis “racism as a public health crisis” mantra and the resolutions that inspire them. Identified are the conditions that fomented them. Critiques of resolutions are presented as case studies
- Critical race theory is addressed and how it is being used by government, local nonprofit corporations and higher education.to accentuate environmental justice in order to codify health equity.