Navigating justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion with love
A blog for the environmental, conservation, and climate movements
WELCOME!
I’m Marcelo. I created this blog to support the thousands of environmental professionals advancing justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion issues at their organizations and across the movement. Over the past two decades, I have been a speaker, trainer, founder, executive director, coach, advisor, consultant, writer, strategizer, mentor, mentee, teacher, and learner for all things J.E.D.I. in the environmental movement. I hope my insights, lessons learned, and experiences can shed light on your work.
“Marcelo is a mentor to many J.E.D.I. practitioners like myself. He is thoughtful, passionate, and provides the depth and breadth of expertise needed to move us forward on these important issues. By always bringing his caring, whole, and authentic self to the work, it results in the true initiation, advancement and expansion of J.E.D.I. practices and principles in our movement.”
— Chante Coleman, Director of Equity & Inclusion, National Wildlife Federation
"Marcelo, aka 'Silver Fox,' is as brilliant as his breath is minty. Also, what amazing sartorial splendor on a daily basis! In all seriousness, Marcelo is pretty awesome. His experience within the environmental sector, combined with his lens of social justice, equity, diversity, and inclusion, and his lived-experience as a person of color, makes his perspective and work critical, especially in this turbulent sociopolitical climate. He is a J.E.D.I. unicorn, and essential to the environmental movement and to our world in general."
— Vu Le, Executive Director, Rainier Valley Corps & the dude behind nonprofitAF.com
"Marcelo is filling a gap in the thought leadership market between where we are, and where we ought to be. He does so with an experienced understanding of organizational efficiency, return on investment, and heart. Nobody walks away from an encounter with Marcelo feeling less hopeful about the future and our ability to make it better, together."
— Majora Carter, Urban Revitalisation Strategist
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Last week, I woke up to my wife, who is black, sitting on the living room couch. She had trouble sleeping—not a rare occurrence, but this time was different. With streaks of dried tears, fading into her cheeks, she told me that she was simply “sad.” She was up for hours reeling from the recent murders of George Floyd and Breonna Taylor by cops and Ahmaud Arbery by white racist vigilantes. Compounding her grieving were the stories of the “Central Park Karen’s” intentional weaponizing of racism towards black birder, Christian Cooper, the disproportionately high rates of black people dying from Covid-19, and the cops’ repeated violence towards black protesters. The weight and trauma became unbearable. Micia was suffocating from the unjust and oppressive systems that repeatedly treats her and her people as less than and tells them that they are unworthy and expendable. My heart was broken. I had never seen Micia like this. While these stories were nothing new to her, she’d had enough. She could no longer suppress the emotions, and something had to change.
I know Micia’s story (or some variation) has been typical for our black brothers and sisters all across the nation during this time, and I am grieving in solidarity with them. However, for all the anger, rage, frustration, and sadness I am feeling as a non-black person of color, it is nothing compared to what Micia and other black people are going through right now and forced to go through daily.
After holding Micia and being present with her and her pain, I asked how I could be most helpful. How could I use my experience and influence to support her in the moment? At Micia’s request, we co-created approaches and responses to advise her many white friends who have reached out with love and support and are seeking to take action to advance racial equity.
You have probably seen the many lists of resources and actions for white people being shared on social media. Where to start and what to do can be overwhelming and confusing. This blog complements those lists—to provide insight on making your racial equity actions and growing ally-ship impactful and effective. Focusing on the why and how of your racial equity actions and overall journey will build a stable foundation from which to grow, take clear, strategic action, and achieve positive impact.
The following guidelines are not the end-all, be-all approaches that will guarantee efficacy, but they are foundational to help you get there. In the end, your degree of impact depends on you and your transformation. While most guideline content is tailored for white people at the beginning or middle stages of their racial equity journey, the guidelines may serve to re-ground change agents (white and BIPOC) as they continue to push for change.