In late July 2014, Dr. Dorceta Taylor released The State of Diversity in Environmental Organizations, a damning report prepared on behalf of Green 2.0. For years, green organizations paid lip service to diversity in their ranks, but the report indicated “The dominant culture of the organizations is alienating to ethnic minorities, the poor, the LGBTQ community and others outside the mainstream.”*

It is well documented that communities of color are overwhelmingly more vulnerable to environmental hazards compared with white communities, as noted by Center for American Progress. And, as reported on CityLab, it is often irrespective of income. A joint Earth Justice and GreenLatinos polland another conducted by the Natural Resources Defense Council and Green for All find that black and brown communities reliably support action on climate change and other environmental issues. These are just a sampling of the data that point to this trend, yet the insular world of environmental nonprofits and philanthropy continues to lack space for talented men and women of color.

The “environmentalist” worldview often argues that protecting nature at all costs is a task of such magnitude that, for humanity’s sake, so-called social issues like race and class are the domain of other affinities. Such a myopic perspective depends on the fallacy that humans are wholly separate from nature.

Dr. Taylor’s report shows us that working on the environment does not insulate us from social issues. By ignoring the evidence, we are complicit in the systems of race and class inequity that inhibit progress on all issues — environmental, economic or otherwise.

Read the full report on racial disparity in environmental grantmaking by Michael Roberts at ncrp.org.