Pluralist Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez suggested last week that “predominantly white” colonizers were at least partially responsible for the 2017 hurricane that led to the death of her grandfather.
The New York Democrat’s remarks came Wednesday during a hearing of the House Oversight and Government Reform subcommittee on civil rights and civil liberties, the Washington Times reported.
Ocasio-Cortez asked Mustafa Ali, vice president of environmental justice, climate and community revitalization for the National Wildlife Federation, about the consequences of climate change inaction for “communities of color.”
“If we don’t act, then we are going to lose more lives. We’re going to lose more African-American lives, more Latinx lives, more Asian Pacific-Islander lives, more indigenous lives,” the witness replied.
Ali appeared to suggest that the only white people who would fall victim to the adverse effects of climate change would be wealthy white individuals.
“We’re going to lose more lives of white – low-income – brothers and sisters as well because all of them are the ones that are placed right on the front lines of many of these things that are going on,” he said.
The freshman congresswoman then asked whether the “Global South and communities of color” were bearing the brunt of climate “havoc,” to which Ali replied: “Without a doubt.”
Ocasio-Cortez claimed that 6,000 “predominantly black and brown lives” had been wiped out by Hurricanes Maria and Katrina.
“And in terms of that wealth, the people that are producing climate change, the folks that are responsible for the largest amount of emissions, or communities, or corporations, they tend to be predominantly white, correct?” she asked Ali.
Ali, a former head of the EPA environmental justice office, replied: “Yes, and every study backs that up.”
Ocasio-Cortez proceeded by segueing into one of her preferred narratives: white colonialism’s impact on the environment and people of color.
“My own grandfather died in the aftermath of Hurricane Maria,” she said. “We can’t act as though the inertia and history of colonization doesn’t play a role in this.”