The Ongoing "Crisis of Racial Awareness" in Environmental History

• In Event: Sex, Race, and Merchant’s Scientific Revolution

Abstract

Dr. Carolyn Merchant’s The Shades of Darkness: Race and Environmental History provided a groundbreaking account of the ways in which African Americans and Native Americans are represented in environmental history. Merchant posits that multicultural history and environmental justice are foundational aspects to more comprehensive environmental histories of race. Merchant argues that an environmental history of race must consider the embeddedness of racism within the foundations of conversation movement, environmental policies, and environmental literature.

Merchant mentions how environmental historians have made progress by reflecting on the “the crisis of racial awareness” through many scholarly works and including multicultural perspectives within course curriculum. Yet, the same dimensions of race, racism, and the environment – as analyzed by Merchant almost twenty years ago (emphasis added) – remain drastically understudied and overlooked in the forestry and natural resources profession. Merchant called for more “research on the roles of African Americans in the southern and western U.S. environment”. My doctoral research explores the enduring and complex histories of African Americans in forests and the forestry profession. Currently, the representation of African Americans in forestry literature is heavily influenced by racial stereotypes and hidden narratives. Thus, my current doctoral research is thoroughly informed by the key tenets of Dr. Merchant’s original work.

I approach my research through my lived experience as an African American female forester, both educationally and professionally. I too, hope that my work contributes to the growing body of work on forest histories of race, so that one day the contributions of African Americans are frequently mentioned within forestry and natural resource courses. Dr. Carolyn Merchant’s work provides lens for me to not only consider the roles of race and gender in nature but also to see myself as an environmental historian in the making.

Author

• Jasmine Kiara Brown, Michigan State University