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Our hearts are heavy with the deep grief, pain, violence, and death our black and brown family, friends, neighbors, partners, and communities are experiencing as a result of systemic racism, inequity, and police brutality in this country. As an act of solidarity, Sierra Club nationwide has paused our usual social media posts, text messages, emails, advocacy alerts, and fundraising appeals that are unrelated. We are committed to uplifting black and brown voices and experiences.
An important element of our mission at Sierra Club is to educate and enlist humanity to protect and restore the quality of the natural and human environment. Environmental issues cannot be separated from racial and social justice. We cannot fulfill our mission to "enlist humanity" to protect the planet while racism continues to divide us, while people of color cannot feel safe in their neighborhoods or protected by our nation's core values.
We also recognize that as an organization founded 128 years ago, we have internalized institutional racism, which limits our ability to stand up to systemic oppression and fight for true environmental protections. The Toiyabe Chapter is actively working to better understand and dismantle the ways systemic racism shows up in our organization and in our work. We are committed to engaging in meaningful racial justice conversations with our members, partners, and stakeholders throughout our communities. While we don’t have all the answers, we are doing the work to be a better partner, ally, and Club.
The Toiyabe Chapter will not stop our other important work—defending the Desert National Wildlife Refuge and Fallon wildlands from military expansion, electing environmental champions at all levels in November, pursuing aggressive clean energy and sustainability legislation in Nevada’s 2021 Legislature, protecting Lake Tahoe from aquatic weeds and dangerous herbicides, and other important causes. But we hear the urgency in the voices of color crying out in pain. Nothing is more important at this moment than to support them in solidarity and do the work necessary to make sure those injustices do not continue.
So we are pausing, listening, and learning how we can better achieve justice in all its forms. This will be an ongoing journey towards anti-racism and justice for all. We invite you to join us.
Things you can do to learn more and take action:
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