(NewsReady.com) – Actress Jane Fonda is well-known for her activism. When she was a young woman, she was on the frontlines of the protests of the Vietnam War. In 1972, she traveled to North Vietnam to visit areas that America had bombed and meet with prisoners of war. In the 50+ years since, her activism has not abated. Recently, she spoke about climate change and pointed to racism as one of the culprits.
Fonda appeared on Kelly Clarkson’s talk show with “80 for Brady” co-stars Sally Field, Lily Tomlin, and Rita Moreno. During the interview, she spoke about her activism. Fonda told Clarkson that when she learned about the Vietnam War, she couldn’t stop herself from getting involved. As she has grown older, she said that it doesn’t matter what people are talking about, whether it be “sexism, racism, misogyny, homophobia, whatever,” all of those things are connected.
The actress told Clarkson that there wouldn’t be a “climate crisis if it wasn’t for racism.” Fonda went on to explain companies put the pollution into places where “poor people or indigenous people or people of color are living.” The powers that be aren’t poisoning communities like Bel Air.
Fonda isn’t the only person who has tried to argue climate change and pollution is racist. The United Nations Human Rights Council published a report by UN Special Rapporteur Tendayi Achiume that claimed there was no way to address climate change without dealing with alleged systemic racism.
The report argued there are global “sacrifice zones” where the degradation of the environment is so bad, the areas are uninhabitable. Those areas are essentially “racial and ethnic sacrifice zones,” the expert argued, because they are the communities traditionally living in those zones.
In the United States, however, the pollution in communities crosses racial lines. For example, the first super fund site in America, Love Canal, was in a primarily white, working-class neighborhood in Niagara Falls, New York. Yet, Fonda didn’t address those truths in her monologue.
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