The Appalachian region has long dealt with environmental pollution and economic disinvestment, and a new coalition wants to ensure its Black residents have a seat at the table as these issues are addressed by the Biden administration.
Read More…The Appalachian region has long dealt with environmental pollution and economic disinvestment, and a new coalition wants to ensure its Black residents have a seat at the table as these issues are addressed by the Biden administration.
The Black Appalachian Coalition, or BLAC, is a four-state collaboration of organizers who say they aim to disrupt the narrative that the region is only white and rural. Bishop Marcia Dinkins, executive director of Ohio Interfaith Power and Light, said it’s time to reframe the story of Appalachia.
“And if we don’t go back and take back that which is ours, meaning the land, meaning the story, meaning our Black identity,” she said, “what we’ll continue to find ourselves sitting in is a whitewashed narrative that has romanticized Appalachia to be rooted in whiteness, and continually building policies that only reach out to white people.”
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