Bringing young people of colour to the forefront of environmental work
Angelou Ezeilo started a movement to get more BIPOC youth into conservation careers–sometimes despite resistance from higher-ups
Angelou Ezeilo didn’t think she was allowed to be an environmentalist.
When she was growing up as a Black girl in the U.S., she had no idea that a career in environmentalism was possible. “There were just no images,” she explains. “No marketing. It fed into an unconscious bias of why a lot of people of colour didn't pursue those careers or were not even aware of the field. Because when you looked at magazines or anything to do with the outdoors, there weren't people that look like me represented. That sends a signal to a young child that that's not for them.”
Angelou had to discover that world as an adult and carve out space for herself within it. And today, she’s an activist, author, and entrepreneur whose work straddles the U.S. and Western Africa, giving her a unique dual perspective on how young people exist in relation to the natural world.
Angelou’s organization, The Greening Youth Foundation, is bringing young people of colour to the forefront of the environmental movement, reconnecting them to the land, finding them job opportunities and training with national parks, and demanding more space for them in the world’s response to the climate crisis. We started our conversation with why that’s crucial.
Why is intersectionality so vital to environmental work?
Intersectionality is critical because everything is so connected. It's impossible to think of climate and not think of race relations and economics and finance and gender. All of these issues are layered and interconnected and the more we can come up with solutions that touch on all those causes, the better. I founded The Greening Youth Foundation because of that lack of intersectionality. I wanted all Black and Brown young people to know that conservation isn’t something that should just be limited to a particular group of people. The climate crisis demands all hands on deck – not just a few.
Where did this exclusion of Black people from the natural world start?
Going back to the Jim Crow era, there are all sorts of laws on the books to say that Black people could not go into public lands or public parks. There were certain areas in the country where Black people couldn't be after sundown. And that perpetuated, so grandparents would not want their children to do something because even if the law wasn't there anymore, people still didn’t feel comfortable. There's also just so much negative psychology that goes with being on land, because of sharecropping and having to work out on the field.
That unconscious bias I mentioned perpetuates the exclusion in the field. So when you're hiring new people into these positions, you tend to hire people in your circle – but everyone in your circle looks like you. Diversity, equity, and inclusion has to be intentional. If we're really trying to have the environmental sector look like society, then we have to have people on boards in C-suites, in managing and hiring positions that represent the people that we're wanting to engage.
In reconnecting youth of colour to the outdoors, have you seen any healing effects on their mental health and sense of belonging?
The organization's been around for 18 or 19 years now, so yes! At the beginning, we introduced them to the field, to an internship, and they maybe did some work in a national park. And as a result, their whole world opened up to nature and the environment and sustainability and they went back to school and changed their majors. And they told their peers and family members about these special green spaces that they've been to. And so now we have church communities, busloads of people going to these places like, “oh, this is really nice!” And some of these young interns have become employees of the national parks and they’re hiring the interns.
But it's still an uphill battle because what we also saw is that people don't like change. They’re uncomfortable with change.
How did that resistance to change show up?
Some of the parks, even though they knew they needed help and we had a workforce that we were basically bringing to them, they still didn't want to try to engage us. They were like, “we're just fine the way we are”.
And we said, well, we've been given money to bring this workforce to you! Like, it's not going to cost you anything! But they still didn't want to because the interns looked different. What we were doing was uncomfortable for those running the organizations because we were challenging their HR and hiring decisions and saying, “you need to engage and hire more people of colour”. And they saw that as a zero-sum game. They were like, “well, if we're hiring more of you, that means less of us”.
Your foundation does a lot of work in West Africa as well as the U.S. What do you want people in the Global North to understand about the realities of people in the Global South?
When our foundation started doing work in many countries in Africa, the question was, “well, there's just so much work to be done here in the U.S, so why do this work in Africa? We need you here”. And here’s my response to that: there are no walls with this climate crisis – all of us are going to be impacted. So we have to help everyone with getting to the same point of awareness.
The global North needs to be aware that yes, in certain countries and communities of colour, climate change is having a higher impact. But the relationship with the natural world is something that we are ALL responsible for, because we all rely on the natural world for breathable air and good food and a habitable planet. So as soon as we can remove these barriers and the “other-isms” and all the things that make people feel that they're entitled to be in national parks and others aren't –.when we can start working from an equity lens, the world will be better for it.
How does eco-anxiety show up in your work and life?
I call myself an eco-empath. But empathy is about not just understanding another person's experiences and getting in their shoes, or identifying the problem – it's also being inspired to take action. So when I say I'm an eco-empath, that means I'm feeling and I'm seeing and I'm identifying all these problems that exist within the space, and within the climate world. But I'm inspired to act. I'm not just sitting around and saying, “woe is me” and “this is so horrible”. I'm actually out there and doing things and engaging young climate activists and providing support for them and connecting them to resources.
And I think the more active I am, the better I feel, because I am also around innovation. So combining my eco-empathy impact with my exposure to innovators in the climate space puts me in a better headspace. It helps me to feel better. And then I throw a little yoga and meditation on top. And that’s the right recipe for me.
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Making Waves
A special section of The Psychoanalytic Study of the Child: A Crisis Hidden in Plain Sight: Climate Anxiety in Our Youth is a selection of papers that focus on children’s (and in some cases, parents’) reaction to the current distressing reality of the climate, and its forecasted future by American and European activists, psychoanalysts, and researchers.
Connecting Climate Minds is catalysing a global research community at the intersection of climate change and mental health. On 19-21 March 2024, stakeholders will come together in Barbados to finalise the Global Research and Action Agenda, and we invite you to join the event virtually! Learn more about the event and register here.
Guardians Worldwide has created "The Healing", a six-week online course starting March 6th, led by traditional knowledge keepers. It explores how to deepen our spiritual and planetary sense of well-being by transitioning beyond colonial health systems and using indigenous wisdom to help combat climate anxiety. Sign up here.
Stanford faculty make an urgent plea for their university to not provide fossil fuel companies “false cover in the form of academic partnerships” when the future of humanity is on the line. Read more here.
The Grist 50 is an annual list of leaders from across the U.S. who are working toward a just, sustainable future. Nominate a climate justice hero before March 11th!
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‘Till next time!
This is a wonderful article about someone doing precious work. Angelou Ezeilo, thank you for your initiative and gumption. But Dear Gen Dread, I have been finding myself frustrated at the lack of inclusion of Asians/South Asians/Pacific Islanders in the BIPOC discussions of climate change. We are often considered "white adjacent" despite having completely different experiences and inherited stories. We have families that live in states and nations that are disproportionately effected by climate change. But perhaps you have included us in BIPOC discussions in articles I missed?
Another resource readers might be interested in is an upcoming webinar with Dr. Nate Charach on combatting eco-anxiety. He is a psychiatrist that runs eco-anxiety workshops which are free for Ontario Canada residents (covered by OHIP).
Webinar: https://www.tickettailor.com/events/centreforsocialinnovation/1172772
Workshops: https://psychiatree.beehiiv.com/ (sign up for his newsletter to get workshop info)