“From our very founding, Sunrise has deeply believed that we are all imperfect, and that it's incumbent on every organization to respond to feedback thoughtfully in an effort to grow,” the organization said in a statement. Sunrise shared dozens of documents with BuzzFeed News in response to questions about the complaints, acknowledging the longstanding problems and detailing their attempts to address them. But when the escalating calls for change came from within, Sunrise repeatedly failed to live up to its ideals, according to interviews with 18 current and former members. A political organization led by a new, diverse generation convinced of climate change’s existential threat, especially to communities of color with lower incomes, the group has unflinchingly called out allies standing in the way of addressing the crisis. Since its founding in 2017, Sunrise set out to be different from the rest of the environmental movement, which is predominantly white.
“Top leadership's results are wholly inadequate.” “Staff and movement leaders have poured hundreds of hours into trying to convince top leadership to truly live out our slogan to ‘build a multi-racial cross-class movement,’” a group of four longtime Sunrise members wrote in a March 23 letter detailing concerns from members of color. The activists said they were overworked and underpaid warned that the group was unable to attract or retain members of color, especially Black ones bemoaned the lack of diversity among Sunrise leaders and demanded resources to build up support in communities of color.
#Sunrise movement series
That's according to a series of internal memos and letters, signed by at least 100 young climate activists and obtained by BuzzFeed News. As the youth-led Sunrise Movement helped catapult racial justice to the center of the national conversation on climate change, many of its members of color repeatedly charged over the last three years that they felt “tokenized,” “used,” “ignored,” and “dismissed.”
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