The entire Environmental Voter Project family is deeply saddened and outraged by the horrific police killing of Daunte Wright in Minnesota.
As Daunte’s mother, Katie Wright, said of Daunte: “He had a 2-year-old son that's not going to be able to play basketball with him. He had sisters and brothers that he loved so much. He just had his whole life taken away from him. We had our hearts pulled out of our chests. He was my baby.”
We send our condolences to the Wright family and to all who are impacted by his loss and the violence of anti-Black racism in America.
As an environmental organization, we also recognize that structural racism enables the fossil fuel industry to survive by laying the burden of its toxic, often deadly, by-products predominantly on communities of color. This is why fighting racism is intrinsically linked to the work of the environmental movement. Black lives matter.
We despair at the loss of Daunte Wright, and we will continue to fight the structural racism that props up the fossil fuel industry, suppresses so many votes, and kills so many Americans each and every day.