[from Brooks Berndt, UCC Minister for Environmental Justice]
Dear Pollinators,
The concept of reparations is not new to the environmental justice movement. When the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice sponsored the historic First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991, one of the 17 Principles of Environmental Justice established at the summit stated, “Environmental Justice protects the right of victims of environmental injustice to receive full compensation and reparations for damages as well as quality health care.”
The Green New Deal Resolution proposed in Congress renewed the environmental justice conversation on reparations. Among its objectives, the resolution sought "to promote justice and equity by stopping current, preventing future, and repairing historic oppression."
In a recent commentary for Sojourner’s entitled “A Christian Call for Reparations,” the Rev. Dr. Kelly Brown Douglas puts for a case for reparations that by implication would encompass core aspects of the Green New Deal in at least a couple of ways.
First, Douglas notes that while “no amount of financial reparations can compensate for the generational harm and injustice black people have suffered due to the sin of white supremacy, some form of reparation remedies is in order to at least repair the ever-widening breach of inequities between the white and black communities.” Inequities pertaining to environmental injustice and related public health disparities would be an important part in determining the scope of what must be addressed.
Second, Douglas contends that for faith communities “reparations must not be only an effort to compensate for past harms, they must also chart a pathway to a just future.” Douglas points out that this future orientation is critical because financial compensation by itself does not disrupt the systems and structures of white supremacy. A transformative vision with corresponding action is needed.
As a broad and ambitious policy endeavor that seeks to fundamentally address current inequities while redressing past injustices, it should be common sense that discussion of the Green New Deal should be perpetually in dialogue with the movement for reparations. In their fullest articulations, the Green New Deal and reparations each seek to fundamentally change our society in ways that are deeply intertwined.
To stimulate and further this conversation, the next Creation Justice Webinar will be on the Green New Deal and Reparations. Our three guest panelists with be Congresswoman Barbara Lee, 350.org’s Tamara Toles O’Laughlin, and the UCC’s Rev. Sekinah Hamlin. You are invited to register now for this event on August 5th.
With gratitude for your ministry,
Upcoming Webinars
August 4: Faith and Politics hosted by the Rev. Traci Blackmon with guests Stacey Abrams and Leah Daughtry.
August 6, 13, 20, 27: American Climate Leadership Summit, a weekly webcast at 2 pm ET
New Resources
Vote Justice!: A Creation Justice Voting Resource Page
Resources for Discussing the Rights of Nature
UCC Food Justice Affinity Group Statement on the Food System in a Kairos Moment