*Excerpt from a piece that will be published in the print/and digital editions of The Anti-Racism Policy Journal*
We don’t have the tools to address climate change because we are not speaking about it and its proper context. We need to call climate change what it truly is – racism. We need a new lexicon — a new way to speak about climate change to ensure that equity for the environment includes equity for ALL the people. Diasporic Anti-Racism, or the application of a systemic perspective on the action to support people of African descent, must be applied to global efforts to resolve climate change. We must apply this global perspective to support the climate justice efforts to overturn the impacts that climate change is already having in Black communities in the Caribbeans, Latin America, Europe, and Africa, and connect it to the local. Boston is already a melting pot of African Diasporans from all ethnicities. The wealth of experience, knowledge, and passions will advance anti-racism efforts in the climate movement at the local level. This will not only impact progress efforts against environmental racism but also all the greatest impacts of systemic racism in Boston. This new lexicon for the climate plight experienced by the marginalized will bring the unity and organization needed to line all these issues together to create comprehensive actions against systemic racism. The only question is … What is the will of the Diaspora to make this happen in Boston, and across the world?