Black Lives Matter has ignited a much-needed global movement to combat racial discrimination. However, one increasingly deadly form of prejudice that hovers under the radar is environmental racism.

Khaled Diab examines why (environmental) racism matters and what the environmental movement can do to combat it and to promote greater diversity.

Although police brutality has claimed too many black lives in America, the death of George Floyd, a father of five and grandfather of two, proved to be a final straw for many.

That a white police officer, Derek Chauvin, should kneel on a black man’s neck sparked painful memories of centuries of slavery and subjugation, of segregation and public lynchings. It was also a symbolic mockery of the “take a knee” protests against police brutality and racism.

That a white police officer in front of a camera should crush a black man’s neck for nearly nine minutes, ignoring George Floyd’s desperate appeals that “I can’t breathe”, spoke of unspeakable cruelty and a sense of impunity.

Even though the Black Lives Matters movement has been around since 2013, in the wake of George Floyd’s cruel killing the protests spread to every corner of the United States, reaching over 2,000 cities and towns in 50 states.

Shades of prejudice

As we Europeans gaze in dismay across the Atlantic at the generations of racism and discrimination that brought America to this sorry impasse, we must not, tempting as it seems, believe we are somehow superior when it comes to tolerance and multiculturalism.

This is exactly what happened in the United States. It does not require much of a stretch of memory to recall the heady days when Barack Obama, who was possibly more popular in Europe than in his own country, became America’s first black president (although he was half white, of course).

At the time, a triumphal America was patting itself on the back for its enlightenment and tolerance. But while many in the establishment were loudly proclaiming the birth of a post-racial society, bigotry, prejudice and hatred were left to fester and grow.

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