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Changing laws and policies alone wont change who we are unless we address the underlying problems with those laws, writes Giovagnoli. (Saundi Wilson / Flickr)

For over twenty years I have dedicated my life to immigration reform, preaching the value of a welcoming society. Ive tried to make America a better place by working for legislation and policies that would expand who could become a citizen, open America to refugees and asylum-seekers, and protect immigrants in the workplace.

Ive tried to live by it, tooknowing full well that I come up short in fully understanding the challenges people of color face in the United States. Ive clung very hard to the belief that if we could just get our laws and policies right, we could achieve a more just and humane world.

I still believe those things are necessary, but the murder of George Floyd and the massive outpouring of protest, rage and sorrow that have followed this senseless killing has stopped me in my tracks.

How can I believe that fixing the immigration laws will make things better when there are police officers who kill black men and women without fear of punishment, and a president who permits peaceful protesters to be tear gassed and shot with plastic bullets just so he can have a photo opportunity?

I am humbled by both the words and actions that people of color, especially black Americans, have shared in these last few days, revealing the pain and fear that they live with every day in this country.

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I realize now, more than ever, that we must fight for a better world, in all the ways we can, with our eyes open to the legacy of racism and hatred that permeates our institutions. For me, that means acknowledging that changing laws and policies alone wont change who we are unless we address the underlying problems with those laws.

Our fight for reform must include a recognition that change may unseat some privileges and may force us into new and more equal relationships. The welcoming movement has always stressed the need to meet people where they are, with the idea that change comes through knowing one another.

But change also comes from knowing yourself. Welcoming is not only about opening our arms to others; it is about opening ourselves to scrutiny and introspection, to plumb those dangerous hidden places in our hearts that ask the very scary question: Am I, could I, be a racist?

I tend to be a gentle person. I dont like throwing epithets at others. I truly believe in creating the space to sit down and talk with one another. Most of the time, I think that people who oppose immigration reform have a host of reasons that can be addressed systematically and logically.

But there is a visceral and frankly, racist, element to many of the arguments that have impeded reform. Acknowledging what lurks in the shadows is the beginning of change, even though it can be uncomfortable and painful.

Those of us who make up white America need to take respectful and contrite steps towards understanding the racist history and subtext of so many issues that we never have to think about.

The focus right now, of course, is fear of the police, but systemic racism is everywhere. For instance, the immigration laws themselves have historically privileged white Europeansand even as the notion of white changed to include my grandparents and great grandparents, Italians and Irishit continued to exclude so many others.

Those vestiges of the past mean even the system I am fighting to protect and improve is littered with disregard for people of color. Even as I embrace the history of America as a nation of immigrants, I must look at the dark side, too, and refuse to settle for either tweaking laws or not linking immigration reform to broader issues of equality and justice.

President Trump has capitalized on the dark side of immigration law, often seizing on those dark elements of law, taking them out of context, to create a host of illegal schemes for blocking the entry of refugees, of Muslims and of people of color generally. His administration has seized on the pandemic to leverage public health laws to shut the border to asylum seekers and others, even turning unaccompanied children away at the border, contrary to the law.

These are sinister acts and they are racist. They are so blatantly racist, however, that it is easy, perhaps, to utter those words without realizing that they have meaning beyond the accusation. Trump gets away with racism in part because people like me dont want to risk offending and alienating others by using the words that describe our system.

To make reforms a reality, we must stare unflinchingly at ourselves, whoever we are, wherever we are, whatever we say we stand for and ask: Does my work acknowledge the pain and suffering that is at the root of most of our immigration system? How can I reconcile the concept that politics is the art of compromise, with the clear message that there can be no more implicit compromise where black lives are at stake?

I dont have the answers, but I pledge to keep fighting racism in all its forms. For me, that work will still take place largely in the immigration context, largely through trying to improve our laws and support those who defend and advocate for immigrants.

But now, every day, as I think about my work, I will ask myself not only how must the law change, but how must I change to make the world better. I will keep listening to those people who experience racism firsthand, and I will keep challenging myself and my colleagues to dig deeper to understand, lift up and stand aside for the rising tide of voices who can help us make the America we want it to be. I still believe we can.

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How Racism Impedes Reformand the Need to Address it Head-On - Ms. Magazine

Racist incidents in Ireland almost doubled last year compared to 2018, according to a study by the Immigrant Council of Ireland.

The Immigrant Council released its 2019 Impact Report on June 4, which documented 46 racist incidents last year, up from 25 in 2018.

The council's report, which documented all the services that the group provided in 2019, found that half of all racist incidents in Ireland took place in the workplace or on public transport.

There were six instances of racism in public or private services, and the council reported that there were four incidents of racism in the street.

The council also reported two racist incidents at places of leisure and two examples of racism on social media.

Brian Killoran, CEO of the Immigrant Council of Ireland, said that the report highlighted the flaws in the Irish State's response to immigration.

He said that Ireland needed a holistic plan for immigration and racism while launching the Impact Report on Thursday.

"We lack in Ireland a strategic plan for migration, including comprehensive immigration reform and access to justice for migrants. We need coordinated responses to racism like a national action plan," he said at a press conference Thursday.

The Immigrant Council of Ireland also released a number of key figures from 2019 in its impact report.

Launching today: #ImpactReport2019

Over 5,000 helpline calls answered 27 trafficking victims supported 1,000 selfies donated to Transport Against Racism campaign 382 consultations with children & YP 5 immigration-related High Court caseshttps://t.co/vnCOyhXfn3 pic.twitter.com/9oV84wirPb

Read more:Irish Americans need to do more to tackle racism

The organization responded to more than 5,000 calls about issues like citizenship, family reunification, EU Treaty Rights, and employment permits, and also helped 27 women who were trafficked to Ireland for the purposes of sexual exploitation, enforced criminality, or domestic servitude.

The majority of women were just girls when they were first trafficked, with 23 of the 27 women trafficked for the purpose of sexual exploitation.

The council provided legal aid and support for trafficked women to assist in their integration into Irish life.

The group also ran a Migrant-Councillor internship program last year, with three members running in local elections last May 2019.

However, the group said that just nine candidates with a migrant background were elected during May's local elections out of a total of 949 seats.

Killoran said that more needed to be done to increase immigrant participation and representation in Irish politics.

"The Immigrant Council will continue to work at every level to support increased migrant political participation, but its clear a lot more effort is needed by the State and political parties to tap into the massive talent pool within migrant communities," he said.

Read more: Justice now! Fearful times for a mixed-race Irish family in New York

Excerpt from:
Reports of racist incidents in Ireland doubled in 2019, according to study - IrishCentral

Where 6th District Republican candidates stand on the issues

Georgias 6th Congressional District will be one of the most closely watched U.S. House races in the country.

The metro Atlanta district has seen two close elections in the past three years. Republican Karen Handel won a 2017 special election over Jon Ossoff. Then Democrat Lucy McBath won the office the following year.

Handel and three other Republicans are running to try to unseat McBath,

More 6th District headlines

Karen Handel

Roswell

Republican

Bio

Handel has been involved in Georgia politics for the better part of the last two decades as Fulton County Commission chairwoman and secretary of state. She won a 2017 special election for the 6th District but lost the seat in 2018.

Blake Harbin

Milton

Republican

Bio

Harbin owns a mortgage company. He focuses on his personal story of becoming an executive at a young agen, losing his job in the finanacial crisis and suffering an accident that left him in a wheelchair and his battle back.

Joe Profit

Marietta

Republican

Bio

Profit is an author, restaurant owner and former first-round draft pick for the NFLs Atlanta Falcons. He ran unsuccessfully against U.S. Rep. Hank Johnson in the 4th District two years ago.

Paulette Smith

Kennesaw

Republican

Bio

A singer and business owner, Smith has worked on campaigns for Donald Trump and Brian Kemp.

1. Do you support dismantling the Affordable Care Act? If so, what would you replace it with?

Handel: Steve and I had affordable private insurance, but like so many, we were forced onto the ACA exchange. Our premiums jumped from $350 a month to nearly $1,200 a month with a $10,000 individual deductible. Access and affordability remain serious problems despite ACA. I will again take the lead on legislation to protect those with pre-existing conditions from getting dropped or priced out of insurance. Additionally, I will work to expand private insurance options; decouple insurance from employers and employees, so individuals can take their plans with them wherever they go; allow insurance premiums to be paid out of (health savings accounts); realign the reimbursement system to facilitate adoption and fairness of telemedicine, concierge medicine and at-home care; and expand access and affordability by building upon the network of community health centers. What I will not support is Lucy McBaths plan for government-run health care that makes private insurance illegal.

Harbin: Yes, we need to dismantle the ACA. The name in and of itself is problematic since high-quality health care became the opposite of affordable for most individuals and small companies as soon as it went into existence. Ive experienced this firsthand as a small-business owner seeking to find the best coverage for my employees both before and after the ACA was enacted. The best component of the ACA - guaranteeing the right to health care for those with pre-existing conditions - should absolutely remain intact and mandatory for any ACA replacement program. Components of the act that benefit insurance companies ahead of people should be struck out in the name of affordability to the end user. I believe in free-market health insurance, but I dont believe that profits should drive decisions that impact peoples lives. Congress needs to strike balance in establishing parameters to limit costs without stifling the market.

Profit:As a broad overview, the Affordable Care Act did not make health care affordable and interfered with the doctor-patient relationship.Private insurers can provide the widest range of options, and my health care committee has formulated the basis for legislation that will bring about lower-cost, high-quality health care. My plan is to make insurance affordable and make health care available. It will include coverage for pre-existing conditions and will enable children to stay on their parents policy until 26 years of age. Beyond that, our legislation proposal will drive down the cost of prescription drugs and bring more competitiveness to the health insurance market.This question is far too complex to adequately answer in 150 words or less. More details will be posted on my website, http://www.joeprofitforcongress.com, in the near future.

Smith: Yes, I support dismantling the Affordable Care Act. I would replace it with the Preventative Care Act, which gives medical doctors the latitude of documenting key findings while implementing more nutritional knowledge for healing, and giving people the option to go to holistic doctors to address pure solutions to the minerals lacking in the body, like vitamin D, C, A and potassium, and what steps we as people can take to better our health without synthetic drugs which produce side effects. I support the president's goals for the health care of our country, rather than managed care. Obamacare was forced on the people without regard to access or affordability.

2. What should Congress do, if anything, to address concerns about climate change?

Handel: I have an obligation to future generations to protect our environment from clean air to clean water to green spaces and forests. We need workable solutions that fuel our economy (especially as we recover from the COVID crisis) while advancing environmental goals, such as reducing emissions. To advance sound environmental goals, we need to reduce regulations for renewable energy technologies and new nuclear power plants, foster energy trade to export proven U.S. technologies to help developing countries expand their sources of clean energy, explore tax credits for clean energy innovations, and encourage carbon capture and storage. Radical proposals like the Green New Deal will exacerbate our already severe economic challenges with massive new taxes, more regulations and trillions more in spending with goals that are completely unrealistic.

Harbin: I believe we should leave the world a better place than we found it. Congress should listen to its expert scientists and take an active stance in protecting our environment from the negative effects of climate change. The United States should continue to be a leader in minimizing vehicle emissions. Ive been to other countries that dont have the same standards we do in the United States and have nosebleeds for weeks upon my return. Im proud of the initiatives our Congress has taken to date that have drastically reduced our countrys carbon footprint. I believe that animals' habitats should be protected, and Im OK with the fact that sometimes industry might need to take a detour to protect the sanctity of nature and to continue to reduce our carbon footprint. Small sacrifices today in the name of sustainability can reap dividends in the future both environmentally and financially.

Profit:The United States has been a leader in reducing carbon dioxide emissions. Meanwhile the nations that have signed the Paris climate agreement have largely missed their reduction targets. In my estimation, the Paris agreement was designed as a means of having United States taxpayers foot the bill for a feel good but ineffective program that gives two of the worlds largest polluters (China and India) a free pass.Additionally, in the 11 years following the signing of the Kyoto Protocols, atmospheric carbon dioxide levels increased at approximately a 50% greater rate than in the 11 years prior to the protocols being signed. Further evidence that international programs havent worked.We dont need thinly veiled tax programs (cap and trade). Congress needs to encourage and verify that industry and individuals continue expanding the efforts that have made the United States a leader in the reduction of greenhouse gas emissions.

Smith: We have in America clean air, and we are willing to share with others how we are able to keep our air clean. Climate change is taking money out of the American pocket. What the president is doing now is working. No more spraying pesticides around our homes and spraying all kind of chemicals in the atmosphere.

3. Does Georgia have an illegal immigration problem and, if so, what should be done to fix it?

Handel: Every day massive amounts of drugs flow across our border -- flooding our communities and addicting our loved ones. Human traffickers and gang members take advantage of our porous border to advance violence and slavery. Visa holders skip out on our lax system and remain illegally in our country for years if not decades. In Congress, I helped to develop comprehensive immigration reform that included full funding for the wall, increased (Immigration and Customs Enforcement) funding, a plan to transition to a merit-based visa system, enhanced oversight of visas, a workable (Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals program) fix that kept my promise for no special path to citizenship, and ended extended family green cards. While the illegal crossings have decreased under President (Donald) Trump, this legislation represents the foundation of how we can and must move forward. We need a fair, efficient system that facilitates immigration to our great country and protects our national security.

Harbin: Yes, Georgia does have an illegal immigration problem. To remedy this, our borders need to be secured. But more importantly, Georgia has an illegal immigration problem because our immigration system as a whole is completely broken and needs to be overhauled.

Profit:Like every other state, Georgia has an illegal immigrant problem. The only way to fix it is to secure our borders and revise our immigration policies. Immigrants built our country and are the key to its greatness. However, policies during the past few decades have made the legal immigration process extremely difficult. During that same period of time, Congress has done little, if anything, to address illegal immigration.We need a sound immigration policy that establishes fair requirements for admission without requiring that applicants go through an absurdly long and convoluted process. Part of that policy should include provisions for barring criminals and people who seek to immigrate in order to do harm to our country.

Smith: Yes, Georgia has a lot of undocumented workers. We must push to get organizations who help illegal immigrants before they get to this country, to be mindful that when they get here, there is a strong possibility that without a green card, a work visa or citizenship, they will have to return back to their country until they apply for citizenship.

4.Are you in favor of additional criminal justice reforms that reduce the number of inmates in prisons and jails serving sentences for nonviolent offenses?

Handel: We must ensure that our communities are safe, and incarceration is the appropriate punishment for many crimes, especially violent crimes. However, for many nonviolent criminals, education, mental health, substance abuse and anger management programs, along with increased employment opportunities, cost less and reduce recidivism. In Congress, I joined with Congressman Doug Collins to help pass the First Step Act, which President Trump signed into law. The bill provides incarcerated federal inmates with the opportunity to earn a second chance at life through evidence-based recidivism-reduction plans. These individualized plans include training, education, substance abuse and mental health care, and faith-based initiatives. The legislation is an important step toward eradicating mass incarceration across the country. Next steps include getting our economy back on track as soon as possible to create job opportunities along with more investments in mental health and substance abuse prevention.

Harbin: Yes, we are a nation of laws but have more people incarcerated than any other country in the world. Why is that? We need to start looking at the root of the problems driving nonviolent crimes in order to prevent recidivism and positively impact our communities.

Profit:I am strongly in favor of additional criminal justice reform. We must be tough on crime, but incarceration is not always the most effective means of dealing with criminal activity. Many counties in Georgia have accountability courts, and they have been very effective at reducing recidivism. The ultimate goal of the judicial system should be to hold criminals accountable for their actions. Imprisonment should not be the only or the preferred means of holding nonviolent criminals accountable. However, that doesnt mean it should be eliminated, as it may be the only viable option for dealing with repeat offenders and career criminals.

Smith: Yes, I am! I believe there should be classes that they can take, as well as jobs, to have a cut-out destiny for success.

5.Should Congress do whatever it can to rebuild the economy no matter the long-term impact on the national debt?

Handel: To tackle the debt, we need a strong economy. Our only path toward balanced budgets includes pro-growth policies and less spending -- not tax hikes that will stifle job creation. For now, Congress must prioritize getting our economy back on its feet and helping Americans return to work. I have a proven record of balancing budgets during tough times by applying conservative principles. I erased a shortfall without raising taxes as Fulton Commission chairman and cut spending in the secretary of states office by nearly 20% during the Great Recession. In Congress, I was chosen to serve on a debt reduction task force because of this experience. President Trump spurred on the greatest economy in our nation's history. When the good times return -- and they will tough spending decisions will be required. I am the only candidate in this race who has a record of doing so.

Harbin: No, while Congress plays an incredibly important - if not the most important - role in rebuilding the economy, it should still operate with a financially moral compass when enacting legislation related to recovering from the effects of the worldwide COVID-19 pandemic. Congress must propel the economy while ensuring stringent guidelines are in place to ensure funds used for their intended purposes -- like keeping the doors of small businesses open -- and not used for funding pet projects as the current Congress initially attempted to do all while delaying relief to Americans who needed it most. While it will take congressional action alongside the American spirit to really rebuild the economy, taxpayer dollars cannot be pledged in perpetuity or as blanket spending bills. Eventually, order will need to be restored in which economic stimulus fits in with the rest of the presidents budget.

Profit:At some point, we have to take the steps necessary to reduce our national debt. Even before the COVID-19 pandemic decimated our economy, spending was out of control. The federal government has a tremendous amount of waste and duplication that must be eliminated. We also must change our way of running government agencies. When President (Ronald) Reagan appointed me to the Federal Communications Commission and Small Business Advisory Committee, I spent a lot of time in Washington and I saw firsthand that, near the end of the fiscal year, agencies rush to spend every last dollar of their budget. They do that so they receive an even larger budget for the following year. Congress needs to control the budgets of government agencies and demand justification for implementation of expenditures. Under the current system, federal employees are squandering taxpayer dollars.

Smith: Congress cannot just do whatever. ... No! With the personnel who are in Congress now, we have to document a long-term strategy. The Congress, the Senate and the president should be coming up with the key framework to move the economy forward. The president should be able to sign an executive order to move the country forward without the special interests of Congress. Rebuilding the economy should be about "We the People," not the politicians!

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Georgia 2020: Where 6th District Republican candidates stand on the issues - Atlanta Journal Constitution

The social justice protests sweeping the country have pushed mainstream environmental groups into a corner, with many struggling to show solidarity without appearing hypocritical.

Most of the largest groups are overwhelmingly white, and their conservation focus has historically ignored the disproportionate impact of pollution on communities of color. Some also have racist and anti-immigrant pasts.

Yesterday, more than 200 groups released a letter "in solidarity" following the killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery, all unarmed African Americans.

"This moment has laid bare the long and shameful history of institutional and systemic racism against Black and Brown people in this country," they wrote. "We demand action."

But statements like those have met with criticism from some in the environmental justice movement.

Robert Bullard. Dave Brenner/Flickr

"Anyone can come out with a statement," said Robert Bullard, a professor at Texas Southern University. "Racial justice starts at home. Look at your own organization."

Bullard is often referred to as the father of the environmental justice movement; he's been working on these issues for more than three decades and has written more than a dozen books on the topic.

Racism permeates every institution in America, he said, including the environmental movement.

"Racism is stamped in the country's DNA," Bullard said. "The best way to show it is to look at the green groups' agenda and who is on their boards and their staffs and the percent of green dollars that they suck up like a vacuum cleaner sucking up all the dollars in a room. Very few dollars are left for people of color and groups working on environmental justice and against racism."

Data supports Bullard's argument, though mainstream environmental groups have made efforts to diversify their staffs.

In 2014, the diversity initiative Green 2.0 commissioned a broad analysis of the environmental movement, including the major nonprofits, foundations and government agencies. The results were stark.

It found that while people of color represented 36% of the organizations' makeup at the time, they didn't constitute more than 16% in any category. Among nonprofit groups, 12.4% were people of color, while government agencies reached 15.5% and foundations came in at 12%.

Whitney Tome. Whitney Tome.

Green 2.0 called the movement "an overwhelmingly white Green Insiders' Club."

The group has continued its work, issuing transparency report cards every year. Executive Director Whitney Tome said there has been progress, but it's slow.

"I've seen a marked change [in] building out their own staff and their own capacity in this area in a way that's been good," she said. "Not everyone has done it, but a good number of them have."

The most recent report card found that, on average, the organizations added 11 people of color to their staffs between 2017 and 2019 including two in senior roles. And diversity also increased on boards.

"I am seeing opportunity and people who are stepping in and taking action," she said.

The report card, however, is blunt about the overall picture.

"Though the 2019 numbers are encouraging," it stated, "Green 2.0 cautions against declaring victory."

National Wildlife Federation Vice President of Environmental Justice, Climate and Community Revitalization Mustafa Santiago Ali during an interview at the NWF offices in February. Francis Chung/E&E News

Outside of the outwardly racist history of the American conservation movement, green groups have long kept environmentalism siloed away from other interrelated policy issues.

Even as the environmental justice movement began to bubble up in localized organizations in the 1980s and 1990s, national groups ignored environmental plights faced by communities of color and kept their focus on conservation, said Mustafa Santiago Ali, vice president for environmental justice, climate and community revitalization at the National Wildlife Federation.

It led to backlash from the environmental justice community.

In March 1990, an environmental justice coalition sent a scathing letter to what was then called the "Group of 10" major environmental groups, including the Sierra Club, National Audubon Society, National Wildlife Federation, Wilderness Society, National Parks Conservation Association and Natural Resources Defense Council.

Although they "often claim to represent our interests," the environmental justice coalition wrote, "in observing your activities it has become clear to us that your organizations play an equal role in the disruption of our communities."

The letter was focused on the Southwest, where mining companies had devastating environmental impacts and the military had used large swaths of land for weapons development and testing. In particular, the groups scolded the Group of 10 for supporting national monument designations on lands that were culturally significant to Native Americans.

And they criticized the lack of people of color within the organizations, calling on them to leave the area until "you have hired leaders from those communities to the extent that they make up between 35-40 percent of your entire staff."

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Tome said those efforts were a motivating force for launching Green 2.0 in 2014. After the letter, there was some focus on the issue, but not for long.

"It sort of fell off," she said.

But there has been a renewed focus, Ali said.

"When Trayvon Martin and others lost their life, there was silence, but the culture's shifting, and now organizations are sort of moving with the mainstream in the sense of speaking out and moving towards solidarity," said Ali, a former longtime staffer in EPA's environmental justice office.

A number of major green groups, including the Sierra Club and League of Conservation Voters, teamed up with local environmental justice organizations last year to produce a collaborative climate policy platform centered on civil rights and economic equality.

"I would say that for the first time in the 30 years that I've been working on environmental justice, I've seen the green groups make a turn, and for me, it started with the Equitable & Just Climate Platform," said Beverly Wright, executive director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice.

The Sierra Club has also made tangible efforts to increase diversity and reach out to communities of color under Executive Director Michael Brune's leadership, Ali said.

The group was once a home for vehement anti-immigration voices who saw population control as a way to protect the environment. John Tanton, who once held leadership posts with the Sierra Club, went on to found the Federation for American Immigration Reform and had white nationalist beliefs, according to the Southern Poverty Law Center.

More recently, Leslie Fields, a longtime environmental justice and civil rights activist, was elevated to a senior position, and the Sierra Club started offering statements of solidarity with Black Lives Matter protests more than five years ago.

Tome agreed, noting that the Sierra Club has taken important steps including on its board and in training its staff on equity issues.

But the environmental movement still has a long way to go. Statements of solidarity are great, Ali said, "but if you're not willing to change the systemic structures, both inside of your own organizations and to understand and work to change it across our country and in our government, then it's window dressing."

Beyond simply hiring staffers to work on environmental justice, Wright said, greens can back up their statements by helping local environmental justice groups obtain the funding they have long struggled to get from large philanthropic organizations.

"They can put their money where their mouth is and give the real on-the-ground support," Wright said.

Major environmental groups have taken steps in recent days to show solidarity with protesters and minority communities, but they've done so in different ways.

The League of Conservation Voters was out front with the difficult history that the environmental movement of which it has been a major part has had with racial justice and including voices of people who are not white.

"We have not been a fully-fledged ally for racial justice and equity. We have not always spoken up or we have taken too long to do so. We must and will do better," LCV President Gene Karpinski said in a lengthy statement yesterday.

Felice Stadler, vice president for political affairs at the Environmental Defense Fund, similarly pledged that her group sees this moment as a call for more action.

"What these most recent tragic events have underscored is that we can't just issue statements and think that's sufficient," she said in a statement. "We have to do better. We know that."

Other organizations have differed in the extent and ways they sought to incorporate environmental concerns even environmental justice issues unique to black and other oppressed communities into their responses to the killings and protests.

The Natural Resources Defense Council, for one, put out an unsigned statement standing firmly with protesters.

"We stand up against hatred and injustice. We stand up for human dignity and respect. We stand in solidarity with Black families and communities calling for justice," it said.

Mitchell Bernard, the group's executive director, expanded on that in a blog post of his own, weaving in the environmental work the group does.

"We will continue to vindicate the people's rights under the law, to partner with frontline individuals and groups to demand environmental justice," he wrote.

Sunrise Movement co-founder Varshini Prakash (center) is seen pictured protesting on Capitol Hill last year. @sunrisemvmt/Twitter

Groups like the Sunrise Movement and Zero Hour offer an example of what a "21st century" environmental organization looks like, Ali said.

Those organizations, and other supporters of the Green New Deal, generally emphasize climate policy that includes a just transition and addresses the needs of environmental justice communities.

Sunrise held a webinar last night advising members on how to participate in the Floyd protests and how to tie climate and civil rights advocacy together.

Among its advice was not to co-opt smaller protests by wearing the matching Sunrise Movement shirts that members often wear to climate events.

Executive Director Varshini Prakash said at the outset of the webinar that it was the largest call in the group's history, with roughly 1,800 participants.

"Our vision for a more equitable world is super in line with everything that is happening right now in this country," Prakash said.

While environmental organizations have been slowly incorporating justice concerns into their work, only very recently has the movement started to treat the two issues as one and the same, said Natalie Mebane, associate director for U.S. policy at 350.org.

"You're starting to see the evolution of the environmental movement as something that we cannot differentiate and compartmentalize," she said. "These climate justice organizations are encompassing and hopefully becoming justice organizations. It's been a long time coming."

Bullard, the longtime environmental justice advocate, said the shift must also come at the resource level. More often than not, he said, environmental justice groups and those on the front lines can't afford to get involved in important policy debates.

"Right now, many of the environmental organizations are resourced to make the meetings in Washington and sit at the table and do the networking," he said.

"That leaves the people who are on the ground, who are more impacted, that are on the front line of environmental pollution and climate change. Those folks can't get to the table because of lack of resources," he said.

"We have to move beyond just talking about this."

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GEORGE FLOYD PROTESTS: 'Overwhelmingly white' green groups forced to confront past - E&E News

On this weeks podcast, Yang, a deputy national editor of The Times, talks about the current state of the conversation and what her research revealed to her about how the countrys views have changed over time.

I was amazed to think about and learn just how recent this conception of a nation of immigrants is, actually. I learned its from the 1950s, Yang says. That idea is fairly modern. Before that, you could argue that the root of the American spirit, people thought about as coming from the Wild West. That was the nationalist mythology. This notion of immigrants is something of a invention is too far afield, I think, but that was the result of historians doing work and doing political work.

Judith Newman visits the podcast this week to discuss her latest Help Desk column, which features books about simplifying life, and says the purpose of those books has changed over time.

What has changed may not be so much the day to day but our relationship to the day to day, Newman says. We want to be successful, ambitious people, we want to get a lot done, whether its in the home or in the office, but we dont want to have heart attacks while doing it. We want to have a kind of focus and a calm. Whether these books can deliver that is of course a big question mark, but I think thats the purpose of a lot of them.

Also on this weeks episode, Alexandra Alter has news from the publishing world; and Dwight Garner and Jennifer Szalai talk about their recent reviews. Pamela Paul is the host.

Here are the books discussed by The Timess critics this week:

We would love to hear your thoughts about this episode, and about the Book Reviews podcast in general. You can send them to books@nytimes.com.

Originally posted here:
Immigration Reform, Past and Present - The New York Times