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Iantha Gantt-Wright at the Sierra Summit.
Photo by Tom Valtin

by Tom Valtin
Plenary Session

"When I walked into the Summit on Thursday," says Iantha Gantt-Wright, "I thought as I rode down the escalator how exciting it was that so many people from all parts of the country were here for this."

But Gantt-Wright, an African American who has spent the past 20 years working in the environmental field—most recently as a diversity consultant to conservation groups—confesses that when she entered the main hall "I looked left and right for people who looked like me, and when I found none my heart was heavy."

Eventually, she did find a handful of people at the Summit who "looked like her." But as this author surveyed the crowd of a couple hundred people attending Gantt-Wright's talk on diversifying the environmental movement, the number of African Americans present could be counted on the fingers of one hand. Add in the Latinos and Asian Americans present, and still you would have fingers to spare.

The circumstance was a potent—and poignant—reminder of the challenge the Sierra Club faces if it is to diversify its membership and activist base so that it "looks like America."

It's no secret that the Club's membership is heavily Caucasian—to a far greater degree than the U.S. population at large. Gantt-Wright acknowledges that most Club members and leaders are anxious for this to change. But she says when the Club does reach out to communities of color, these efforts are often undermined because the culture of the environmental movement exists "in a fishbowl" that creates a barrier to communication.

"Other people are having a hard time getting in," she asserts. "We need to step outside the fishbowl, and the first step is to understand that we're in it. The Sierra Club should make it a strategic imperative to engage more with different kinds of people across ethnicity, race, and class. The demographics in the country are changing, and if we don't change as well, we risk becoming irrelevant.

"You--the Sierra Club--are my family," Gantt-Wright says, "and with your family you have to be honest. The truth is, we're good people. But because of the lofty and wonderful goals of the organization, we have a tendency to think we're divinely appointed with all the answers, and sometimes the answers are out there in the community. We should start by listening to the concerns of communities of color. Start off by asking, not telling. Instead of explaining what's important to us, first ask what's important to them. That way you'll find out their values. Start a dialog with community leaders to find the nexus, the bridge where our interests and concerns overlap.

"And if we are successful," she concludes, "the next time we have a Summit, I'll be able to come back, look around, and feel right at home."

-- 09/11/2005 Sun
10am