Justice and Equity Are at the Heart of Our Work
From our founding, justice and equity have been at the heart of Food & Water Watch’s campaigns, organization, and worldview. Our early initiatives on water centered on fighting privatization across the Global South, and today we’re still fighting to keep water public in major U.S. cities. We’ve battled factory farms, which poison rural communities, and fought oil and gas drilling and infrastructure that disproportionately harm low-income communities and communities of color. And we’ve learned from and worked with grassroots partners across the country. We know that to win our campaigns and over- come the corporate interests we oppose, we need to build a powerful and diverse movement.
Our strategic work in key congressional districts adapts to their unique dynamics and the different threats they face to their food, water, health, and climate. We also know that corpo- rate interests want to divide us — to pit poor, working, and middle-class people against each other and exploit differences to maintain power. We must combat these attempts at division and build a unified movement for progressive change. That means fully embracing our core values of justice, human dignity, fair treatment, and equity. Accordingly, we’re committed to Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) within our organization, as well as with our external supporters and partners.
This is what DEI means to Food & Water Watch:
Diversity
Equity
Inclusion
Diversity encompasses characteristics that make an individual or group different from one another. Food & Water Watch recognizes that these differences are a source of strength and they have an important role to play in confronting and challenging oppression of all kinds. We embrace a broad definition of diversity that includes race, ethnicity, national origin, reli- gion, gender, gender identity, sexual orientation, age, disabil- ity, class, education, family or marital status, language, and physical appearance.
Achieving equity begins with the honest acknowledgment of structural and systemic barriers faced by Black, Brown, Indigenous, immigrant, LGBTQI+, working class and low-income communities, and other marginalized groups. Breaking down systems of oppression is inseparable from the fight for a livable future. In our work, we strive to center those who have been impact- ed by environmental racism and otherwise disproportion- ately impacted by pollution, climate change, and lack of access to essential resources.
Inclusion is the act of creat- ing environments in which any individual or group can be and feel welcomed, respected, supported, and valued to participate fully. An inclusive space embrac- es differences and offers respect in words and deeds for everyone who shares our mission and vision. At Food & Water Watch, we believe inclusion helps us to do our best work and build a broad movement toward a livable future for all.
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