Environmental Racism In America

Environmental ethics has widely circled around human interactions with biotic ecosystems. Little voice has been given to city residents who are overexposed to environmental hazards. It is a subject rarely touched upon by mainstream environmentalist. Though conservation efforts receive much media attention and advocacy, environmental pollution in urban areas inhabited by minorities and the impoverished receive less attention despite it clearly being a grave injustice. It fact, it can be argued that minority and impoverished neighborhoods are deliberately targeted by corporations and governmental agencies because of the inherit vulnerability of the inhabitants. It is no secret that the impoverished in this country frequently live in areas characterized

This makes me qualified to do this research paper. Additionally, I am able to contact experts on the issue who can offer their opinion and knowledge on the issue. The sources used in this paper will be from Academic Search Premier. Academic Search Premier has a plethora of resources I can use for my empirical paper. The sources (articles) I will use will be peer reviewed and they will from the year 2007 and onward. I will try to steer clear of articles that are older than this because the data may not reflect the current situation. Therefore, the data will be more recent. The first source I will be using is a peer review article by Hines. The article talks specifically about the statics in Emelle Alabama and the detrimental effects of hazardous waste dumping in the county. The second article will be by Hurley who looks at the environmental racism history of America and how that affects minorities now. The third article is by Mcdoll who gives the background on how minorities are mistreated and treated unfairly when it comes to choosing where noxious waste facilities

Firstly, environmental racism is referring effect on industrial pollution on lower income group and working community with color. Environmental racism brings social inequality to the minority people, excludes them from the community and any exclusion is an act of racism (Pulido, 2010, p.538). Moreover, environmental racism can be most detrimental to the specific group of people. The harmfulness of environmental racism exists in the relationship between community residents and environment. In the case of water crisis in Flint, the serious situation is caused by industry pollution and government inaction. The emergency manager aimed to save five million, changed the extracted water from Detroit system to Flint river (Ruth, 2017). Flint car brand general motor poured out the industrial toxic rubbish into flint river. Furthermore, Flint river used half a century sematic system. It means the water sources from the Flint river is not safe. Therefore, Government add the chlorine gas in Flint river to eliminate water bacteria. The new chemical byproduct THEM caused deadly outbreak. The Flint government did not handle urban metabolism well. On the one hand, the vehicle company pour the rubbish to the river and damage the natural environment. On the other hand, Lead poisoned water harm to people’s health. Local residence drink poisoned water will feel bone pain, muscle pain and fatigue. Moreover, children drink poisoned water will permanent damage intelligence and immune system (Ruth, 2017). Children always get sick and cannot go to school normally. Since Local residence does not have clean water to drink, and severely affecting their normal life. On the one hand, scale is the important tool to analyze the environmental racism. In 2000, Pulido demonstrates that Environmental racism should concern the various scale in “the

Today we’re faced with multiple forms of inequalities and injustices. None of them are in no way, shape or form are okay or justifiable. While we as a people are striving to deal with the obvious forms of injustices, there is another form that is a real quiet one, but it can be heard throughout the world that we are living in and is a severe problem that needs to be addressed. The type of injustice that I’m speaking on is called: Environmental Racism. This has been a definite issue that not only affects the environment, but it also has effects on communities, individuals and it effects the economic system in the long run as well. Environmental Racism needs to be brought up in conversations within our communities as well as our local governments, so they will not forget their remains a problem.

One of the first influences on the deliberation on Environmental Justice was The Civil Rights Movement in the United States of America. Leaders like Martin Luther King, Jr. fought hard to ensure that social transformation and power be established for African Americans, especially those in the southern states as well as those in the northern inner-city parts. Activists like King altered the philosophy on Environmental Justice arguing that there was a lopsided effect that proved that environmental hazards were not accidental. What environmentalists advocated instead was that environmental dangers resulted from racial segregation that placed power plants, nuclear plants, and other potential ecological hazards in areas with a high concentration of minority and low income groups. Several activists defined this as “environmental racism.”

With the well-being of future generations in mind, environmental concerns have begun to establish a permanent residence atop the priority ladder for a vast array of Americans. Consequently, writers and political pundits alike are seizing this opportunity to capitalize on advocating their stance on the issue. Information, representing all positions, pours in at an unrelenting and unfathomable rate. For the average American it can be an arduous process sifting through all the rhetoric in attempt to find the real truth regarding our impact as humans on the environment; one such example is Susan Brown’s article The EPA’s Mercury Problem. In this article Brown attempts to expose hypocrisy among progressives by paralleling the Environmental Protection

Those who argue that environmental racism is a serious problem in America and the whole world, and their number are growing, are correct in at least one of their assertions. Racism exists. environmental problems exist. these facts, however, do not reveal whether or not environmental racism has occurred in any given instance. this might be an unimportant distinction but for the fact that some argue that civil right laws be applied to pollution events and related regulatory violations.

In the book, Sacrifice Zones, Steve Lerner takes readers through twelve separate stories of communities in the United States that have been unwillingly exposed to high levels of environmental toxicity. In each of these cases, citizens of those communities reacted to and pushed back against being exposed to toxic chemicals, sometimes successfully and sometimes less so. In every case, the people most heavily exposed to these health hazards were minorities and low-income citizens, which, Lerner argues, is why government officials and corporate decision-makers chose knowingly to risk exposing them. This paper will outline Lerner’s book and argue that despite a long history of protests, lawsuits, media attention and nationwide outrage, willing exposure of low-income and minority Americans to toxic chemicals in the pursuit of government and corporate interests is still a major problem today.

The concept of environmental inequality appeared at the end of the 70s and at the beginning of the 80s after researchers, activists and government officials began to collect data that in turn showed patterns where social inequality and environmental harm became evident (Brehm, 2013). An additional term used to describe the situation is environmental justice, which according to the sociologist Robert Bullard, misled the reality by giving the impression that all people and communities are entitled to equal protection by environmental

“Environmental racism is real…so real that even having the facts, having the documentation and having the information has never been enough to provide equal protection for people of color and poor people” “It takes longer for the response and it takes longer for the recovery in communities of color and low-income communities.” (Bullard, 1994:36)

Robert Bullard defines environmental racism as “any policy, practice, or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages individuals, groups, or communities based on race or color” (Bullard 98). Racism basically creates differences in environmental quality in white and black communities. Governmental policies and industry practices often provide benefits to the white communities while shifting environmental costs onto people of color.

When one discusses acts of racism, slander or the stereotyping of a group of people may come to mind. However, the concept of environmental racism is rarely considered. This form of racism positions dominant environmental framing as racially driven, in which people of color (i.e. minorities) are affected disproportionately by poor environmental practices. Communities of color throughout the United States have become the dumping grounds for our nation’s waste disposal, as well as home to agricultural and/or manufacturing industries that pollute the land. Government regulations and cultural practices have all contributed to environmental racism. The government’s policies have also negatively impacted low income groups as well as people of

In the film “Race: The Power of an Illusion, Part 3: The House We Live In,” the subject matter is race within our government in relation to the idea that race is a socially constructed idea. The film emphasizes that the only difference in biology between a person of color and a white person is the color of his or her skin. Although the film is not directly related to the environment, it supports the ideas of the article “Trump's EPA Concludes Environmental Racism Is Real,” by Vann R. Newkirk II. In the article, it is statistically proven that communities in which people of color are centralized are the ones that are struggling the most with environmental conditions. Learning more about this discrimination reminded me of Richard Louv’s article

Hazards and pollutants are apparent in a variety of outcomes. Possible outcomes include asthma, cancer and chemical poisoning (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004: 1647). Furthermore, “Although debated, the main hypothesis explaining these disparities is that disadvantaged communities encounter greater exposure to environmental toxins such as air pollution, pesticides, and lead” (Gee and Payne-Sturges 2004: 1647). Therefore, disadvantaged groups, such as people of color and the poor, experience greater environmental risks. Additionally, “Blacks in particular are exposed to a disproportionate amount of pollution and suffer the highest levels of lead and pesticide poisoning and other associated health problems” (Jones and Rainey 2006: 474). People of color, essentially, compete to live healthily. For example, African-Americans and Africans alike, struggle with the negative affects of oil refineries and unresponsive governments. The same can be said for Hispanics in California and the natives of Ecuador, who are forced to cope with the pollution of the Texaco oil refineries (Bullard 2001: 4). Environmental racism not only exploits natural resources, it abuses and profits from the communities involved. Governments and polluting facilities will continue to capitalize on the economic susceptibilities of poor communities, states, nations and regions for their “unsound” and hazardous operations (Bullard 2001: 23).

The placement of companies deleterious to the environment and well-being of humans is something that prosperous communities are not quite familiar with; in contrast, it is something well-known to less affluent communities. The imbalance of classification shows a lack of environmental justice in low-income and minority communities. According to the EPA, or Environmental Protection Agency, “environmental justice is the fair treatment… 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,” (EPA, n.d.). However, the environmental justice, the EPA mentions is not prevalent in communities of color, but rather its counterpart is: environmental injustice. Environmental injustice, or environmental racism, being the excessive placing of perilous waste and contaminating polluters near communities of color (Cha, 2016). Although often overlooked, environmental racism is an extensive problem that negatively affects minority communities in Southeast Los Angeles.