Black on Earth: Race, Gender, and the Environment

Catalog description

This seminar operates on the notion that white supremacy and environmental degradation are historically related—and that Black Americans have long confronted the two together. In this course, we will interrogate how different Black thinkers and activists have done so, from the Antebellum period to the present day. We will begin by considering how enslaved people drew from nature in their resistance to slavery and the Middle Passage. We will investigate the role of pollution, toxics, environmental disasters, gentrification, and more in the formation of a twentieth-century Black radical tradition. We will identify its constituent strands—feminism, communism, nationalism, and more—and their respective visions of liberation. Toward the end of the course, we will explore the environmental justice movement and Black-led responses to climate change. Weekly readings will include one or more primary sources in addition to secondary readings.