When we invest our volunteer hours and donor funds into the environmental education of young black people, we’re implicitly saying that their lives and futures matter. When we educate the broader public about environmental impacts that hurt poorer communities first and worst, we’re implicitly saying that black lives matter. But sometimes words need to be explicit, clear, and loud so that those who are afflicted are comforted that others care, and those who afflict are shaken from the comfort that apathy will protect them.

And so:

BLACK LIVES MATTER.

The affliction now under the microscope of moral examination is the nexus of racism and police brutality. This matters greatly to our volunteers in their private lives, outside the HarborLAB mission scope. Perhaps our volunteer work helps to nurture that positive social movement. When a person gives their time and energy and gifts to a child’s education, a bond forms. They have a stake in that child’s growth and success. That volunteer can’t help but share the wound when injustice directly or indirectly injures that child, or the adult that child becomes.

A perhaps even more pervasive and dangerous assault on black lives is environmental injustice. Pollution in a child’s water or air robs that child of brain development. It dims the brilliance of the person that child was to be. And yes, environmental injustice can kill as surely as a bullet or a choke hold. The New York Times has assembled an excellent reading list on “Links Between Racism and the Environment.” The paper invites you to add your suggestions too.

Please also let us know how we at HarborLAB can improve our work or organizational culture to better meet our mission and evidence the truth of our declaration that Black Lives Matter.

Thank you. Be safe.

Erik Baard
Executive Director