Is Climate Change… Racist?
Searching for evidence of racism in America? Look to the skies!
Liberals know the best way to get black people interested in a political issue: to racialize it and couch it in language like “equity” and “social justice,” and push for yet more government programs. That’s why reports like A Climate of Change: African Americans, Global Warming, and a Just Climate Policy in the U.S. (PDF) are written.
On Tuesday, liberal Congressman James Clyburn spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to launch the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change, a project of the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, to encourage blacks to join the global warming debate.
“It is critical our community be an integral and active part of the debate because African Americans are disproportionately impacted by the effects of climate change economically, socially and through our health and well-being,” Clyburn said.
With no Klansman to defend against or whites-only signs to tear down, certain blacks are consumed with searching for racism in a single glance or an innocuous comment or on a magazine cover or under rocks. In this case, they looked for and found racism in the skies. From the report:
- African Americans are thirteen percent of the U.S. population and on average emit nearly twenty percent less greenhouse gases than non-Hispanic whites per capita. Though far less responsible for climate change, African Americans are significantly more vulnerable to its effects than non-Hispanic whites. Health, housing, economic well-being, culture, and social stability are harmed from such manifestations of climate change as storms, floods, and climate variability. African Americans are also more vulnerable to higher energy bills, unemployment, recessions caused by global energy price shocks, and a greater economic burden from military operations designed to protect the flow of oil to the U.S.
The report is a litany of racial disparities. Six states with the highest number of blacks are in the Atlantic hurricane zone. Blacks have higher rates of heat-related deaths. So-called racist stereotypes reduce disaster aid. Sprawl is “institutional racism” that takes away jobs and resources “as whites flee central cities out of racial fear.” And on and on.
(There is no discussion of blacks’ responsibility for these disparities and conditions. The burden rests solely on others, including the government.)
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La Shawn Barber is a freelance writer who blogs at http://lashawnbarber.com.
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53 Comments
1. Ed Wallis:La Shawn, thank you for providing us all with a morning’s dose of oh, good grief!
Aug 1, 2008 - 4:26 am 2. Lisa:Not everything is about race or has a racial component.
I’ve had black coworkers share examples of racism they have experienced including a white person rushing to get in line at the checkout counter first (did you ever consider they were just an a$$hole)and only have a fifth of the hair care products in a drug store meeting their unique needs (in a town which was less than 20% black).
Of course, now we have Obama injecting race once again into the election by making unfounded accusations that the other side is trying to use his race against him. The only person using race in this election is Obama and his supporters.
Blech.
Aug 1, 2008 - 4:56 am 3. TomJW:It’s good to read you doing a political blog again.
Aug 1, 2008 - 5:35 am 4. Don Meaker:As far as the racial effects of global warming, if you’re lying about global warming why not lie about racial effects?
These people, in defiance of scripture, assert that the rain falls alone on the just, and not upon the unjust.
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:03 am 5. K T Cat:Now the weather is racist?!? Hilarious!
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:11 am 6. JOHN:I know people won’t like me saying it but T DON’T CARE! I don’t care about race relations anymore because no matter what we do it will not be enough. This country has taken great strides to do away with racism but it does need to do more, we know that but according to the Sharptons and Jacksons and Obamas we have done nothing, so screw them, I will not play this game anymore.
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:13 am 7. Right Angles » Blog Archive » Our racist climate:[...] LaShawn Barber has a great column on the efforts of some to racialize climate change. Why, you may ask, would that be their goal?: [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:21 am 8. Ten:Madness. Surely the intellectual cancer that is envy-based socialism will destroy a country without the apparent will to resist it.
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:27 am 9. Curt:People should keep in mind that (assuming global warming is a real problem and largely caused by industrial CO2 emissions) the only way to stop/reduce global warming is to increase the price of fossil fuels drastically, through taxes, scarce credits in a cap-and-trade scheme, or similar. Since the recent doubling of oil prices has only cut consumption by a few percent, and people are talking about the need to reduce consumption of fossil fuels (coal and natural gas too) by 50% or more, this increase would have to be incredibly high.
This, of course, would be (or have the effect of) a regressive tax whose impact would fall hardest on the poor, and therefore disproportionately on African-Americans in the US.
When Clinton entered office, he — at Gore’s behest — proposed a moderate carbon tax, small by comparison to what would be needed to make the kind of impact people say we need now. For various reasons, I supported this tax. My friends on the left were aghast. “You can’t do that,” they gasped, “that’s a regressive tax.” The environmental left provided Clinton with absolutely no support on this, and it quickly died.
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:43 am 10. SeanR64:Black people are the most victimized people ever. Even the weather is out to get them.
It would be easier to list the ways they haven’t been victimized.
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:54 am 11. Cindy:Does anyone think it was more than funny that Obama went to GERMANY to discuss the United States past imperfections? Really? And while we are at it can someone point out the country who’s history on human and civil rights are pure as the driven snow? The U.S. is so awful is there a goal, an example of the perfection we are trying to attain.
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:55 am 12. Dadmanly:La Shawn,
Great to see you posting here, and a excellent critique of this most recent Clyburn inanity.
Once you account for economic factors, race-based distinctives like those hyped by Clyburn and others of his ilk vanish.
Poor whites, hispanics, blacks, asians, poor anybodies will disproportionately suffer from the effects of things that afflict the poor.
The poor, you shall always have with you, Jesus said.
Short of communism, I don’t know why reasonable people would think any government program is going to change that.
(But of course, that’s really the motivating animus, concealed beneath a racialist veneer.)
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:56 am 13. ZEITGEIST:[...] LA SHAWN BARBER: Is Climate Change… Racist? [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 6:59 am 14. Racism and Global Warming « I Think ^(Link) Therefore I Err:[...] LaShawn Barber thinks it doesn’t, but I would respectfully disagree. [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:00 am 15. LeatherPenguin » Gaia is a Damn, Dirty Bigot!:[...] Here we go again: On Tuesday, liberal Congressman James Clyburn spoke at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to kick off the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, sponsored by the Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies. The left-leaning think tank created the Commission to Engage African-Americans on Climate Change to encourage blacks to join the global warming debate. [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:21 am 16. JeanE:I am rapidly moving to John’s position- accusations of racism are becoming a bad joke rather than a problem that needs to be addressed. There’s an old story about this- The Boy Who Cried Wolf by Aesop.
Of course, in the old fable one day the wolf really does attack, so I try to remain vigilant against real racism. However, the incessant cries of “Racism, Racism” become background noise to be ignored, making it more likely that when someone encounters the real thing and cries out for help, I won’t notice.
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:21 am 17. Climate Change is Racist:[...] at least the effects are. Hold on to your wallet as liberals make more moves to increase your taxes and their power to [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:32 am 18. Douglas Bogle:I am with John. I am so tired of the race card. This is played so often that I would not be suprised if it does not create more racism.
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:39 am 19. CR:( Oh, no here we go again )Sociology study anyone.
I always suspected that weather is racially motivated. How else do you explain the fact that white clouds denote good weather while black clouds bring death and destruction! Many people believe that weather is controlled by their chosen god, so why not say god is punishing black folks by sending them lots of bad weather?
I have an unlimited supply of ridiculous statements like those but I would never expect anyone to actually believe any of them. The liberals seeking to racialize everything seem to think that people will believe their nonsense. Somehow, if an issue is presented as having a racial bias then it must be true.
As a white person, I am tired of being blamed for everything from AIDS to weather in the black community. I am expected to take responsibility for my behavior but some black folks think they are exempt. Perhaps it is easier to blame others for personal problems. I wouldn’t know since I never tried that cowardly and lazy tactic and I never will. Frankly, I believe that every human being is racist and prejudiced in one way or another. It is part of our nature to be biased toward our particular tribe, religion, color, or group. We are supposed to be intelligent enough to not let those natural tendencies affect others but some people didn’t get that memo.
What is the goal of the blame whites groups? Are they trying to exact revenge for the pre-civil rights era by showing whites how it feels to be discriminated against? I just don’t understand what they’re up to and I probably never will because it doesn’t make any sense. The black community fought for and won their equality many years ago but now they are reversing course by claiming that they are not equal after all. One cannot claim to have equality while blaming everything on white people.
I’m an ornery sort of fellow and if I’m constantly blamed for doing something I’m not actually doing, then I will eventually start doing it. While I’m not running around being a vocal racist just yet, my thoughts about black folks in general are shifting, becoming more unfavorable over time. It’s high time for black folks who didn’t drink the kool-aid to assert themselves and fight the blame-whites-for-everything crowd. It’s also time for white people to stop trying to be politically correct and feeling guilty every time a black person calls us racist. People should not be given a free pass to do whatever they like just because their skin is a certain color.
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:39 am 20. Pettyfog:What about Climate Change REMEDIES being ‘racist’? We already have seen that with the Corn ethanol scam raising the price of food. Not to mention, the fuel prices, brought on partially by the refusal to drill our own resources taking away transportation and budget choices for poor minorities.
It’s my belief that the Climate Change fraud is at least partially aimed at making the dependent MORE dependent on government. Thus ensuring a reliable voting bloc.
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:45 am 21. holdfast:I blame the pasty-faced Al Gore and his massive mansion. Or how about the very liberal Google guys and their private Boeing 767?
Besides, I thought that Libs were in favor of higher energy costs as a way to reduce consumption? I agree that high gas prices hurt the poor the most, but I don’t see Nancy Pelosi doing a damned thing to bring them down – instead she prefers that we export all our capital to the middle east to buy oil and fund terrorists.
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:48 am 22. M. Simon:LaShawn,
That would make China, which now emits more CO2 than America, the most racist country in the world.
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:51 am 23. ice:New York Times Headline
“World Ends. Woman and Minorities Hardest Hit.”
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:54 am 24. Ghost racism in the sky | Cold Fury:[...] Barber, on the race-baiting hucksterism recently brought to a new low by the idiot James Clyburn: We’re left with the impression that [...]
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:55 am 25. b:I was bothered by the assertion of military burden and looked at the report to see what they meant. Turns out, even in their biased report, that the military is actually a better deal for blacks than whites:
“Distribution of Military Costs and Burdens African Americans are disproportionately highly represented relative to their population share in the military generally and in the soldiers doing duty tours in Iraq in particular. However, they are not over-represented in the casualty count, and indeed have a somewhat lower than proportionate share of total fatalities. This appears to be because African Americans have regarded the military largely as a route to career training and mobility, and so are concentrated in military specialties that have civilian analogs, generally not combat specialties.”
Aug 1, 2008 - 7:57 am 26. tanstaafl:The first time I heard the phrase “climate injustice” come out of someone’s mouth, I wanted to vomit.
(I think it was uttered relative to Katrina.)
How profoundly and insanely stupid our culture is becoming.
Aug 1, 2008 - 8:26 am 27. Joe Doakes:Black states are hurricane states so Blacks are harder hit because that’s where they live, plainly not from choice but from poverty and lack of U-Haul know-how.
So have the federal government move ‘em to someplace drier. Worked for the Cherokees.
Oh, that’s not what we had in mind? We didn’t want to move, we wanted to be paid to stay? Sorry, Charlie.
.
Aug 1, 2008 - 8:37 am 28. Webutante:Wonderful piece, LaShawn, and absolutely right on. Glad to see you writing here!
Aug 1, 2008 - 8:54 am 29. Bandit:True story – We enrolled my son in a program for kids who needed OT help thru a non profit working with the local YMCA and they told us they hoped he was black or hispanic.
Aug 1, 2008 - 9:15 am 30. J:“That’s why the Joint Center calls on blacks to “speak truth to power” and take up the mantle of environmental justice, whatever that means”
Well, let’s start by going after the environmental movement’s pride and joy – their extremely successful anti-DDT effort that has, to date, killed about 60 million people, the majority of victims African children and virtually all victims “people of color”. Environmentalism as practiced in western society is the personification of murderous racism; it’s practitioners need to be careful what they wish for.
Aug 1, 2008 - 9:17 am 31. KansasGirl:If they didn’t keep crying racism, they would have to actually contribute to society.
Aug 1, 2008 - 9:20 am 32. barrybarryquitecontrary.com:La Shawn Barber wrote… Racializing the weather? That’s pretty low. In the name of “climate justice” and all that is windy, I hope we shall overcome the storm someday.
Although I appreciate your “climate justice” sentiments, overcoming the storm someday, in my humble opinion is not going to happen.
We have reached critical mass in America in favor of those who want a nanny state that will strip away the ill gotten and excessive capitalist profits from the bad, bad (read white)corporate monster and redistribute them to those in need.
To socialists, It doesn’t matter how socialism gains ground. The fact that now the weather is being used for social and economic engineering should surprise no one. I’m kind of surprised it took this long. Socialists now have the perfect, sustainable economic weapon to use against capitalism. Racism is just the tip of the socio-economic spear wielded against
capitalism worldwide.
Ten wrote: “Madness. Surely the intellectual cancer that is envy-based socialism will destroy a country without the apparent will to resist it.”
How do societies fail? There is no single issue that brings down nations, it is a cascade effect, a downward spiral of attitudes, events and accepted behavior that creates the “perfect storm” of destruction. A storm is brewing and we are witnesses caught in it’s path.
Aug 1, 2008 - 11:40 am 33. Night Owl:The idea of climate injustice sounds like something thought up by the parody news site “The Onion”.
Race-baiters are turning racism into a joke with stuff like this. It’s going to get to the point where people just laugh when someone cries racism. Right now a lot of people just shrug or yawn when they hear someone playing the race card. It is losing its power to sting since it is so overplayed.
Aug 1, 2008 - 3:10 pm 34. keithacita:i’d rather get the gas for car from countries with state owned oil companies who are willing to drill and not worry so much about the environment. the racial makeup of these countries does not mean that i am a racist. it means i’m just following the democrats talking points. nancy,boxer and ecogangbanger gore are going to save the world at any cost. funny how visionary and ecogangbanger gore never mentioned it in his presidential campaign run in 2000.
Aug 1, 2008 - 3:42 pm 35. Robohobo:I am with John. Since I apparently can do nothing to fix the problem because just by being who I am, I am racist, why the heck should I care? Being prejudiced is being pre-judgmental of one therefore saying that I am racist because I am white is being prejudiced against ME. It is such a tangled web we have woven. See I am a victim TOO! Where are my reparations? My EEO hiring program?
I find the whole thing so foul I cannot begin to express my disdain for the whole bunch of idiocy.
Aug 1, 2008 - 3:51 pm 36. Kev:I always suspected that weather is racially motivated. How else do you explain the fact that white clouds denote good weather while black clouds bring death and destruction!
Heh, that’s funny…but don’t laugh too hard. Down here in Dallas, there was a recent dustup in the County Commissioners Court when a black commissioner accused one of his white counterparts of racism for using the term “black hole” to refer to a county collections office where money seemed to disappear.
And yes, it’s time to move beyond race in this country. How one single physical trait seems to trump everything for some people is beyond me.
Aug 1, 2008 - 4:05 pm 37. Ditto:It’s all Dubya’s fault. He’s a raciss…
Aug 1, 2008 - 5:39 pm 38. Splunge:Re: CR: It’s high time for black folks who didn’t drink the kool-aid to assert themselves and fight the blame-whites-for-everything crowd.
Nice rant, generally, but in this part, you’re not acknowledging that you’re responding to an article that does exactly, precisely that.
Well, almost. It’s not really the blame-whites-for-everything crowd. It’s the let’s-make-a-living-by-fanning-and-inventing-racial-grievances crowd.
Aug 1, 2008 - 8:23 pm 39. Is Climate Change… Racist? « The Tizona Group:[...] Pajamas Media/ La Shawn Barber Posted in Racism, WTF. [...]
Aug 2, 2008 - 5:50 am 40. Mike:Black “leaders” have already stated: if the messiah is elected, it still won’t be enough, more race wars to engage in and profit from. Nothing will ever be enough. There is discrimination all right, against straight white males only. White males need not apply, and believe me, the non elite, non E
Aug 2, 2008 - 6:27 am 41. Mike:Black “leaders” have already stated: if the messiah is elected, it still won’t be enough, more race wars to engage in and profit from. Nothing will ever be enough. There is discrimination all right, against straight white males only. White males need not apply, and believe me, the non liberal elite, non East Coast millionair darn well knows it. So do blacks and hispanics. White guys discuss it with close friends only, because to be caught speaking of it in a work or govt position means re-education at best, or termination with prejudice. Can we say: Gulag Archipeligo?
Aug 2, 2008 - 6:33 am 42. Bloodthirsty Liberal » The Sun Hates on Black People:[...] least, I think it does: Liberals know the best way to get black people interested in a political issue: to racialize it [...]
Aug 2, 2008 - 7:00 am 43. RedneckJD:I knew that the reason I have always driven too much and thought Algore was lying; I am a closet racist. Oh well, at least I can sleep better now.
Aug 2, 2008 - 10:56 am 44. Eric:I was with John before John himself. I quite having sympathy for blacks a long long time ago. I owe them nothing and they will never get anything from me except via force of government. And perhaps in the past whites didn’t like blacks because of skin color, physical characteristics, or perceived inferiority but I don’t believe that is the case today. I believe whites are merely sick and tired of black politics of victimhood, reparations, socialism, et al as if whites owe blacks something. 90%+ of blacks are going to vote for Obama. Far far fewer whites are because Obama’s socialism is repellent. With such a deep gulf between whites and blacks politically is it any wonder we can’t get along?
Aug 2, 2008 - 12:33 pm 45. Augustus:Lies, lies & more lies. Liberalism & socialism is an invention of the elite secret societies in preparation for a new world order. To create large amounts of national debt so that these once successful civilizations will be indebted to them. They now control western civilizations, China, working on Arab nations, etc. Racism & civil rights are also tools of theirs. Sure they are important for a stable society, hasn’t anyone noticed how it’s gotten twisted away-all by design. The article above is evidence. Climate change is a desperate act to deteorate economies because all it will do is cost $ hundreds of billions with a large amount of job losses.
Aug 2, 2008 - 5:00 pm 46. Ron Kilmartin:God did it, not man; and He has been doing it for millions of years, long before He created man, and long before man generated CO2.
Not only that, He is also responsible for the past ten years of global cooling! This is very upsetting. How can man control God? It is a one-way command street. Doesn’t He understand the pagan liberals need more warming to continue their socialist agenda and attacks on BIG OIL and BIG COAL and BIG HEALTH and BIG whatever?
We are all doomed.
Aug 2, 2008 - 5:42 pm 47. Believer:This is beyond stupid. And you say you’re tired of it all?
Well, get used to it, Whitey.
It’s going to be Race and Religion 24/7/365 from here on out.
It’ll be Blacks and Muslims vying for special treatment. They both have a claim on one candidate for sure. He’d better pull through for them.
Did you miss it? Obama was barely into his ‘townhall’ yesterday when a group of young Marxists interrupted with a banner that read: What About the Black Community, Obama? They accused him of not addressing their concerns. I don’t know if climate change was one of them…
Don’t you just love it when “communities” come together? As though “organized?” I do. I love it when they come together to help out a member in special need. It always touches my heart when funds are raised for a critically ill child, or for a family displaced by a disaster.
But this townhall event was a little different. They’d joined together to demand something for themselves, not to give to someone else. In frustration and anger. Not love and charity.
Gee, Barack. What a moment for you – witnessing the success of your life’s work. As Alinsky’s “community organizer.” Those young people must have made you proud.
For the rest of us? Not so much. You might say we’re sick of it already.
Aug 2, 2008 - 8:37 pm 48. pappy:who’s minding the volcanos’? as long as they are allowed to release their vile gases and smoke we will never be without racism, and the molten lava has been known to piss more than one minority off. what about clear cutting rain forests, has that practice ruffled a few feathers? no matter what, people will always find a way to invoke race. it’s an ethnic thing.
Aug 3, 2008 - 8:19 am 49. Javelin:Augustus,
Aug 3, 2008 - 11:29 am 50. COBOL Poet:Very paranoid and shoddy generalizations indicate some serious thinking disorders.
Climate change is racist? Its tripe like this that makes me judge the black community on the content of its character.
Aug 3, 2008 - 3:32 pm 51. Augustus:Your incorrect Javelin;
Aug 3, 2008 - 5:41 pm 52. William M. Briggs, Statistician » Wrong -> Immoral -> Illegal?:I’ve read some of your comments, & find you to be very sarcastic. I suggest you do some research, so that you may learn this world isn’t as nice you may think. My concern isn’t of my paranoia, rather, it is your ignorance. But i will assure you will not ge a free pass in a soon to be catastrophe. Don’t believe for a moment this world is a better place. Infact, quite the contrary.
[...] not the first to suffer from this kind of delusion. La Shawn Barber has written an article called Is Climate Change… Racist? He looks at liberal Congressman James Clyburn, who has written a report echoing the old joke: [...]
Aug 4, 2008 - 4:09 am 53. JesusWarrior:Politics as usual by Democrats, who in their minds can never be racist. It is sad that the two people responsible for the debackle of the choice for president are claiming not to be racist. This joke is to save Hillary face and allow her to be nominated for the Supreme Court if Obama win, it is the payment for President Clinton throwing the election and using the race card. Barrack Obama was in on the scheme look at when his former cabinet members joined the Obama bandwagon. Politics as usual Obama started trailing Mc Cain so Clinton comes to the rescue as the scapegoat.
Aug 4, 2008 - 2:23 pm