Change Your World Week Winter 2021 (Archived)

“Environmental racism can be defined as any environmental policy, practice, or directive that disproportionately disadvantages (intentionally or unintentionally) nonwhite communities.” 

Some Examples of Environmental Racism include:

• “Native American lands have been targeted for radioactive dumpsites, incinerators, and erosive mining operations.” 
• “American Indians living on reservations are exposed to some of the worst air and water pollution in the country. As a result, they are at high risk of contracting cancer and lung diseases, of dying at a young age, and of giving birth to babies with defects. Native Americans living on reservations are 2.8 times likely to die of diabetes, for example.”
• “Latino and black urban neighborhoods are far more likely to experience environmental hazards than their white counterparts. The majority of large hazardous waste landfills are located in nonwhite neighborhoods; in 2000, as many as three out of five African Americans lived in areas with toxic waste dumps, and more than 46 percent of all public housing units were located within a mile’s radius of factories emitting toxic gases.” 

Environmental Racism is a  form of systemic racism whereby communities of colour are disproportionately burdened with health hazards through policies and practices that force them to live in proximity to sources of toxic waste such as sewage works, mines, landfills, power stations, major roads and emitters of airborne particulate matter. As a result, these communities suffer greater rates of health problems attendant on hazardous pollutants.

Unfortunately, we were recently shown a severe case of Enviromental Racism very close to Home. The Flint water crisis not only shook the Tri-Citiy area to the core, but also brought the spotlight from the nation to our door step. The crisis was deemed a "State of Emergency" and needed additional funding from the government for help. This event will effect generations to come in that area.

“A city like Flint (water crisis), where more than half of the population is black in a state that’s nearly 80 percent white, and where the poverty rate is above 40 percent.”

Often times we look to the government for guidance and assistance when dealing with these kinds of issues, and put our faith into politicians, hoping that they're doing the right thing. Industrialization is vital for the economy, but the locations that are selected and the regulations of these sites are effecting the same populations over and over.

• “The biggest polluters in the U.S.—factories, warehouse and other facilities using toxic substances—are overwhelmingly located in poor, non-white neighborhoods,” and studies have theorized that these poorer communities are “sacrifice zones” in which these large polluters will receive less pushback and focus than if they were placed in whiter, more affluent communities. “In fact, places that are already disproportionately populated by minorities, and where their numbers are growing, have the best chances of being selected” in the United States, placing these communities at a further disadvantage.
• Environmental racism, though a contested term, is the deliberate and systemic pattern of: “racial discrimination in environmental policy making, in the enforcement of regulation of laws, in the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the siting of polluting industries, in the official sanctioning of the lifethreatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color, in the history of excluding people from the mainstream environmental groups, decision-making boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies.”

Desmond, Matthew, and Mustafa Emirbayer. Race in America. W.W. Norton & Company, Inc., 2020.

“EBSCO Discovery Service: EBSCO.” EBSCO Information Services, Inc. | Www.ebsco.com, www.ebsco.com/products/ebsco-discovery-service.

“Understanding Environmental Racism and How to Fight It.” Goop, 21 June 2020, goop.com/wellness/environmental-health-civics/environmental-racism/. Worland, Justin.

“Fight Against Environmental Racism Finally Gets Its Moment.” Time, Time, 9 July 2020, time.com/5864704/environmental-racism-climate-change/. Written by Peter Beech, World Economic Forum writer.

“What Is Environmental Racism and How Can We Fight It?” World Economic Forum, www.weforum.org/agenda/2020/07/what-is-environmental-racism-pollution-covid-systemic/.