Essay on The Environment, Bell Hooks, and Feminist Spirituality

“If my generation was too naïve, the generations that have followed may be too practical. We knew too little, and now girls know too much.” (Sandberg. Pg. 646) In the past, the call for women’s rights was heated as much as it was alive; many women today believe that they no longer need feminism in their lives. The misconception that feminist ideals are outdated has lead modern women to fall short in their desire to accomplish more. Sheryl Sandberg refuels feminist goals in the article “Lean In: What Would You Do If You Weren’t Afraid.” She addresses lack of females in the work force, as well as, the way society prompts boys compared to girls. Bell Hook, in contrast, provides a deeper understanding of feminist ideals, along with, an in depth analysis of Sandberg’s work. The articles written by Bell Hook and Sheryl Sandberg express each woman’s perspective on modern feminism; although they both call for action, Sandberg focuses on the inequality between the sexes, while Hook broadens the overall argument to include topics such as race, sexuality and class equality.

Contrastively, globalization itself has great damage to the environment. Due to developed countries going into developing countries to exploit their resources, the natural resources is depleting at a rapid speed, yet we are still not doing enough to stop it. As there are strict laws regarding the environment in developed countries, these companies turn their eyes onto developing countries whose environmental laws are more relaxed in comparison. As these developing countries also want to earn revenue and income that these companies bring, they open the door to them, but destroying Mother Earth at the same time.

In the reading “The Power and the Promise of Ecological Feminism”, the author, Karen J. Warren, explains her argument on the inevitable connection between the oppression of women and the oppression of nature. She further suggests that ecofeminism provides a framework to re envision feminism and create an environmental ethic which takes into account the connection between sexism and naturism.

In her book Talking Back: Thinking Feminist, Thinking Black, bell hooks describes how she helps her students find their voice within her classroom.She discusses her use of authority to enable her students.For her, teacher authority is a necessary part of helping her students find their voices:

Today we’re faced with multiple forms of inequalities and injustices. None of them are in no way, shape or form are okay or justifiable. While we as a people are striving to deal with the obvious forms of injustices, there is another form that is a real quiet one, but it can be heard throughout the world that we are living in and is a severe problem that needs to be addressed. The type of injustice that I’m speaking on is called: Environmental Racism. This has been a definite issue that not only affects the environment, but it also has effects on communities, individuals and it effects the economic system in the long run as well. Environmental Racism needs to be brought up in conversations within our communities as well as our local governments, so they will not forget their remains a problem.

Those who argue that environmental racism is a serious problem in America and the whole world, and their number are growing, are correct in at least one of their assertions. Racism exists. environmental problems exist. these facts, however, do not reveal whether or not environmental racism has occurred in any given instance. this might be an unimportant distinction but for the fact that some argue that civil right laws be applied to pollution events and related regulatory violations.

One of the first influences on the deliberation on Environmental Justice was The Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. fought hard to ensure that social transformation and power be established for African Americans, especially those in the southern states as well as those in the northern inner-city parts. Activists like King altered the philosophy on Environmental Justice arguing that there was a lopsided effect that proved that environmental hazards were not accidental. What environmentalists advocated instead was that environmental dangers resulted from racial segregation that placed power plants, nuclear plants, and other potential ecological hazards in areas with a high concentration of minority and low income groups. Several activists defined this as “environmental racism.”

When one discusses acts of racism, slander or the stereotyping of a group of people may come to mind. However, the concept of environmental racism is rarely considered. This form of racism positions dominant environmental framing as racially driven, in which people of color (i.e. minorities) are affected disproportionately by poor environmental practices. Communities of color throughout the United States have become the dumping grounds for our nation’s waste disposal, as well as home to agricultural and/or manufacturing industries that pollute the land. Government regulations and cultural practices have all contributed to environmental racism. The government’s policies have also negatively impacted low income groups as well as people of

In his esteemed novel, “Blessed Unrest: How the Largest Movement in the World Came into Being and Why No One Saw It Coming,” Paul Hawken inspires with a call to environmental attention. As a both writer and entrepreneur dedicated to our world’s ecosystems, Hawken seems to understand the impact we have created on our planet. Despite this, he also appreciates the human capacity to create an equal impact on the other end, and make positive progress. He defines this as the “Movement,” being an assembly of environmentally-minded groups and NGO’s coming together to save the dying ecosystems of the planet. Although Hawken’s optimism should be admired, his outlook seems slightly quixotic.

Coming into the nineteenth century, women were looked at as feminist. “Feminism,” as we know the term today, was nonexistent in nineteenth-century America (Cruea 187). Feminist describes as someone embracing the beliefs that all people are entitled to freedom and liberty within reason. Gender, sexual orientations, skin color, ethnicity, religion, culture or lifestyle should not be considered as a form of discrimination. Women roles, in the nineteenth century, were to take care of the cooking, cleaning, caring for the children and making sure the husbands were comfortable after long days of work. As years pass, women begin to find work, attain a voter rights and even began owning properties, which begin to separate them from the men of

The placement of companies deleterious to the environment and well-being of humans is something that prosperous communities are not quite familiar with; in contrast, it is something well-known to less affluent communities. The imbalance of classification shows a lack of environmental justice in low-income and minority communities. According to the EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, “environmental justice is the fair treatment… of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies,” (EPA, n.d.). However, the environmental justice, the EPA mentions is not prevalent in communities of color, but rather its counterpart is: environmental injustice. Environmental injustice, or environmental racism, being the excessive placing of perilous waste and contaminating polluters near communities of color (Cha, 2016). Although often overlooked, environmental racism is an extensive problem that negatively affects minority communities in Southeast Los Angeles.

In the Feminist Theory, bell hooks provide vivid examples and assertions on how mainstream feminism exclude the issues of women of color. Mainstream feminism in America pertains to the ideals of “white, middle-class privileged woman” as they “reinforce white supremacy by negating the issue of race and class amongst woman of color” (hooks, 2000, pg. ). Due to not fulfilling the attempt to gain equality, as they may claim to do, it also can be an organization that displays “narcissism, insensitivity, sentimentality, and self-indulgence” (hooks, 2000, pg. 3). As mainstream feminism shuns the needs and interests of African-American women, it allows current social issues and inequalities to persist.

Just as feminism is not a women’s rights issue only, as it extends a framework for creating an equal system for all people regardless of race, class and gender, ecofeminism is a movement that beckons to evolve from the historically patriarchal oppression of the environment and restore a balance of power, through extending rights and justice to the non-vocal environment. Through eco-feminism, climate justice and social justice can Some people have argued that the environment cannot argue a position as it without with vocal chords, therefore humans must take the vocal position and through social action, climate studies and civil law, speak for the voiceless. We wouldn’t be alive is it weren’t for female, likewise males carry half the

There are an incredible amount of problems facing the modern world. Sometimes the problems go unnoticed while other times they get addressed and fixed. That is what has been happening with pollution and other environmental concerns since 1971. In that year, the organization called Greenpeace was created. Since then the group has jumpstarted many incredible changes dealing with the world around us. Greenpeace has done a great amount of environmental work with the aim of making the world a cleaner, safer, and better place to live.

Vice President Joe Biden once said, “No fundamental social change occurs merely because government acts. It 's because civil society, the conscience of a country, begins to rise up and demand - demand - demand change.” For society to rise up and demand change like Joe Biden is talking about there are ways to better understand what change needs to happen and how to put that change into motion, especially with environmental sustainability. First there must be an understanding of what ecological crises are and how they are negative affecting the earth while exploring how sustainability can help with these crises. Then to better understand sustainability one can explore sustainable practices around the world through case studies and even local practices of sustainability. However one must understand the thought process behind sustainability and how to make that work in favor of making change. This includes both the Dominant Social Paradigm and the New Ecological Paradigm and how they both can be used to facilitate change. Once there is an understanding of the problem and a plan to fix it then the action must take place. While action can take many different forms, for many people it is structured as environmental activism. To further study environmental activism once can use organizations such as 350.org, Fossil Free, and The People 's Climate Movement to study how they are organized, their strategies, who is involved, and how successful