Standing in Solidarity with Black Lives Matter

Washington, D.C. - "Food & Water Watch stands in solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement. The deadly, mounting racism directed against black people must stop and this cannot happen until all people affirm that #BlackLivesMatter.

"At Food & Water Watch, we are fighting for a democracy that not only protects the environment, but also provides social, economic, and political justice for all communities. The same forces that deny the violence being perpetrated on our planet by fossil fuel companies are the ones who demonize communities of color and deny the systemic inequality and violence in our criminal justice system.

"In the environmental space, we have seen communities of color and poor rural communities targeted by water privatizers, fossil fuel companies, and big agribusiness. We have stood in support of these communities from Flint, MI where we were on the ground early working to expose the poisoning of the community, to Atlantic City, NJ where we have been working with embattled residents working to preserve their public water system, to Los Angeles, CA where we have been working to support communities being impacted by urban oil drilling, to Baltimore, MD where we have supported community efforts to stop water shutoffs, which disproportionately impact the city’s African American community.

"While this work is important and will continue, we cannot and must not stay silent in the wake of the wave of police shootings of black Americans. We must continue to oppose injustice wherever it appears and work together to move our environmental, social, economic, political, and judicial systems to a place where black lives are not systematically devalued. It is long past time to end the parade of killings that tragically continue to grow.

"We are grateful to the Black Lives Matter movement for leading the way in raising this important issue to greater visibility and confronting power structures to work for real change. We stand ready to lend our support and stand in solidarity with this critical movement for social justice."