Environmental Justice Meets Reproductive Justice–September 15th

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Jacqui
About Jacqui

October 28, 2009

On September 14^th an 15^th the Women of Color for Climate Justice Initiative participated in a convening hosted by SisterSong on how the reproductive justice and environmental justice movements can work together to advance framing, messaging, and joint activism, given the intersection between environmental justice and reproductive justice. Participants in this discourse were from Sister Song, Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, the Women’s Environment and Development Organization, New Orleans Women’s Health Clinic, and Women of Color United.

Our participation in this dialogue as a grounding activity for the WOC 4 CJ Initiative as our discussion illuminated the myriad ways that women of color rights are differentially impacted by environmental and reproductive injustices, including exposure to toxins via air, through unregulated personal care/beauty/hygiene product, etc through population control practices, disasters, and other mechanisms.

We talked about the need to differentiate between the environmental justice movement and the traditional environmentalism movement. We talked about the need to differentiate between women’s rights, pro choice, and other movements and the reproductive justice movement which was founded by black women who found that their interests, framing weren’t being addressed by mainstream movements.

We came up with some action items/next steps for work together on a curriculum for training on integrating EJ and RJ, including developing a calendar of upcoming events for conducting trainings with members of each movement.