Statement on George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery

Women’s Voices for the Earth is profoundly devastated and outraged by the recent brutal killings of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor and Ahmaud Arbery. We are tired of seeing headlines and newsfeeds populate again and again with names, faces and stories of black men and women harmed by a system that often determines worth by our sex, wealth, and whiteness. The damage that occurs when certain groups are privileged or disadvantaged because of their gender, their class or their race, is not just catastrophic, it is fatal.

As an organization committed to raising women’s voices to eliminate the toxic chemicals that harm our health and communities, we believe that everyone deserves to live in a healthy and safe environment, including where you live, work, play, and pray. This means we are committed to pushing back on a system that prevents people from living in a safe, healthy environment; that creates and sustains structures that demean, discriminate, control, and cause harm.

We are committed to working for justice and equity, and stand in solidarity with the numerous social, racial, and environmental justice organizations like the women-led, nonviolent #BlackLivesMatter movement. Among the myriad of inequities faced by black women, black women are also disproportionately affected by toxic chemical exposures.

It is our belief that by standing together, we will find solutions to the deep inequities that exist in our society — particularly the culture of white supremacy and racism that recently robbed the families of George Floyd, Breonna Taylor, and Ahmaud Arbery of their loved-ones — and find ways to cultivate love, justice, safety and peace.

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