Krystle D’Alencar: Environmental Justice and Grassroots Activism in the Twin Cities

An integral part of environmental justice consists of learning from the people at the frontlines of their respective initiatives. One important figure at the forefront of grassroot environmental justice work in the Twin Cities is Krystle D’Alencar. Krystle is currently a full time community outreach member for Minnesota Environmental Justice Table (MNEJ) and has been since 2021.

Krystle’s passions and visions for the future were clear from the minute we began our interview and they were happy to share their knowledge of frontline community organizing, distributing understandable and accessible information, and creating collective awareness for policies affecting marginalized communities. Krystle explained to us that, immediately after our interview, they were headed to engage in door knocking with the Northeast Minneapolis community to further connections with people and help them understand the policies that are affecting their communities. MNEJ is a diverse collection of organizations and community members working to establish an environmental justice movement throughout the North Star State. The MNEJ community is very focused on social justice work, achieving many changes since its founding in 2020, such as their fight to close the Hennepin Energy Resource Center in North Minneapolis and the Cumulative Impacts Bill.

Krystle is originally from Boston, where they completed their undergraduate studies. They have a background in public policy and a range of experiences in Boston, Washington D.C., and Minneapolis-St.Paul. During the global COVID-19 Pandemic, Krystle was a student in the Environmental Engineering program at the University of Minnesota, working a bartending job to support her education.Yet, Krystle and co-workers operated within an environment devoid of pandemic precautions, inspiring Krystle to organize their peers, seek safer working conditions, and communicate regarding the alarming need for better COVID-19 precautions. This initiative became more than just a group, and Krystle used their position to create a safer environment for the company’s patrons, which was important in the predominantly Black and Brown local community. Krystle spoke with us about how they were highly involved with the Twin Cities community throughout the 2020 uprisings and supported it by cooking food for the people, giving goods to those in need, and protesting with their peers. Krystle also gave a speech about Manuel ‘Tortuguita’ Terán, who was killed by Georgia police on January 18, 2023 during a raid on Atlanta’s South River Forest, where he and other forest defenders were attempting to halt the construction of a sizable police training facility known as ‘Cop City’ by its opponents. Krystle supports the environmental justice initiative through speech and shows up for their community whenever needed.

In their work for MNEJ, which was founded by Nazir Khan, Krystle is committed to creating a space for Black and Brown people to work and organize, and provides tools for their communities so they can determine what happens to their environment. MNEJ aims to coordinate their representation to tackle state energy and climate policy while also assisting base-building initiatives in frontline areas. Reusing, recycling, and composting can help create jobs that are desperately needed while achieving MNEJ’s environmental justice and zero waste goals by lowering harmful pollutant loads and GHG emissions. Krystle assured us they are committed to ending Minnesota’s use of burning facilities and creating a zero-waste strategy for the state. MNEJ works with those who are most marginalized, such as BIPOC communities, the impoverished, the homeless, and those who are in prison.

Krystle wanted to show us one very essential aspect of their social organizing. In their own words:

“I know I mentioned listening and observing rather than having reactionary stances on things – even if you feel so sure of them –  having patience and building relationships with people and earning trust in order to change attitudes, but it’s perhaps more important to read as much history of Black and Brown movements and working-class struggles as you can! Not just ‘leftist’ literature that is trending by major media – I usually approach this with suspicion – but finding writing outside the academic setting. A lot of ‘progressive’ academia is still embedded in neoliberal and white supremacist frameworks. None of the movements today are new, people have been tirelessly building and fighting for eons, so make sure to always check citations of anything you read! What are people’s sources for whatever claim? Where do these ‘gotcha’ takes, or theories come from? Is there data to support the ‘vibes’? It is important to know about the history of the people because if we don’t; how are we going to give accurate information?”

When addressing racial and environmental justice, Krystle believes it is important to understand the history of previous injustices and inequities that have greatly influenced the way the environment and society are organized today. For instance, how many communities of color have historically experienced environmental racism and a disproportionate amount of exposure to environmental risks and pollutants? This includes air pollution and toxic waste dumps which may be greatly harmful to the health and well-being of individuals and communities. Redlining, discriminatory zoning, and unequal enforcement of environmental standards are only a few examples of the policies and practices that contribute to these environmental injustices and are frequently rooted in systemic and environmental racism. Krystle argues that we can more clearly comprehend how these injustices contributed to the existing inequalities if we are aware of their history, and we can more effectively act to eliminate these harmful policies and practices if we do know them well.
“‘I know I mentioned listening and observing rather than having reactionary stances on things – even if you feel so sure of them –  having patience and building relationships with people and earning trust in order to change attitudes, but it’s perhaps more important to read as much history of Black and Brown movements and working-class struggles as you can!'”

Krystle reminds community organizers that you have to remember who the real enemy is: the forces outside of the community causing harm:

“Keep your eyes on the prize. Think about: how are we going to move forward to liberation? Don’t put yourself in a position of harm for the sake of the movement. Patience, relationship building, and trust are the most important components in the movement. If you don’t trust each other, you don’t know each other, yeah of course you are then going to judge and fight and not move side by side. So it takes time and patience. But there’s no other way to do it.”“The big picture is that this country is in the western mode of imperialism and the capitalist state, putting our people in the needful positions they are in! And so, we need to collectively really come together and figure out deeping our coalitions and solidarity among each other and across communities.”

Change takes coalition building and if we are not strengthening our communities and getting involved in these issues, Krystle admonishes they will come back and haunt us:

“Our folks are blaming each other when we need to be targeting the system that made these circumstances to begin with. The big picture is that this country is in the western mode of imperialism and the capitalist state, putting our people in the needful positions they are in! And so, we need to collectively really come together and figure out deeping our coalitions and solidarity among each other and across communities.
As long as we are fractured in their way, it’s a win for them, watching all this in-fighting.”

Recognizing the contributions that marginalized populations have made to environmental and conservation initiatives is essential to properly educating oneself to create change today. This requires comprehension of the history of Black and Brown people and how some peoples have maintained a culturally profound relationship with the environment and have long operated in society as environmental stewards supporting the safeguarding of the natural world. That is exactly what Krystle and MNEJ set out to do: educate, organize, and reform. The environmental justice movement, which emphasizes the connection between environmental concerns and social justice, is one example of how such communities of BIPOC peoples have contributed significantly to environmental activism.