Climate Justice. A Monochrome Movement?

Day One of Extinction Rebellions’s October 2019 protest. Chine McDonald, Christian Aid’s Head of Media & PR, tweeted:

“Was great to be on the #faithbridge today, but reminded again of how monochrome the UK climate movement is despite climate crisis globally affecting Black and Brown people the most. How can we change this? And should we? Does it matter?”

To give Chine’s tweet some context, I am a 59 year old brown woman activist within Christian Climate Action - part of the  Extinction Rebellion Faith Bridge - and I am regularly the only black or brown person at CCA actions and events. I know that in this world of intersectional marginalisations, the privilege of my age, class and economic status shields me from the most abrasive impacts of my colour and eases my passage in what remains a predominantly white space.  I am fluent and comfortable with the cultural white-speak that dominates the language of the Christian environmental movement. But why should I have to be?

Chrristian Climate Action (CCA) as part of Extinction Rebellion Protest

I think all of us who read the tweet on that day knew it mattered. As highlighted by Christian Aid’s Landmark Black Lives Matter Everywhere report(1) BIPOC (black, indigenous and other people of colour) are not only the most affected by the climate and environmental crisis, they are generally the least responsible and yet the least listened to. I believe that voices of colour have an equal right to the fundamental dignity of articulating their own stories and their own demands for justice. We commonly say that in speaking out against injustice we are giving a voice to the voiceless, but our mission, if we truly see all people as created equal in the sight of God, should be to actually give that voice to the voiceless, not to speak on their behalf. So yes, we knew something had to change: we knew we needed to be active in enabling BIPOC engagement and the real issue was not ‘should we’ but ‘how should we’.

Five months after that tweet, an unexpected invitation to join a group of Black Majority Church Leaders working with Christian Aid on climate justice dropped into my inbox. Christian Aid had made a decision to accept Chine’s challenge and to work with the ‘how’. The months since have been time for meetings and individual conversations, hearing the personal narrative, work on our theologies of justice and on the language we use to speak of God’s purpose, and outreach within our communities. The work of this group feels inspired. Together we’ve found that God has called us to use our prophetic voices - prophetic voices invited by Scripture to intervene rather than turn away from the earthly issues that connect the climate breakdown with racial injustice - to give our communities agency and to encourage them to act to bring about change. 

Despite lockdown, individually and together we are well into a programme that will take us beyond the postponed COP26 in November. A poll of black Christians was commissioned by Christian Aid that gave us data for our work(2). Storytelling to raise the visibility of environmentally concerned black and brown leaders has given us a rich collection of individual narratives from the working group, alongside a biblically based resource for black faith leaders and their congregations to begin a climate conversation.  It was equally good to see how well-attended was the workshop we led on the intersections of climate justice and racial justice at the recent Christian Aid Change Makers conference and the start of the free online course for Black Church leaders and those wanting to lead on environmental theology and climate change, a collaboration with the Centre for Black Theology and The Queen’s Foundation, Birmingham. 

My hot topic is bridge building through inter-racial and inter-denominational allyship. This is a space that has the potential to be a powerful multi-ethnic partnership in the arena of environmental and climate justice.

You can find our resources at https://www.christianaid.org.uk/get-involved/campaigns/our-prophetic-journey-towards-climate-justice. We hope they will inspire black and brown Christians and bring positive action with Christian Aid and activists seeking change to right the injustices of climate change. 

(1) & (2) https://www.christianaid.org.uk/resources/our-work/black-lives-matter-everywhere-report

Melanie Nazareth

Christian Climate Action

Member of Christian Aid Climate Justice work with Black Church Leaders