reading
Abigail Echo-Hawk on the art and science of ‘decolonizing data’
In this interview, Abigail Echo-Hawk, who is the chief research officer at the Seattle Indian Health Board, discusses her efforts to decolonize data on Indigenous public health. She discusses how indigenous populations are often erased from public health data or lumped in with other ethnic/racial groups such as Pacific Islander and calls for a need for Indigenous-produced data. For more read here.
Examining Equitable and Inclusive Work Environments in Environmental Education
This report explores how Environmental Education organizations are engaging in equity, diversity and inclusion practices and identifies strategies and tools on how to improve those practices. The study draws on research conducted with majority white organizational leaders and environmental educators of color and highlights a disconnect between those group’s perceptions of DEI work in their organizations. For more read here.
100 Ways to Support – Not Appropriate From – Native People
In this article, the author discusses how Native Americans have been erased from the “American conversation” and offers 100 ways in which people can be an ally to Native Americans. For more read here.
Leaking Talent: How People of Color are Pushed out of Environmental Organizations
This report by Green 2.0 investigates the factors that impact the retention and promotions of people of color within the environmental movement. Some of the key findings are that increasing transparency around promotion practices, focusing on employee development and incorporating justice, equity, diversity and inclusion practices into the mission improves the intention to stay for all employees, white and POC. For more read here.
Maslow’s hierarchy connected to Blackfoot beliefs
This articles describes how the psychologist Abraham Maslow relied on Blackfoot beliefs about self-actualization to construct his well-known motivational theory on the “hierarchy of needs”. For more read here.
Indigenous People and Borderlands
This resource provides a number of resources surrounding Indigenous people who live in international borderlands between the US and Mexico. It has resources that discuss the rights of Indigenous people who have been negatively impacted by US-Mexico immigration policies, the histories of Indigenous nations along the border and the settler-colonial paradigms that shape policy. For more read here.
The Great Land Robbery
This article offers an in-depth look at the history of dispossession of land of black farmers in the American South. It focuses on the story of one multi-generational family of black farmers to illustrate how racist policy and actions forced hundreds of thousands of black farmers off of their land during the 20th century. The author also addresses how policies leading to a lack of land ownership contributes to the significant wealth gap between white and and black families in America. For more read here.
A Red Deal
This articles introduces the idea of a “Red New Deal” that ties Indigenous liberation into a demand for sweeping environmental changes. The author also reviews how New Deal economic development relied on the displacement of Indigenous communities from their homes and the destruction of their land. They suggest that policymakers must learn from the consequences of past policies and must choose to center indigenous voices in the new environmental movement. For more read here.
White Supremacy Culture
This article offers definitions of culture, cultural racism and white supremacy culture that are helpful in understanding and clarifying the terms. For more read here.
The stifling air of rigid radicalism
This article discusses the pitfalls of “rigid radicalism”, which is defined both as a “fixed way of being” and a “way of fixing” that views emerging movements for their flaws. The author provides a reminder that radicalism is not a fixed way of being, rather a constantly evolving creative process. For more read here.
What’s Missing From “White Fragility”
This article offers a critical look at Robin DiAngelo’s book, White Fragility and describes her experience attending one of Diangelo’s anti-racism workshops. The author discusses how the emerging field of whiteness studies acknowledges that whiteness and its power exists, but can fail to extend into more sustained antiracist action. For more read here.
When Fashion Gets Gender Wrong
This article discusses how fashion designers and clothing producers use the male body as a basis for “gender neutral” designs, making them not functionally “gender neutral” at all. The author explores this in the subset of techwear, but ties this into a broader trend to use male bodies as neutral. For more read here.