Only White Lives Matter To The West

Despite its calls for global equity, Fridays for Future is one of the most significant embodiments of Eurocentrism in climate-centred discussions, much to the detriment of other perspectives globally. Consider the hubris that lies in this bold declaration: “I come from Sweden. And I speak on behalf of future generations”.

The youth-oriented climate movement Fridays for Future has been glorified in many Western circles, and so has its cofounder, Greta Thunberg, who declared to the UK Parliament that “I come from Sweden. And I speak on behalf of future generations”. She has been treated accordingly, with Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau describing her as “the voice of a generation”, and two quick grabs from the public broadcasters in Australia illustrate the same doting: “the voice of conscience for a generation,” writes our SBS , and the ABC headlines, “for many students, Ms Thunberg is the voice of their generation”. But rather than empowering people to talk on their own terms, Thunberg and Fridays for Future have been responsible for generating and reinvigorating a whole set of Eurocentric tropes that hinder true progress and revolution.

Thunberg comes from a standpoint of celebrity activism, which is unsurprising given her mother’s status as a famous singer. On the contrary to the praise that is lavished upon her, it is arguable that she displays a profound failure to understand the heart of sustainability, which is about making sure that for anything we do, “everyone can do it, forever”. That is what Overshoot Day revolves around; that is what the Planetary Health Diet is about; that is why vast discrepancies in per capita emissions are so problematic.

Compare this to the grace from activist Xiye Bastida, who introduced herself at the 2021 Leaders’ Summit on Climate , in the US, “knowing that [she] cannot possibly communicate all the youth voices that should be here, as [she is] the only one of two who will be addressing you today”. She also notes that “being vegan in a healthy way is extremely inaccessible for poor communities, or communities that suffer from being in food deserts.”

Thunberg thinks that sending a message about sustainability is getting sailor Nikki Henderson to fly over the Atlantic in order to sail her across, while activists on Sail to the COP are stranded. She thinks that “setting an example” is her dad driving her around the United States with an electric car lent from actor and former governor Arnold Schwarzenegger. The “Activist speeches” section on the Fridays for Future website features Thunberg in eleven of the eighteen videos listed.

Such centralised forms of campaigning are unscalable, to say the least. School strikes do not directly impact fossil fuel emissions, nor do they directly affect the bottom line of fossil fuel companies. It’s why it has been so ineffective as weapon of choice, for a mass movement about emissions, to the point where Thunberg herself has even said that they have “achieved nothing”. If it is remains so inaccessible to participate in direct action on emissions, the movement is unlikely to generate widespread impact on emissions, unlike the actions that the Black Revolution of the Sixties had upon segregation in the US, or the nonviolent resistance to British rule in India.

Depending so much on Thunberg is also risky if she were to become unable to campaign for a period of time. Black Lives Matter and Extinction Rebellion, for example, do not depend so heavily upon their founders at all for crucial messaging.

At worst, it promotes the notion of “white saviour”, which force people to go through Thunberg for attention, rather than providing them a means to talk on their own terms. A case in point is Vanessa Nakate from Uganda, an inclusion who has been heavily promoted by Thunberg. She largely rose to prominence on the back of personally tagging “@GretaThunberg” many times on Twitter, and being retweeted from that. She felt the need to request Thunberg’s personal assistance for her campaign on saving the Congo Rainforest, for example:

I have been trying to create awareness for Congo rainforest for 19 days now by striking everyday. It is hard because I have failed to get it to the news. Will you help me please? Your response will be highly appreciated. Thank you @GretaThunberg

A recent study in Australia showed that African migrants struggled to get job interviews without a white reference , which highlights the ugly dynamics that lie here. Thunberg considers herself as “[trying] to use [her] platform to create new leaders, among other things”, but her holding onto her platform in such a centralised manner reinforces exactly that kind of mechanic.

More broadly, let us also consider prominent activists in the movement, when reviewing who has had an audience with power, who has authored letters and pieces in media on behalf of the movement, and who is invited at major events to represent the movement. Prominent activists in Fridays for Future are overwhelmingly from Europe and they have met only Western leaders. Thunberg from Sweden, Anuna de Wever from Belgium, Luisa Neubauer from Germany, and Adelaïde Charlier from Belgium boast that “between the four of us, we have met quite a number of world leaders during the last two years”. The sample of their meetings indicates a large degree of parochialism; they have met the prime minister of Canada, the prime minister of Belgium, the chancellor of Germany , the First Minister of Scotland , to name a few. The four have also authored pieces on behalf of the movement, two examples of which are published by The Guardian in 2019 and 2020.

This is hardly global revolution. It is unsurprising that the campaigns pressed the most by the movement have been narrowly focused on Europe, including the Change the CAP campaign, and other open letters to the EU. The European activists perpetuate narratives of victimhood — people who are in places most vulnerable to the effects of abrupt changes in climate outside of the Western middle class are frequently portrayed as victims who must be rescued from climate catastrophe by “white saviours”.

Certainly the centrism has been noticed. Historian and journalist Vijay Prashad said at COP 26:

The climate justice movement is a movement that says, ‘we’re worried about our future’. What future?! What future?! Children in the African continent, in Asia, in Latin America, — they don’t have a future. They don’t have a present. They’re not worried about the future; they’re worried about their present. Your slogan is, ‘We’re worried about the future.’ What future?! That’s some middle-class bourgeois Western slogan. You’ve got to be worried about now.

Climate negotiations being led by countries with masses of wealth, and the West in particular, have meant that the thresholds for acceptable levels of warming are determined by how much this global minority can endure.

Countries outside the West and other places of high-income can see that when pandemic struck, they saved vaccines for themselves. When Russia formally entered the war in Ukraine, coverage by Western outlets surfaced deep-seated racism. It reveals what many of us know only too well — that only white lives matter to the West.

An article written in June 2022 that I submitted to Spheres of Influence but was not accepted for publication.