I am Belinda Creighton-Smith, a pastor since 1999, adjunct faculty, and a social justice activist and advocate. My spiritual formation has always encompassed ministry alongside the marginalized and disenfranchised, and is centered in my lived experiences. I currently serve as pastor of a church in Waterloo and Adjunct Faculty at the University of Northern Iowa. My worldview is transformational and inclusive. I consider all of creation as interrelated and irreplaceable. My theology is one that considers every part of creation, including every human, with the potential to represent the reflection of God as God intended.
Needless to say, my epistemology and hermeneutics interpret the scripture in the creation story as one in which humans were charged to live in cooperation with all of creation; not to invade and exploit the earth, but to live with and nurture our mutual existence.
During the throes of Covid-19, I was asked to join the Iowa Interfaith Power & Light Board of Directors. Because of my concern for the environment, as well as the environmental justice issues plaguing low-income rural communities and communities of color – I said, yes!
When I joined the board, I was the only person of color. I recall being asked, “How can we justify talking about the environment with communities of color for whom many are struggling trying to make ends meet, or to put food on the table?” My response was, “We must!”
When I consider the degree of toxins, gases, ash, soot, waste dumps, and other polluting facilities that are disproportionately located in, or in close proximity to communities that are densely populated with poor and minoritized people – it must be of concern to us! Where are the trash dumps, water treatment plants, trains, or power plants most often located?
Robert D. Bullard, former Dean of the Barbara Jordan – Mickey Leland School of Public Affairs, is known for his research in the areas of sustainability, and environmental & climate justice. In an article entitled, “Environmental Justice in the 21st Century: Race Still Matters” (2019) Bullard reminds us that it was not until the late 20th century that environmental justice emerged on our country’s radar as a social justice and civil rights issue. I believe it had to be stirring in the mind of the late Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. who was compelled to lead and march alongside sanitation workers in Memphis, Tennessee in protest of their meager wages and hazardous working conditions in 1968.
Environmental injustice could be defined as the inequitable or disproportionate allocation of risk [due to pollutants and other environmental toxins] levied on a particular community (Bullard, 2019, EEA, 2020). When a community is disproportionately exposed to the risks of poor air quality, contaminated water, seepage of chemicals and other toxins into the ground water, dilapidated buildings containing asbestos and lead paint, and is a community of color, that is the definition of environmental racism. In fact, the National Resource Defense Council defines environmental racism as “…the intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latinos, Indigenous People, Asian Americans, Pacific Islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-come workers” (definition attributed to Benjamin Chavis Jr.).
In light of the ongoing jeopardy of our planet and the disparate ways in which the consequences of this harm fall onto the backs of communities of color and low-income communities, we must expand our work with haste and bring awareness to the multifarious ways in which we are causing harm and commit to climate action with urgency!