New Episode of Resources Radio on Diversity in the Environmental Movement, with Dorceta Taylor

WASHINGTON, DC—Resources for the Future (RFF) today released a new installment of Resources Radio: “The Challenge of Diversity in the Environmental Movement.”

In this week’s podcast, host Daniel Raimi interviews Dorceta Taylor, a professor in the University of Michigan’s School for Environment and Sustainability. Taylor discusses her work on diversity, equity, and inclusion in the history of the environmental movement. Taylor examines the barriers to diversification within environmental groups, including cultural alienation, racism, classism, sexism, and exclusionary hiring and retention practices.

Listen here.

Notable quotes from the podcast:

• “In many [conservation clubs and environmental] organizations, if you were black, you could not join these organizations as late as the 1970s. As late as the 1930s and '40s if you were a woman, you couldn't join some of these organizations.”—Dorceta Taylor (7:11)
• “It really wasn't until we get to the 1990s and the advent of the environmental justice movement that [we] openly articulate a racial frame, a class frame, and a gender frame that questioned the assumptions, and the structures, and the hiring practices.”—Dorceta Taylor (9:20)
• “[Organizations and corporations] recruit from informal internal networks . . . [because] it pre-screens for the organization and whoever is going to recommend someone, they recommend someone who's a good fit. Regardless of our race, we tend to recommend people who are like us in the way we were educated, where we were educated, how we think, how we socialize. So that's what I call homosocial reproduction . . . What that does not get you is the person who is not tied into that network.”—Dorceta Taylor (16:27)

Resources Radio is a weekly podcast series exploring timely environmental, energy, and natural resources topics, and can be found on iTunes, Stitcher, Spotify, and SoundCloud.