Defining the Climate Continuum in the Context of Cyclical Black Displacement

Building from Jacqui Patterson’s article, Displaced on Repeat: Black Americans and Climate Forced Migration, published in the National Committee for Responsive Philanthropy Journal, this webinar delved into the myriad issues surrounding and exacerbating Black displacement. From the Trans-Atlantic human trafficking massacre to the impacts of the current climate crisis, a consistent thread in the story of Black people in America is displacement and forced migration. These are not disparate incidents but directly interconnected actions rooted in systemic racism. 

We are so grateful to our panelists who brought robust and varied insights to the table, contextualizing the impacts and implications of the continuous displacement of Black people. 

“The trauma and the denial of land and wealth accumulation during the enslavement period directly impacted Black communities’ ability to establish a secure, safe, stable, lasting home, and build generational wealth, setting the stage for subsequent displacements on the Continent and in the Western Hemisphere.” – Dr. Ife Kilimanjaro, Executive Director of USCAN 

“Right now the people who are having to move because of climate and war are having many birthing injustices done to them: hysterectomies without consent, deliveries in spaces where they shouldn’t […] These are decisions. These are policy violence. These are decisions that we are making that come from that same history and legacy of believing that you can steal people from the continent of Africa and enslave them, as if they are subhuman.” – Joia Crear Perry, MD. Founder & President of the National Birth Equity Collaborative 

“The problem that came with the displacement was just leaving somewhere that I could afford to live. Even though I lived on the USS Lead Superfund site. Even though I lived on this site, I had a community of people. We looked out for each other. We took care of each other’s children in this community, and it was disrupted.” – Ms. Akeeshea Daniels from East Chicago, Indiana, Co-Chair of the East Chicago Calumet Coalition Community Action Group 

“We’ve seen many, many Haitian women [in DRC] arrested by the police at the hospital. Women that just gave birth a day ago. They are arresting them and sending them to the border. This is the very inhuman reality. Last Monday, 500 people were arrested and deported. They deported the majority of the people who were living in this neighborhood, and then they destroyed completely the neighborhood.” Ana María Belique. Sociologist, activist, and founding leader of Reconocido