‘Some we’s weren’t part of we’: intersectional politics of belonging in U.S. environmental justice activism

Abstract

In this paper, I use an interaction between environmental justice activists, local city officials, and representatives of the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) to establish the role of place-based identities in intersectional politics of belonging for environmental justice activists. I analyze a conversation around the word we that occurred during a Collaborative Problem Solving workshop run by EPA Region 4 to explore how mundane, everyday practices of politics of belonging impact environmental justice activists’ abilities to achieve their self-defined goal. I examine how activists and city officials used the term we, colloquially a term of inclusion, as a political tool. The term was simultaneously used to make distinctions about who did and did not belong and to eliminate differences by homogenizing the broader we. For environmental justice activists, the workshop brought to the forefront the influence of geography on intersectional positionalities. While discussions and lack of specification of we may seem benign, in practice, they define belonging and exclusion, reinforcing existing power structures that perpetuate environmental injustices. From a theoretical perspective, I highlight the importance of place as an intersectional axis of difference for critical environmental justice scholars. In conclusion, I reflect on how intersectionality can be used to rethink conceptions of we in micro-scalar politics of belonging for environmental justice activists.