How Eco-Businesses Can Support Black Lives Matter

Posted on Jun 12th 2020

We, like so many, are in an era of reflecting, reckoning, and understanding how our efforts can help change the state of policing in this country and dismantle systematic racism that pervades our society.

For us, one of the biggest questions is “what can we do?” - as individuals, as colleagues, as friends, and as a business.

Based on our reading and listening, it seems that most valuable actions a non-Black person and business leader can take fall into a few main categories. Below, you’ll find a long list of specific resources that can help you execute on these different actions. Have anything to add? Please email us at hello@ecoenclose.com.

Listen, read, reflect, and adjust your behaviors - over and over again: The most essential action is to understand racism and its broad sweeping impact in this country, to reflect on your own perspectives and role in racism, and to move towards being anti-racist. This is not a one time exercise and it is one that requires being open to discomfort, empathy and dialog. There is no non-racist, there is only anti-racist and the choice to speak up when you witness unjust actions against the Black community.
Immerse yourself in environmental justice and re envision what sustainability means to you and your business: If you, like us, have created a view of sustainability focused on big, systems numbers (such as overall greenhouse gas emissions or overall levels of plastic pollution in the ocean), take the time to learn about environmental justice and use this to evolve your environmental perspectives. Like all “issues”, sustainability is one that must be intersectional. Educating yourself on environmental issues and how they disproportionately effect black and marginalized communities is essential for creating a sustainable business framework.
Donate: Change requires resources. Resources to help advocate, pay change agents for their time, pay legal fees, support memorial funds, and keep organizations who are doing the work in business. If you don't have the funds to donate, you can donate your time to any of the below:
Protest: The size of the crowd matters. The more people who come out peacefully in support of the policy changes we need to see, the more public officials will listen. Sign petitions: especially if you aren’t comfortable with protests in a time of COVID. Petitions are also valuable as they take the larger issues of police brutality and systemic racism and translate them into actionable changes that are needed. And once you sign, make sure to share.
Call your local officials: Research policing practices in your area and call your major to ensure chokeholds are banned, stop and frisk policies are eliminated, and body cameras are required (among many changes that can be made!). We have seen this with Breonna's Law - no-knock warrants are now banned in Louisville, where the murder of Breonna Taylor occurred.
Support Black-owned businesses: Spend with businesses whose values, actions and identities you are actively trying to support. Especially during COVID19, black-owned businesses were, once again, disproportionately affected.
Rethink your marketing: How intentional have you been about showcasing diverse identities in your marketing material? If the answer is anything but "actively," change that going forward.
Rethink your workplace culture and hiring practices: Do you have an inclusive, anti-racist workplace culture? Are you attracting Black and brown talent? If not, take steps to understand why and make those changes.
Finally, don’t ask a Black person to educate you, unless you are paying them to do so - through speaker or coaching fees, Patreon funding, buying their books, buying their documentaries, etc.

None of these are or should ever be considered acts of superiority or saviorism. Much the opposite. We consider them acts of simply being a person and businesses oriented towards dismantling systemic injustices that (1) we want to eradicate for our society and the society our children grow up, and (2) as non Blacks, we have benefited from and must reckon with.

This blog post is written with Black Lives Matter in mind, and was written primarily for non Black readers. We recognize that there are many disenfranchised communities. EcoEnclose is an Asian woman-owned business, and therefore is representative of one of these communities. However, we are very aware (and becoming more aware by the day) that racism against Blacks is more pervasive and destructive than what is faced by other minority groups and as such, have dedicated this particular post to actions that support Black activism in this country.

RESOURCE AND ACTION LIST

Have something to add? Contact us at hello@ecoenclose.com so we can include it.

Donate

Reclaim the Block

Black Lives Matter & Memorial Funds

Campaign Zero

Color of Change

NAACP Legal Fund

Obama Foundation Mayor Pledge

Black AIDS Institute

North Star Health

LGBTQ+ Freedom Fund

Trans Cultural District

Bail Funds by State

Read

Books

The End of Policing - Alex Vitale

The New Jim Crow - Michelle Alexander

Are Prisons Obsolete? -Angela Y. Davis

Abolition Now! Anthology

Our Enemies in Blue - Police and Power in America - Kristian Williams

Stamped from the Beginning - Ibram X. Kennedy

How to be Anti-Racist - Ibram X. Kennedy

White Trash - Nancy Isenberg

White Fragility - Robin Diangelo

A People’s History of the United States - Howard Zinn

We Need To Talk - How to have Conversation that Matter - Celeste Headlee

We Keep Us Safe - Zach Norris

Decolonizing Wealth

The Autobiography of Malcolm X - As Told To Alex Haley

Brainwashed - Tom Burrell

Defining Moments in (Black) History - Reading Between the Lines - Dick Gregory

So You Want To Talk About Race - Ijeoma Oluo

I Know Why The Caged Bird Sings - Maya Angelou

Divided Sisters - Midge Wilson and Kathy Russell

The Bluest Eye - Toni Morrison

Their Eyes Were Watching God - Zora Neale Hurston

They Can’t Kill Us All - Wesley Lowry

Fatal Invention - Dorothy Roberts

Locking Up Our Own - James Forman

The Wretched of the Earth - Frantz Fanon

Articles/Websites

Why Every Environmentalist Should Be Anti-Racist

A World Without Police - The Problem, the Strategy, the Study Guide

I’m a Black Climate Expert. Racism Derails our Efforts to Save the Planet

Posts

What Are We Protesting For? - ACLU

How to Ally - Does and Don’ts - Waste Free Marie

Defund, Not Reform - what defunding the police means & why it matters

Preventing Burnout - Keeping the movement alive

Quick Rebuttals for Racist Talking Points

How to Really Listen

Watch

13th - Netflix

American Son - Netflix

Dear White People - Netflix

If Beale St Could Talk - Hulu

King in the Wilderness - HBO

See You Yesterday - Netflix

The Hate U Give - Netflix

When They See Us - Netflix

Listen

Black-Hosted Podcasts

Sign

This Google Doc includes a comprehensive list of case by case petitions

Justice for Big Floyd

A List of Petitions for Justice - via change.org

Defund the Police

Follow

Black Women in Sustainability

Diversity your Feed - Black Influencers to Follow

ACTIONS SPECIFIC TO ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE

Donate/Orgs to Follow

Outdoor Afro - “where black people and nature meet”

We Act - for Environmental Justice for low-income and marginalized communities disproportionately affected by climate change

Read

Books

Black Owned Bookstores to Support - Instagram post

Black Owned Bookstores in the US - website

Black Nature: Four Centuries of African American Nature Poetry - Camille T. Dungy

The Body of the World - Mary Moore Easter - black feminist nature poetry

PlanetWalker - John Francis - walked across US and took a 17 year vow of silence after witnessing an oil spill

A Negro Explorer At The North Pole - Matthew Henson - 1909 expedition to the north pole

Mississippi Solo, A River Quest - Eddy L. Harris - canoeing the Mississippi from Minnesota to NOLA recounting racists encounters during his trip

The Lost Daughter, A Memoir - Mary Williams - solo-hike on the Appalachian Trail

To Love The Wind and the Rain: African American’s and Environmental History - Dianne D. Glaves

Race, Place and Environmental Justice After Hurricane Katrina: Struggles to Reclaim, Rebuild, and Revitalize New Orleans and the Gulf Coast - Robert Bullard and Beverly Wright

Diary of An Environmentalist by Norris McDonald - who founded the African American Environmentalist Association in 1985

Articles

Black Environmentalists Talk About Climate and Anti-Racism - Somini Sengupta for New York Times

Why Every Environmentalist Should Be Anti-Racist - Leah Thomas for Vogue

I’m a Black Climate Expert. Racism Derails our Efforts to Save the Planet - Ayana Elizabeth Johnson for Washington Post
Racial Complexities of Outdoor Spaces: An Analysis of African American ’s Lived Experiences in Outdoor Recreation - Matthew Charles Goodrid

Environmental And Climate Justice - article on NAACP

5 Things to Know About Communities of Color and Environmental Justice - Jasmine Bell for Center for American Progress

Connecting the Dots Between Environmental Injustice and the Coronavirus - Sacoby Wilson for Yale Environment 360

Follow

Intersectional environmentalist accounts to follow (black-run):

@ayanaeliza - Black Climate Expert and Marine Biologist

@melaninbasecamp - People of Color in the Outdoors