Black Students Deserve to Learn About Climate Justice

By Aziah Siid, Word in Black 

This story is part of “Earth Day Every Day,” Word In Black’s series exploring the environmental issues facing Black Americans and the solutions we’re creating in the fight for climate justice.

Some social movements ignite, burn bright, then die down with no actual change. But whether it’s the fight for women’s rights, LGBTQ rights, gun reform, climate justice, or equal education, one thing stays the same in every movement in United States history: the presence of Black folks.

Climate change isn’t just a white fight — or an issue affecting white America. It’s a global issue. So as glaciers continue to melt and tornadoes decimate towns, the need to teach and inform students, especially Black students, about the climate crisis is a pressing issue among educators, climate justice leaders, and environmental groups.

“There are many manifestations of environmental racism, and climate change is definitely part of that,” says Jesse Hagopian, a teacher and an organizer of the Teaching for Black Lives Campaign. “Our Black students deserve to learn about that.”

Thanks to organizations like the Zinn Education Project, a national organization that has, since 2008, offered free, historically accurate, and factual downloadable lessons and articles to teachers, educators are including climate topic awareness in their lessons, regardless of what subject they teach.

“Zinn Education Project seeks to make children understand history from the perspective of those marginalized and oppressed,” Hagopian says.

Hagopian has seen first-hand that teaching students true climate justice is essential because Black people and other people of color are often the first ones to feel the impact of the climate crisis.

“Too many corporate textbooks tell the story of America through the lens of the rich and powerful, government officials, and generals, but not through the eyes of enslaved people, women fighting for their right to vote, immigrants fighting for their rights, indigenous people fighting to get their land back, these are the stories we want to tell,” he says.

Changing the Narrative 

Once a teacher decides climate literacy should be included in student learning, it can be difficult to know where to begin. Do you start with the science behind greenhouse gasses, fossil fuels, and all that? Or do you start by showing the horrible effects of climate change, like snow in Texas?

Some would argue it starts with American history.

“For far too long, the fossil fuel industry has dominated the discussions of the climate crisis in American curriculum,” Hagopian says. “You can’t understand climate without understanding the history of the industrial revolution — the way that corporations in this country formed, and their impact on the environment. So I think all teachers should be teaching about climate change, not just science teachers.”

Attempts by powerful corporations to buy the silence of students and teachers, along with powering climate denialism, are part of why the Zinn Education Project and educators like Hagopian and countless others push for climate literacy.

“Statements like why scientists disagree about global warming were distributed free to tens of thousands of teachers to spread climate crisis doubt, and it’s even made its way into mainstream textbooks,” Hagopian says. “There is a huge chasm between the severity of the climate crisis and what students are learning about it.”

The Intersection of Race, Class, and Climate 

Effectively teaching about climate means also includes acknowledging its intersections with race, class, socioeconomic status, and more.

Bill Bigelow, co-director of the Zinn Education Project and curriculum editor of Rethinking Schools, says understanding the connection between the climate crisis, structural racism, and the disproportionate impact it has on Black people all over the world, is crucial to providing students with a well-rounded picture of what’s happening.

“Educators who are really serious about tackling climate justice have to be open to embracing things that may not seem like climate change, like reparations,” Bigelow says.

To break that down, Bigelow explains when we look into generational wealth, and see the disparity between white and Black communities, then we can begin to ask ourselves why some families are equipped naturally to withstand environmental hardships while others cannot.

Generational wealth indicates “how well you’re armed to deal with a crisis that you had nothing to do with creating.” Bigelow says.

And part of the climate justice movement is understanding how to fix a problem that we, the citizens, didn’t create.

Hagopian says we need only look at the many African and Caribbean countries that are extremely vulnerable to the climate crisis— but those countries aren’t the primary emitters of carbon dioxide, the gas that warms the planet and contributes to climate change.

In addition, although countries on the continent aren’t the main culprits speeding the pace of climate change, Africa is warming faster than the rest of the world. Again, that’s without even being the primary emitter of carbon dioxide. Students need to know that this pattern is common in the U.S., too.

“When the tropical storm Harvey slammed into the huge ExxonMobil refinery in Baytown, Texas, those first exposed to the spill toxic chemicals were the adjoining communities that were overwhelming BIPOC,” Hagopian says.

Climate Literacy Isn’t Enough

Both Hagopian and Bigelow say that although climate literacy an understanding of your influence on climate and climate’s influence on you and society —  is crucial for Black students across the country

Educators should go beyond just making students understand. Teachers also need to encourage students to take action.

“We talk about climate justice rather than climate literacy,” Bigelow says. “When we talk about climate literacy, the powers that be kind of stick it in the science box.”

Instead, Bigelow says engaging students — by asking them why climate change is happening and who it’s happening to — makes it  “a social issue. Not just science.”

In addition, Bigelow says that teachers often see that “when they bring the climate justice movement in their classroom,” they discover “students are very interested in how to combat structural racism in all its forms, including the climate crisis.”

When students learn the truth about the climate crisis, “they are horrified by what they find out and spurred to action quickly,” Bigelow says. “There are many examples of  Black activists who are interested in the survival of Black people and all of humanity, which requires organizing against climate change. Imagine the solutions students can be a part of. That’s a big part of education. Not just teaching.”

“It’s incredible to see Black youth actually taking up this struggle all over the world,” Hagopian says. “BIPOC climate activists are really helping to lead the struggle.”

This story is part of “Earth Day Every Day,” Word In Black’s series exploring the environmental issues facing Black Americans and the solutions we’re creating in the fight for climate justice.