Black People Know We are Voting For Our Climate Lives | Opinion

There's a good reason Black folks don't say "Candyman" five times in a row and it just happens to be the exact same reason we are more likely to vote for Joe Biden's climate policy than any other demographic in America today. There's no need for us to tempt fate or question, "What if?" when we exist in the lived experience of environmental injustice, continue to rebuild despite increasing violent weather patterns, and systemic barriers to capital, all while healing from racial trauma at the same time.

In other words, Black people do not give potentially life-threatening horror the benefit of the doubt—we know better than that. Since the last election, we've watched our nation's capital fall under a domestic attack wholly based on a voting myth. While images of the old confederacy loomed across screens around the world, many Black Americans instinctively knew that a clear and present danger of suppressing and devaluing the process of voting still existed in this country. We vote for policies, including climate and environment, that are most likely to keep us safe from both the things we can see and the things we cannot. It is simply an illusion to insinuate otherwise.

Rising emissions, loosening regulations on the fossil fuel industry that exacerbates health problems for citizens, increasingly violent weather events, and a vocal and present youth movement have all elevated climate change as a real issue.

Voting is one of the few surefire ways that Black people can participate and have a major impact on policy. Study after study has shown that Black and brown people are strained the most by climate change. For constituents who live under a constant cloud of oil and gas influence and pollution in metro areas, strengthening hurricanes, and floods along the coast, having a voice through their vote is a lifeline.

One of the things we don't account for in political polling and pundits is the actions that work to suppress minority turnout and engagement. States have focused on passing restrictive voter laws while citizens in the state suffer from water shortages and the spread of wildfires—all issues directly related to the climate crisis and addressed most often in democratic climate policy.

But if you want to get a good idea of how people organized and responded, just check out the latest Instagram reel or TikTok video. Videos of Black Americans showing up at a voting precinct with setups that rival a Southwestern Athletic Conference football tailgate—popup lawn chairs, water, chips, foil covered plates of food, cell phone battery chargers, fans, a radio—are a direct response to the threat of any further restrictions on our right to vote. Tactics meant for suppression had the opposite effect and people registered to vote and turned out for the January 2021 runoff election in mass.

The fight is far from over and the climate crisis remains a major factor impacting our homes, families, and lives. We cannot sit idly by and watch the voting rights of millions disappear while those intent on holding power use unethical and diversionary tactics to sway the rest of us.

Black people have influence, voice, and mobilization and know exactly when to use it in a way that does not further threaten or diminish our access. To do otherwise ignores our lived experience and breathes life into fables like "the Candyman." We understand that trauma is real, and zombies can come back to life if we fail to act.

Heather McTeer Toney is an attorney, author, and executive director of Bloomberg Philanthropies Beyond Petrochemicals Campaign. She was mayor of Greenville, Miss., and a regional administrator for the EPA under former President Barack Obama. This article was adapted from her book, Before the Streetlights Come On: Black America's Call for Climate Solutions, from Broadleaf Books.

The views expressed in this article are the writer's own.