"We All Have Identity at the Table"

Negotiating Difference in a Southern African American Environmental Justice Network

Bibliographic Data

ID18971000
AuthorsMelissa Checker (University of Memphis, corresponding author)
Year2004
Volume11
Issue2
Pages171-194
Publication date2004-04-01
Open AccessNo
TypeARTICLE
VenueIdentities (JOURNAL)
Journal identifiersISSN: 1070-289X • E-ISSN: 1547-3384
PublisherInforma UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB)
DOI10.1080/10702890490451947
OpenAlexW2079793789
LanguageEN
Citations received10

This article focuses on conflicts and resolutions among members of a south-wide environmental justice network as they negotiated their collective goals, identities, and strategies. I find that the process of building and advancing this network raised a host of questions about what it means to be a Black activist in the post-civil rights-era, as well as how to resolve multiple and divergent ideas about contemporary African American identity and the implications of claiming race as a primary basis of identification in social movement organizing. As activists' debates grew heated, they tended to frame their disagreements in class terms; however, I argue that class discourses were flexible and contingent, and reflected important organizing values. In part, due to the flexibility of these categories, I find that, ultimately, activists were able to reframe their differences as a larger problem of racism and move forward as a collectivity

Art · Economic Justice · Environmental justice · Negotiation · Political science · Sociology · Computer Science · Environmental Justice and Health Disparities · Gender Studies · Law

Tools

Open DOISci-Hub