The Challenges of Creating Social Justice in Niches of the Environmental Movement

Intentional Unity: The Challenges of Creating Social Justice in Niches of the Environmental Movement A Division III e-Booklet By Colin Eldridge Read original online version here Original logo designed by and property of Colin Eldridge This project is dedicated to my late father John Charles Eldridge, and my amazing mother JoAnn Ellsworth, without whom I would not be where I am today. 1 Table of Contents Table of Contents Introduction Section 1: Environment What are Niches in the Environmental Movement? The Problem: Niches in the Environmental Movement are Socially Unjust Histories and Realities of Environmental Movement Niches Work Cited Section 2: Community Excerpts from Interviews Conducted in Intentional Communities A Critique of Diversity Initiatives My Idealist Model for an Anti-Oppressive Intentional Community Section 3: Economy Understanding the Permaculture Ethics The “Sweet Spot” of Fair Share, People Care, and Earth Care Regenerative Economics Section 4: Anti-Oppressive Education The Ladder of Inference Social Permaculture The Systems Thinking Approach The Iceberg Model The Iceberg of Oppression On Paralysis and White Guilt Section 5: Moving Forward More Resources for the Reader What now? Conclusion Glossary 2 Introduction Objectives of this Booklet 1) To point out the inherent flaws within the environmental movement which perpetuate systems of oppression. 2) To reflect on diversity within the niche of intentional communities, and offer excerpts of interviews from an independent field study. 3) To provide a commentary on the “sweet spot” of social, environmental and economic justice. 4) To offer an anti-oppressive educational framework specifically for niches within the environmental movement. About the Author This booklet touches on many subjects of power and privilege. Before I address these topics, I would like to address my own power and privilege. I am self-identified as a white male, first and foremost. Regardless of how I self-identify, this is how the government and institutions have labelled me from birth. With this socially-constructed categorization comes many privileges granted by institutions and by the invisible structures of oppression. I do not have to worry about being profiled by the police, nor do I get followed in stores because of the color of my skin. As a demographic, my people are not disproportionately imprisoned, murdered, displaced, or denied housing at rates that people of color are. This is relevant because in this booklet I will talk about issues of racial inequity as well as other forms of oppression, many of which do not impact me negatively, but rather that I benefit from because of my skin color. I also identify as a non-gender conforming, queer polysexual person. Although this is how I self-identify, I have the privilege of appearing as a cisgendered male to the system, and because of my appearance and mannerisms, it is often assumed that I am straight if I am not asked. Although I am a queer person, I still experience many of the privileges experienced by other cisgendered straight white males. I am able-bodied, which grants me access to many resources, including physical and invisible structures that are inaccessible to people with disabilities. Lastly, I come from an upper-middle class in America. This grants me immediate monetary access to resources such as food, water, shelter, medicine, and education, many of which are not accessible to those who have been intentionally marginalized by the U.S. government and institutionalized systems of oppression. 3 The Structure of this Booklet This Division III Project, which is sort of a senior capstone project for Hampshire College, is in the form of an e-Booklet. Many of the ideas and concepts in this booklet are not my own but are a result of research, conversations, activism, and experiences. The project is part essay, part blog, part rant, part journal, part zine, part educational resource. Each section is drastically different from each other in structure and content. I call this project an e-Booklet because it is intended to be viewed on a computer or mobile device. Anyone viewing this booklet can comment, hence in theory it will never be complete. As a google doc it can always be updated. There are many clickable links that lead to other articles and websites. I have tried to provide links for most terms that I have learned in higher education and that may not be accessible to the general public. There a lot of complex concepts in the booklet, I encourage you as the reader to research new topics you find intriguing. Please feel free to share the link to this booklet (tinyurl.com/intentionalunity) with your friends, colleagues, on social media, literally anywhere. If you have any questions feel free to email the author at [email protected]. Full e-Booklet link: https://docs.google.com/document/d/1mn-azQIexctoWS8uWP26aC_dbrHPjq-j75lv6Xr tPJc/edit?usp=sharing Div III tumblr link: www.intentionalunity.tumblr.com 4 Section 1: Environment Addressing Oppression in Niches of the Environmental Movement What are Niches in the Environmental Movement? In order to understand tackle this question, we must first understand what a niche is. In ecology, a niche is both the habitat where an organism occupies and the [1] role that organism takes within the ecosystem . For example, a fungi species not only inhabits the niche of the soil, but also fulfills the niche role of nutrient exchange, [2][3][4] decomposition of organic matter, and communication between plants . As such, there are also niches within the environmental movement; there are both sub-movements or “habitat niches,” and individuals’ roles in those sub-movements or “individual niches”. Of the habitat niches, there are many facets of the environmental movement, which consist of academic fields, subcultures, business ventures, activist groups, non-profit organizations... all of which are manifold in their size, location, and agenda. Individual niches consist of our own personal roles within these subcategories and how we affect the movement as a whole. For example, one niche I participate in within the environmental movement is permaculture. The role I take within that movement is teaching permaculture through an anti-oppressive framework. There are many environmental movement niches that I have participated in. Among them are activist student groups, academic classes, permaculture, herbalism, ecospirituality, earthships, intentional communities, appropriate technology, and social entrepreneurship. Some may not consider all of these things to be niches of the environmental movement. However for all intents and purposes, I label them as such because behind all of them lies an environmental ethic which in one way or another shapes their agendas. The Problem: Niches in the Environmental Movement are Socially Unjust Before diving into the problems within niches of the environmental movement, I want to acknowledge the inherent good intentions within the movement and the power that we all hold to affect change. I recognize that all of these niches I’m going to deconstruct were created to address systemic problems in our society. They were built to create solutions, not more problems. However these movements are still part of a larger system that is broken, and whether people know it or not, they still participate in that broken system. I offer a critique of these movements not because I think they should be stopped, or that they are inherently bad, but because I want the movement as a whole to grow and evolve. I encourage the reader to not take any of 5 my writing personally. My intention is not to attack any individual or group, but to point out larger systemic problems. My hopes are that we can always move towards regenerating the planet and its people, which have been devastated by degenerative systems of oppression and environmental exploitation. Within all of the niches I have participated, I have noticed a certain color-blindness that needs be addressed. People within the movement (or at least within the niches I have observed) tend to put up the big fight for the environment but when it comes to fighting against oppression, they fall short. Within the white, liberal, progressive circles I have become a part of, I have consistently noticed a lack of effort to address power, privilege, systems of oppression, and identity politics. Much of the white liberal environmental movement was built on the very same systems which perpetuate oppression: colonialism, capitalism, white supremacy, and the like. It is time for folks within the environmental movement to re-evaluate their niche within it. It is time that we call out injustices that we see within the movement. It is time that we push the movement to be more inclusive and anti-racist, anti-sexist, anti-ableist, and anti-oppressive. If we don’t make efforts to create an anti-oppressive environmental movement, we are taking the side of the oppressor and allowing these systems to exist. I am not writing about oppression in the environmental movement only based on my own experiences or observations. Racism and other forms of oppression have existed in the environmental movement for a long time and have been written on extensively. Histories and Realities of Environmental Movement Niches Some of the forerunners in the late 19th and early 20th century of the environmental movement in the United States employed very racist ideologies in addition to their environmental ethics. Madison Grant and his circle of conservationists (including Theodore Roosevelt, Henry Fairfield Osborn, Gifford Pinchot, John Muir and Irving Fisher) were not only proponents of the National Park Service, but they also wrote extensively on eugenics, ethnic cleansing, and were [5] supporters of white supremacy . This group of aristocratic white elites were more concerned with preservation of nature solely for the benefit of white people; they supported managing and protecting forests for economic development via logging and hunting of native species (it is very intentional that the US Forest Service is part of the US Department of Agriculture) .

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