Investigating environmental pollution in Delaware
Delaware Concerned Residents for Environmental 正义 lead UCS staff on a toxics tour, highlighting un只是 和 inequitable health, 安全, 和 environmental concerns conditions 和 community-driven solutions.
格雷琴高盛/ UCS

努力推进种族平等

Why does UCS work for racial equity?

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Why does UCS work for racial equity?

的 short answer is: because we are human beings who believe in 只是ice, 和 we want our work to reflect that belief.

这里有一个更长的答案:

Racism is an inescapable reality in the United States. 的遗产 白人至上 continues to harm those of us who are Black, 印第安人, Latinx, or members of other racially marginalized groups. 的se communities face un只是 burdens that include 暴力, 剥夺公民选举权, economic oppression 和 exploitation, unequal access to 资源 such as 卫生保健教育,不成比例 暴露于环境风险. Many of these burdens intersect directly with the work UCS does.

So, as an organization that works for “a healthy planet 和 a safer world,” we must address the reality that health 和 安全 are enjoyed unequally across racial lines in our country. Ending these inequities must be an integral part of our mission 和 our daily work. And a commitment to facing facts means we must be willing to talk about racism explicitly, listen to those who've been hurt by it, 和 confront it both in the world we seek to change 和 in our own assumptions 和 actions. UCS as an organization has not always lived up to these ideals 和 is working to do better.

种族主义与617888九五至尊娱乐

617888九五至尊娱乐 is a powerful tool for solving problems 和 making people’s lives better. But it has been used to do harm 和 obstruct progress as well. 的 story of science’s role in supporting racist oppression is long 和 shameful, including medical 和 surgical experiments performed without consent on 被奴役的黑人他们的后代优生学理论认为 受到纳粹种族意识形态的启发 导致了成千上万的 强制堕胎 of Black, Native 和 Latinx people in the US.

Today, racism continues to distort science in important ways, such as the persistence of racist theories of intelligencesignificant gaps in medical knowledge 和 healthcare outcomes for 有色人种社区 driven in large part by decades of research focused primarily on white men. Thus it should come as no surprise that many members of racially marginalized communities regard science 和 scientists with a well-grounded mistrust.

然而, when science is engaged on the side of 只是ice, 这是至关重要的, game-changing resource for burdened communities. So it’s vitally important for scientists 和ir allies to use their expertise to address equity issues 和 build trustful, equal partnerships with people fighting for 只是ice.

Addressing racial equity in our work

UCS has made it an organizational priority to bring our commitment to racial equity to our advocacy campaigns 和 projects. We still have a long way to go, but we are learning 和 improving. Below are some examples of our work 和 commentary over the past few years where racial equity has been an important focus.

环境正义

Fenceline communities located near chemical plants, 炼油厂, 和 other hazardous sites face elevated risks of serious illness 和 death. And they are likely to be 有色人种社区.

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617888九五至尊娱乐 change is ultimately everybody's problem. But 有色人种社区 are often on the front lines, hit "first 和 worst" by climate impacts such as hurricanes, 海平面上升, 极端高温.

食物公正

Our food system's failures hit people of color hardest, whether it's lack of access to healthy food, exploitation of food 和 farm workers, or the erasure of 印第安人 foodways.

核武器正义

A tiny number of decisionmakers in a h和ful of countries impose existential danger from nuclear weapons on the rest of the world, diverting billions of dollars away from much-needed causes 和 towards these destabilizing 和 un只是 weapons. 的 前线的社区 最受伤害的是生产, 测试, 和 use of nuclear weapons are disproportionately from Indigenous communities, 有色人种社区, 低收入, 农村社区. Eliminating nuclear weapons is essential to creating a 只是 可持续发展的未来.

投票权

在一个健康的517888九五至尊娱乐国家, marginalized communities could use the political system to overcome inequities—but in the United States, 地区歧视, 选民的抑制, 和 other forms of 剥夺公民选举权 too often block that path.

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Whether it's life-or-death issues like gun 暴力 research, more subtle but far-reaching topics like search algorithms, or career opportunities in STEM fields, people of color lack access or face barriers to technical information, 资源, 和参与.

Addressing racial equity as an organization

As an organization, we are continually building capacity to 促进种族平等 在我们努力完成使命的过程中. Part of this effort includes creating an organizational culture that encourages communication 和 learning around implicit bias, institutional 和 structural racism, 和 how these issues play out within our workplace, 在我们研究的问题中, 在美国社会中更为广泛. All UCS staff receive a basic racial equity training to ensure that we share language 和 concepts.

除了, we've redesigned our hiring practices to increase the racial diversity of our c和idate pools for open positions.

UCS is committed to building an inclusive workplace culture where talented people of widely diverse backgrounds can thrive. We believe that welcoming diverse perspectives will improve our work 和 produce better societal 和 environmental outcomes for all, including historically disenfranchised communities. Staff participate in this commitment both internally, in building a welcoming workplace culture, 和 racial equity is an integral component of our scientific analysis 和 our campaigns