Juwaria Jama: Youth Climate Activist Fighting Environmental Racism
“Many organizations use the word ‘inclusion,’ talk about ‘uplifting Black voices,’ but they don’t actually take the critiques of Black people and communities of color.”
When Juwaria Jama realized that she belongs in the climate justice movement, she was thinking about her North Minneapolis neighborhood. It’s where she celebrates iftars during Ramadan, in the basement of Masjid An-Nur. It’s where her relationship with Islam has flourished, where her neighbors look like her and often worship with her.
But in North Minneapolis, “there are highways right next to our apartment building, there are factories pushing out pollutants, there's an incinerator burning trash,” explains Juwaria. “All of these things are contributing to air pollution.”
Connecting the dots, she realized that the pollution was the cause of the chronic asthma that so many in her community suffered from. In fact, the asthma death rate is six times higher for Black Minnesotans than for white Minnesotans.
What Juwaria had noticed is environmental racism—the disproportionate impact of climate change and environmental dangers on BIPOC (Black, Indigenous, and People of Color) communities. It was part and parcel of her new understanding of her place in the fight for climate justice.
However, Juwaria quickly found that the experiences and insights that come with being a young Black Muslim woman in North Minneapolis were rarely reflected in the movement and often ignored in environmental spaces.
As one of a handful of Black youth in the first organization that she joined, “I felt so alienated and isolated in the work that I was doing.”
Once she shared feedback on a legislative agenda, only to find her input cut from the final bill. Another time she agreed to speak at a climate strike, only to find herself the single, token Black person on stage.
“Something that I’ve realized about the climate movement is that there is this performativity around trying to be inclusive,” says Juwaria.
“Many organizations use the word ‘inclusion,’ talk about ‘uplifting Black voices,’ but they don’t actually take the critiques of Black people and communities of color.” She often found herself wondering whether it was her thoughts and ideas that were valued or just the visibility of her Blackness.
On top of navigating covert racism in climate circles, Juwaria also faced challenges when expressing her Muslim identity or practicing her faith. She remembers once when creating an Earth Day action plan, other organizers didn’t understand why their Muslim peers were requesting to reschedule a strike planned for the first day of Ramadan. “We had to put together an entire presentation on what the month of Ramadan is and what it means to Muslims. And it still took them a long time to finally agree to reschedule,” she says.
Frustrated with the disregard to the ways that racial equity and religious freedom intersect with climate justice, Juwaria joined an organization that puts BIPOC and marginalized faith communities at the center of the work. Minnesota Youth for Climate Justice is led by young people of color, and the organization often hosts workshops on the relationship between race and environment.
As State Lead, Juwaria also wants to address Islamophobia in the climate movement—not only because of her Muslim identity but also because of her faith-based commitment to environmental advocacy. “As a Muslim, it's my duty to try to protect the earth, to restore the earth to what it once was,” she says. And when the pressure, exhaustion, and disillusionment that come with organizing get to Juwaria, “having faith and understanding that we're doing this because our Lord is telling us to—that keeps me going.”
Inspired by justice and powered by faith, Juwaria along with the rest of the Minnesota Youth for Climate Justice team are working on several policy issues.
For the past year, they have been pushing the State Board of Investment to divest from fossil fuels and recently succeeded in coal divestment. Another bill that they’ve been advocating would give subsidies to farmers and lower the price of food for consumers.
Even in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic, Juwaria and other youth organizers have continued fighting for change. They may not be able to show up in person, but they’re encouraging their network to take action, such as opposing the Enbridge Energy Line 3 pipeline. “We’ve been posting about it on our pages—how to contact representatives, what numbers to call, what to send in emails,” says Juwaria.
As a group of young people ranging from 14-22 years old, Juwaria’s team are used to being dismissed and told that they’re too inexperienced to understand policy. “We go into these spaces, doing our research, testifying to bills, working with different legislators,” says Juwaria. “But I think a lot of times adults believe that until you're 18, you shouldn't be allowed to speak on issues like climate change.”
Of course, the reality is that young people like Juwaria are leading the movement for climate justice all over the world. One of Juwaria’s pet peeves is hearing from adults: Wow, you’re so young. I wasn’t doing anything like this work when I was your age.
“It's a backhanded compliment, because it shouldn’t really be surprising to see young people in the movement,” she explains. “There are so many youth like myself who are involved in this work—they're just not given the space and the attention to actually have their voices heard.”
But youth organizers like Juwaria aren’t waiting for adults to shine the spotlight on them. They’re stepping into the light boldly, knowing that preserving the fragile state of our earth can’t be put off any longer.
Growing up in a late-capitalist society, with environmental catastrophe looming over their heads and ravaging their neighborhoods, youth today face an existential crisis unlike any generation before them. Their interest in the movement is about their future. Their investment in this work is about the undeniable truth that the planet may become uninhabitable before they’re grandparents.
That’s why, while pushing for policy change, Juwaria believes in total transformation of the very system in which government and other institutions exist. Capitalism, she insists, is the root cause of the climate crisis: “When you think about factories like the ones in North Minneapolis, they’re built for monetary reasons, right? And these factories are built in areas that are filled with low-income people. That’s because low-income people often do not have the means to protest, to organize people to oppose construction.”
Understanding the climate movement as an anti-capitalist movement means looking deeper at campaigns that only encourage us to make individual lifestyle changes. “A lot of people talk about composting, recycling, biking or walking instead of driving,” says Juwaria. “And while all of these things are important, if the entire world followed that guidance, it would take away only 30% of carbon emissions, because 70% comes from companies.”
The statistics and the facts paint a grim picture of the planet’s future without intervention. But for Juwaria, seeing the reality of white-capitalist-heteropatriarchy also means imagining a new world where the systems we take for granted are gone.
She says simply: “when capitalism is uprooted, you can think about it as a world that is more green.”
More green means more parks. It means no encampments and no unsheltered people. It means an abundance of clean water and healthy food.
“Anti-capitalism is such a radical idea and such a beautiful idea, because we can look at it and understand that many of our problems stem from the greed and power that a few people try to possess. But once you take power away from those few people, we’ll have the things that we need to survive and to live lives that are meaningful,” says Juwaria.
With this vision of a greener world, Juwaria speaks truth to power. She challenges anyone who says that young people or Black folks or Muslims don’t belong in the environmental movement. Having found her place as a climate activist, she encourages us to do our own reimagining about what the future could look like.
Climate champion, planet protector, and rising visionary: Juwaria is our Shero.