Environmental Justice Is Cultural: Roots, Land, and Memory
Environmental justice is often framed as science, policy, or climate data—but for many communities, especially Black, Indigenous, and other people of color, environmental justice is cultural.
It lives in memory.
It lives on land.
It lives in the ways our ancestors understood water, soil, and survival.
Long before environmental justice became a modern movement, Indigenous communities across the Chesapeake region practiced stewardship rooted in balance and responsibility. Land and water were not commodities—they were relatives, teachers, and life sources. Protection was not optional; it was sacred.
Enslaved Africans and their descendants carried this relationship forward in different ways through farming, fishing, crabbing, oystering, and land-based labor that sustained families and economies even while ownership and protection were denied.
Disconnection Was Not Accidental
The separation of many communities from the land today did not happen naturally. It was engineered.
Displacement, segregation, redlining, land theft, and environmental neglect severed cultural relationships to land and water. Communities were pushed onto flood-prone land, near polluted waterways, or into housing that offered little protection from environmental harm.
Environmental injustice is not just about exposure; it is about disconnection:
Disconnection from land knowledge
Disconnection from cultural practices
Disconnection from decision-making power
When communities are cut off from their relationship to the environment, harm multiplies.
Youth Are Reclaiming the Connection
Today, BIPOC youth are leading a quiet but powerful reclamation.
Through programs like the Next Ground Project, young people are reconnecting environmental justice to cultural identity, learning not only how environmental systems work, but why protection matters at a deeper level.
For many youth, environmental learning becomes:
A way to understand family history
A pathway to economic opportunity
A form of healing and grounding
A reclaiming of knowledge that was interrupted
Environmental literacy, when rooted in culture, becomes more than information. It becomes belonging.
Environmental Justice as Cultural Survival
When youth learn about land and water through a cultural lens, environmental justice stops being abstract. It becomes personal. It becomes ancestral. It becomes forward-looking.
Protecting the Chesapeake is not just about restoring ecosystems; it is about restoring relationships.
Environmental justice is cultural because culture teaches us how to care, how to remember, and how to imagine a future where communities and environments thrive together.
As this series continues, we will center youth voices who are actively shaping that future, grounded in their lived experience, cultural memory, and vision for justice.
Calling Youth Voices: What Environmental Justice Means to You
Environmental justice is not one story it is many.
As part of this blog series, we are amplifying the voices of BIPOC youth connected to the Chesapeake region who are thinking, learning, and acting around environmental justice.
We believe youth are the experts of their own experience.
We Are Looking for Youth Voices Who Want to Share:
What does environmental justice mean in their life or community
How land, water, or housing has impacted their family
Why environmental issues matter to their future
What they wish decision-makers understood
Participation can take many forms:
Short written reflections
Interview-style Q&A
Spoken word excerpts
Audio or video storytelling
No formal experience is required, just honesty and lived experience.
Why This Matters
Too often, environmental conversations speak about youth instead of with them. This series flips that narrative.
By centering youth voices, we are:
Challenging dominant environmental narratives
Uplifting lived experience as expertise
Creating space for youth-led solutions
Building pathways for youth leadership
Interested in Participating?
If you are a youth (or work with youth) connected to the Chesapeake region and want to be part of this series, we want to hear from you.
Sign up for an interview or Nominate a youth voice by emailing Ella@fenixyouthproject.org or Learn about the Next Ground Project
The Chesapeake Bay, Environmental Inequity, and Youth on the Frontlines
The Chesapeake Bay is one of the most vital ecosystems in the country and also one of the most unequal.
For communities along the Eastern Shore and throughout the region, environmental harm is not evenly distributed. Low-income communities and communities of color are more likely to experience flooding, polluted waterways, unsafe housing conditions, and limited access to environmental protections.
Youth growing up in these areas witness the impact firsthand:
Streets that flood after heavy rain
Homes damaged by repeated water exposure
Declining access to clean recreational spaces
Economic dependence on land and water that are no longer protected
Environmental justice in the Chesapeake region is deeply tied to historical land use decisions, displacement, segregation, and labor exploitation, all shaped by who lives closest to environmental risk.
Where Youth Fit In
Youth are often left out of environmental decision-making, even though they will live longest with the consequences.
Many young people in Chesapeake communities are asking powerful questions:
Why are our neighborhoods more vulnerable to flooding?
Why do environmental investments bypass our communities?
Who decides what gets protected and what doesn’t?
These questions are not complaints. They are calls for accountability.
Building Environmental Literacy
Through the Next Ground Project, youth are learning how environmental systems work and how policy, power, and equity shape environmental outcomes.
Environmental literacy is more than science. It is understanding:
How environmental harm intersects with housing and health
How communities can advocate for protection and investment
How youth can transform knowledge into action
The future of the Chesapeake depends on youth leadership especially those rooted in the communities most impacted.
Environmental justice means protecting the land and the people who depend on it.
In February, we’ll be opening space for youth voices across the Chesapeake.