‘Sustainaphrenia’ in New York City: Melissa Checker on The Thought Project

Melissa Checker is the Hagedorn Professor of Urban Studies at Queens College and associate professor of Anthropology and Psychology at The Graduate Center, CUNY. She joins The Thought Project to discuss her latest book, The Sustainability Myth: Environmental Gentrification and the Politics of Justice. The book unpacks the ways in which the so-called sustainable construction projects that accompany the gentrification of neighborhoods, particularly in Harlem and on Staten Island, harm low-income residents and people of color. She discusses the cases she studied and the environmental racism that she documented in her book, and she explains her coined term, “sustainaphrenia.” Checker also offers an assessment of President-Elect Joe Biden’s sustainability plans, noting the need to learn from past mistakes in order to achieve a truly equitable and sustainable society.