Intersectionality in ecofeminism

Just for a brief moment, ponder upon your life if you have become racist or sexist. If not, wonderful. Now that we have known ecofeminism, we should be avoiding discrimination. We need to understand the connectedness between human and nature. Human here includes all morphological forms of human, either black, white, male, female, younger, elder etc. Bell hooks in article, ‘Touching the Earth’ quotes; “How can you buy or sell the sky, the warmth of the land? The idea is strange to us. If we do not own the freshness of the air and the sparkle of the water, how can you buy them?” that “The rocky crests, the juices in the meadows, the body heat of the pony, and man- all belong to the same family” How can intersectionality exist if we own nothing? How can one be superior over the other if all of us our the same? If you think, not only humans but animals have the same internal structure, same mechanism of regulation and they function similarly. So apart from the skin color, the religion we inherit, the class we belong to, we are the same. Then why discriminating?

Although ecofeminists claims that they do not do intersectionality but in fact they are doing it. Perhaps they do not realize that they are doing intersectionality but it does exist among ecofeminism. Racism within ecofeminist and feminist does require a solution. “Though paying significant attention to diversity, white ecofeminists have often essentialized racial difference. (Hobgood-Oster)”. Hobgood-Oster in ‘Historic and International Evolution’ mentioned about how few women of color remained in leadership position in activist organizations. “Even the designations “white” and “of color” seem to maintain a binary within ecofeminism as it tries to subvert all such labels. (Hobgood-Oster)”.

“Ecofeminism lacks black women’s standpoint and focuses on white women’s oppression. (Cacildia Cain)”. In her writing ‘The Necessity of Black Women’s Standpoint and Intersectionality in Environmental Movements’ Cain talks about that how during environmental movements black women’s point of view are unheard. Now imagine in a family, the elders decides to shift to other place for family’s betterment, but they never ask younger about what they think. Do you really think that it would be betterment for the family or just the elders? Similarly, in such environmental movements which are done for the protection of the environment, not having women of color’s point of view means that it is not an ecofeminist but a white feminist who is protesting for their interest. In virtue of the racism that exist in ecofeminism, the black women are the ones who suffers the most from environmental degradation.

Cain mentions about the suffering of black women during hurricane Katrina which was not the same as for others. She quotes; “…It is important to note that, ‘Low-income African American women faced different, and often more challenges because they were more likely to be displaced to unfamiliar places, to lack agency in that decision, and to have fewer resources’ (Peek & Fothergill, 2008, p. 97), ” (King 22-23). Black women participate in environmental movements to survive because environmental racism is affecting their home, families and communities.

Apart from understanding the connectedness between humans, we also need to understand the connection between human and nature. Rachel Carson very beautifully explains the sea life. She says that “to sense this world of waters known to the creatures of sea we must shed our human perceptions of length and breadth and time and place, and enter vicariously into a universe of all-pervading water (p.63)”. She explains the dependency of marine species upon each other. How one benefits other the same way we humans benefit from each other. The same way we human depend on each other. This is where we and they are connected. We have diversity in all forms of color, religion, class, caste, sex and so do they. And we need to understand that if poverty never existed then there wouldn’t be any rich, similarly if there was no diversity then Earth wouldn’t have functioned. Because every being on this planet no matter the very large organism to microscopic organism, everyone is equally important for natural sustainability of life.

So to answer the question of my first paragraph last sentence; why discriminating when we are same is because we don’t perceive this similarity as being the same. We don’t want to understand the connection because perhaps we love being dominant, whether that be men dominating women or white dominating black.