Reference
- environmental racismEnvironmental racism includes differential exposure to harm and limiting of access to resources that are reliant on, or that reproduce forms of, racial differentiation. The term is commonly attributed to the Reverend Ben Chavis, who in 1982 was the director of the United Church of Christ’s Commission for Racial Justice when toxic chemicals were sited in Warren County, Virginia, because it was predominantly poor and black. Chavis understood this action as part of a broader institutional history of racism in America, and coined the term environmental racism to call attention to the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of colour, including those of African-Americans, Native Americans, Asian-Americans, Chicanos/Latinos and others (Chavis, 1991). This definition has been amended to include not just the actions of institutions, industries and governments, but also their failure to act, as in the case of the federal government’s lack of response to Hurricane Katrina (Sze, 2005). In addition, the current definitions hold institutions and individuals accountable whether their acts are intentional or not (Bullard, 1994). Examples include the military–industrial complex’s disproportionate exposure of Native Americans to nuclear fallout and waste dumps, creating large ‘national sacrifice zones’ in the Southwest (Kuletz, 2001). This, for example, may not be an intentional act, but is still widely considered an example of environmental racism because of the notions of race inherent in decisions that make dumping in some sites – rural reservations, poor urban areas, immigrant communities – more ‘logical’ than dumping in upper-class white communities. Finally, still rare but growing trends in the definitions of environmental racism are both attention to environmental justice beyond the USA and attention to the ways in which racism is culturally formed or reproduced through the efforts and exclusions of the environmental movement itself (Gelobter et al., 2005).
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Target: St. Louis - Environmental Racism During the Cold War
Post-Hiroshima, the US Army engaged in classified open-air studies on the effects of aerosol radiation. Low-income African-Americans in St. Louis were the unwitting subjects of that testing, by design.
Source: Kanopy
History of Environmental Justice
- Films on Demand This link opens in a new window
The idea of environmental justice began in 1982 with the effort to stop a landfill from being put in an African-American community in North Carolina. Since then, community members and environmentalists have worked to correct injustices. The Environmental Protection Agency created the Office of Environmental Justice in 1992.
Perspectives
Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability
From Flint, Michigan, to Standing Rock, North Dakota, minorities have found themselves losing the battle for clean resources and a healthy environment. This book provides a modern history of such environmental injustices in the United States and Canada. From the 19th-century extermination of the buffalo in the American West to Alaska's Project Chariot (a Cold War initiative that planned to use atomic bombs to blast out a harbor on Eskimo land) to the struggle for recovery and justice in Puerto Rico following Hurricane Maria in 2017, this book provides readers with an enhanced understanding of how poor and minority people are affected by natural and manmade environmental crises. Written for undergraduates as well as the general reader with an interest in social justice and environmental issues, this book traces the relationship between environmental discrimination, race, and class through a comprehensive case history of environmental injustices. Environmental Racism in the United States and Canada: Seeking Justice and Sustainability includes 50 such case studies that range from local to national to international crises. Provides comprehensive coverage and analysis of the far-reaching specter of environmental racism in the U.S. and Canada, using numerous case studies that extend across the U.S. and Canada from the 19th century into the present day Examines the confluence of climate change, natural resource conflicts, political and corporate corruption, and racism Reflects a regional arrangement to better highlight patterns and types of injustices as well as victims Is written by a prolific author and expert on environmental and Native American issues
Polluted Promises
Association for Humanist Sociology 2007 Book Award co-winner Julian Steward Award 2006 Runner-Up One community's fight against industrial contamination and environmental racism Over the past two decades, environmental racism has become the rallying cry for many communities as they discover the contaminations of toxic chemicals and industrial waste in their own backyards. Living next door to factories and industrial sites for years, the people in these communities often have record health problems and debilitating medical conditions. Melissa Checker tells the story of one such neighborhood, Hyde Park, in Augusta, Georgia, and the tenacious activism of its two hundred African American families. This community, at one time surrounded by nine polluting industries, is struggling to make their voices heard and their community safe again. Polluted Promises shows that even in the post-civil rights era, race and class are still key factors in determining the politics of pollution.
Gonna trouble the water
Ecojustice, water, and environmental racism
From the Ground Up
From the ground up environmental racism and the rise of the environmental justice movement
Environmental justice : a reference handbook
Building on the original edition's focus on the link between social inequalities and the uneven distribution of environmental hazards in the air, water, and soil, Environmental Justice: A Reference Handbook, Second Edition presents a contemporary look at the convergence of the environmental movement and civil rights activism. Environmental Justice, Second Edition follows the rise and maturation of the movement focused on environmental racism, describes solutions that have been implemented, and examines issues that remain unresolved
Online Resources
- Environmental Racism CollectionRacism systematically constructs inequities by conferring advantages upon one racial/ethnic group at the expense of others. Environmental racism is a critically important component of this broader system. Over many decades, the discriminatory policies and practices that constitute environmental racism have disproportionately burdened minority neighborhoods with polluting facilities such as toxic waste sites, landfills, and chemical plants. Environmental racism concentrates disadvantaged populations in substandard housing and compromised communities, where hazardous exposures are much more likely.
- Environmental JusticeEnvironmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies