Thread by @monicaembrey

Incredible introduction to @SierraClub's Executive Director @BenJealous!

Thanks @Sammy_Roth for a great story covering topics of how to navigate racism, financial affordability and internal tensions in an ambitious agenda to tackle the climate crisis.

latimes.com/environment/ne…

2 / @BenJealous: "Racism has always been the wedge that kings and oligarchs have used to weaken people’s ability to assert their claims to justice. It’s an artifact of an old colonial divide-and-conquer strategy..."

3/ "...So for those at the Sierra Club who have wondered why we are so on fire to fight racism, I explain that it’s an obstacle to us saving the planet. Racism helps to ensure poverty, which keeps people desperate in making bad decisions about the future of the planet."

4/ @BenJealous on poverty: "When it comes to saving the planet, the social injustice that’s the greatest obstacle is poverty. I’m based in Maryland. Poverty is why my neighbors in West Virginia historically would vote to support politicians..."

5/ "...who they knew would blow up the mountains they loved and dump them into the streams they loved — because they needed those coal-extraction jobs."

#JustTransition #LaborSolidarity #Poverty #Racism #ClimateJustice