How Ilhan Omar's Daughter Isra Hirsi Is Connecting the Fight Against Climate Change to Black Lives
Teen activists from Johannesburg to Los Angeles are striking today to demand the world take action on climate change. Among the organizers is Isra Hirsi, co-founder of the U.S. Youth Climate Strike and daughter of Minnesota Congresswoman Ilhan Omar.
As Vice writes in a recent profile of the 16-year-old organizer, Isra helped launch the U.S. Youth Climate Strike the same month her mother took office. And though she feels like she came to climate issues “really really late in the game” (at the age of 15, she says), Isra is drawn to the issue for how it disproportionately affects communities of color. However, it is persistently framed as a “white [issue]” she noted.
White-led environmental groups helped contribute to that belief, she said. “[They’re] talking about how much they love grass and their lakes—I can’t connect with you on that.”
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From Vice:
At the time, climate activism didn’t feel that important to her, relative to other issues—partially because it was never framed that way. “Gun control and climate change are [considered] white issues,” she said when I met with her in Minneapolis, “Black lives, police brutality, whatever, are not.”
It wasn’t until she joined a high school environmental club during her freshman year that she learned how, at its core, climate change affects communities of color the most. Black people, for example, are almost twice as likely as other residents to die during a heatwave in Los Angeles due to segregation and a lower likelihood of having access to air conditioners. And a 2018 report by the EPA found that people of color are much more likely to live in communities affected by environmental pollutants, as well as more likely to develop health complications as a result.
https://www.theroot.com/how-ilhan-omars-daughter-isra-hirsi-is-connecting-the-f-1838282035