Media witnessing and storytelling for environmental justice (EJ) provide an avenue to understand the relationships between “multiple realities of environmental injury” and to analyze “fleeting phenomena with lasting form; thereby transforming phenomena that are experienced in a plurality of lives into publicly recognized history” (Houston, 2012, 419, 422). This creates opportunities to challenge and eradicate the oppressive structures that deem certain individuals and groups disposable and ultimately protect the possessive investment in whiteness. Therefore, for the purposes of EJ, media witnessing creates space for dynamic, citizen-based storytelling which can undermine narratives that promote the life versus economy framework that has perpetuated oppression, injustice, and state sanctioned violence. Media witnessing in an EJ context demonstrates the potential for collective understanding and action, political opportunities, and healing.<br/>This paper is an analysis of the process of media witnessing in regards to the Flint Water Crisis and the construction of the Dakota Access Pipeline (DAPL) and will apply an EJ lens to this phenomenon. It will discuss how media witnessing in response to these two crises can be used as a precedent for understanding and utilizing this framework and digital storytelling to address the crises of 2020, primarily the COVID-19 pandemic and racial injustice. It will then examine how the intersectionality of race, gender, and age has implications for future media witnessing and storytelling in the context of EJ movements. Finally, it will explain how media witnessing can motivate holistic policymaking in the favor of EJ initiatives and the health and wellbeing of all Americans, as well as how such policymaking and initiatives must acknowledge the double-edged sword that is social media.

Change within the cannabis industry could lead to drastic improvements in social justice. Ever since marijuana was first regulated in the United States in the early 1900s, it has been used as the justification for the excessive incarceration and disenfranchisement of targeted groups, specifically, Black and Latino populations. Now, the growing popularity of marijuana, from both the recreational and entrepreneurial perspective, has led to the legalization of recreational cannabis in 15 states. <br/>Although this enterprise is highly profitable and alluring for consumers and business owners, the problem of underrepresentation of minority owned businesses within the industry still remains. This underrepresentation symbolizes the unjust ability for this enterprise to capitalize on those victimized by past drug regulations and on a larger scale, how it perpetuates institutionalized racism. The criminalization of marijuana not only allows for certain groups to remain successful in this booming billion-dollar operation, but also ensures that others remain unseen and left behind. <br/>This thesis aims to show the ways in which the legal cannabis industry can expand and encourage minority-owned businesses to venture into the sector. In this paper, I will attempt to outline the history of cannabis regulation and anti-drug campaigns, and illustrate the lack of diversity within the cannabis industry. I will also touch upon the remedies and reparations for racial inequality and how public policy can address entrepreneur’s demands in future policy considerations and industry practices.

My thesis is an autoethnography considering the ways to be a respectful and effective ally and advocate for racial justice issues as a White person. I have written my paper as a love letter to my Indigenous sister, synthesizing the lessons I learned throughout my justice studies courses and applying them to the very personal experience of my relationship with my sister.