This is a word, a podcast from Slate. I'm your host, Jason Johnson.

There are many issues that politicians use to reach out to black voters,

police and criminal justice reform, public education, equal opportunity, but is it

time for leaders to talk to African Americans about climate change?

We're saying that let us hear from the genius outside the academy and let us hear these

voices that are rising up as our new environmentalists who I believe if you hear

from those voices we can actually make change happen.

The Fight for Climate Justice coming up on a word with me about race and politics and everything else.

I'm your host Jason Johnson.

We're right around the corner from Super Tuesday, a sign that election season is heating up around the country.

And even though President Joe Biden faces little opposition for the Democratic nomination,

there are serious questions about ways to motivate his base so he can win a second term.

African American voters are crucial to that effort.

While many strategists differ on what might galvanize black voters, for some, Energy is building around the issue of climate

change. Environmentalism has long been considered a preoccupation of white

people and educated people and affluent voters, but the damage of climate change is being felt disproportionately in communities of color.

And it's being felt right now.

Raising awareness about that is part of the mission of the hip hop caucus.

It's a group that's been working for years

to educate and activate young African Americans

around climate justice as a civil rights issue.

Its leader is Reverend Lennox Yearwood Jr. and he joins us now.

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