Elon Law professor Faith Rivers James has published “Bridging the Black-Green-White Divide: The Impact of Diversity in Environmental Nonprofit Organizations” in the winter 2009 edition of the Environmental Law and Policy Review.
Rivers James describes the “black-green-white” divide as the gulf that separates the work of mainstream environmental nonprofits and those more specifically focused on environmental justice.
While environmental nonprofits over the last 30 years have shaped federal environmental law, policy, and preservation, Rivers James identifies the historic formation of these nonprofits and their current systems of governance as two structural elements leading to the dearth of support from these organizations for environmental justice causes.
“While the divide is in some respects based on organizational objectives,” Rivers James writes, “there is mounting concern and evidence that the exclusion of environmental justice objectives from the ‘mainstream’ environmental agenda reflects a bias against people of color and their concerns.”
Among solutions explored in the article, Rivers James calls for environmental nonprofits to address the degree of diversity in the composition of their staff and leadership, saying, “To the extent that minority and low-income individuals are the underrepresented on environmental nonprofit board of directors – the locus of power where strategic plans are developed and policy decisions made – these groups will continue to lack the cultural competence, community legitimacy, and accurate information to recognize and address environmental justice issues in a holistic and effective manner.”
The Environmental Law and Policy Review is published by William and Mary School of Law.