Freddie Gray's Case Study

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 term “environmental racism” is not one that many people are familiar with, and it is difficult to infer its meaning only thinking about the term itself. “Environment” and “racism” are relatively simple to define separately, but when they are put together as one term, they develop a complex meaning and encompass a wide range of histories and elements. So what is environmental racism, and how does it affect the different populations of American society? In this paper I will argue that the non-white communities affected by environmental racism have been molded by historical vestiges of institutions created to subjugate them, that environmental racism has severely detrimental effects on non-white communities in particular, and finally that environmental racism often greatly benefits certain groups in society as it simultaneously impairs others.

On April 12, 2015, Freddie Gray, a 25-year-old man, was arrested by the Baltimore Police Department for having an illegal  knife. While being transported in a police van, Gray went in a coma and was taken to a trauma center. Freddie died on April 19, 2015. His death was because of injuries to his spinal cord. On April 21, 2015, an investigation was started to investigate his death. Six Baltimore police officers were suspended with pay.

This problems happen everywhere around the world.”In polk county's mulberry the state installed its first hazardous waste injection well in a mostly black area”.This example is telling us they had a of poison that’s killing the african american.The next example is “But almost ⅓ of the minority population to southern california was located in the areas with the highest cancer risk,whereas 15% of the white population lived in such areas”.This telling us the risks that happen due to toxic air pollutants.For instance,”school,parks and a swimming pool within a mile of the refinery”.It's explaining to us that racism happens everywhere and even if it's not suppose to happen in this places but it does.

The number of white residents living within a mile of treatment and environmental toxic disposal facilities has increased. Environmental justice advocates have discovered the disproportionate placement of hazardous waste facilities in low-income communities of color throughout the United States. California, specifically, is a culturally diverse state with changing demographics and major issues with pollution. Although pollution and waste is a widespread problem, it has been more negatively impactful to communities of color than those of whites. Environmental racism demonstrates several instances of causation and correlation between ethnicity and exposure to pollution.

It is important that achieving environmental justice becomes an aim that is universal. This is because minorities and those with a lower socioeconomic status bear the burden of environmental hazards. Environmental hazards can impact the quality of the air, water, and land. Exposure to these environmental hazards can occur through inhalation, ingestion, and absorption. Thus adverse health outcomes may result. Because minorities and those of a lower socioeconomic status typically bear the burden of environmental hazards, they are at an increased risk of adverse health outcomes. This is especially harmful to vulnerable populations including children and the elderly. This is seen in the environmental justice case, Maynas Carijana vs.

The issue I will be discussing is environmental racism. Environmental racism is the concept of allowing or even forcing dark-skinned minorities to take on the burden of pollution or other environmental issues. An example of this would be a factory located in a poor area dumping chemicals and other pollutants into the water supply of the town. In this example, the factory is allowed to harm the environment and create a hazardous environment for the people who depend on the water supply in which the factory dumps the waste.

Blacks are being discriminated throughout the country by their peers in school and by their teachers and principals. A black fifth grader came home one day and told his parents he was being called a “nigger.” He was the only black child in his class and it started when the class started reading a book which contained the word “nigger.” A fifth grade class reading a book that contains such words can cause them to become racist in the future. Reading a book that has racist material at their age can make them develop a racist attitude towards blacks and other races. This bad attitude towards black children can destroy their self-esteem and prides, making them feel that their life has no value and that they’re less than everybody else. Children learning slang terms like “nigger” and bad representations of black people can change their view towards blacks for the rest of their lives and it can even make them feel hostile towards blacks, an incident of this occurred at the University of Mississippi. Three college students at the University of Mississippi hung a

The main point of the author is as follows there is a question that how social justice and environmental property are same? Both involve long arise with. This is the fact that people acting alone may not obtain them and both depend on individual people achieving along, pooling stock and acting collectively. The reasons provided by author are as the new political economy development insists during a new paper out in the present era which says that social justice and environmental property both don't seem to have two different goals, both should be tackled by completely separate government related departments. Both are closely merged and depend on each other. You can’t have one while not the opposite or you can’t have even one of them until there's collective action, with small teams operating along - regionally, across the country and in the world. If we look at the

“Environmental 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”. In other words, your health should not suffer because of the environment where you live, work, play or learn. The idea of environmental justice began as a movement in the 1970s due to the realization that an excessive number of polluting industries, power plants, and landfill areas were located near low-income or minority communities. The movement was set in place to guarantee fair distribution of environmental burdens among all people regardless of their background.

Ecological racism has for many years been associated with people of the color who suffer from unsatisfactory diets, exposure to pervasive pollutants, and second-rate medical care. In some cases, the children of these classes of citizens are subjected to unhealthy old paints and bad smelling air from diesel fumes. These environmental conditions are highly demoralizing and source of stress to the occupants (Westra 136). The environmental breakdown has underappreciated the lives of the

Environmental Racism is the institutional framework established by white people that was made to influence and destroy Black lives through the segregation of people of color into poor communities pervaded by toxic waste sites. Once environmental racism is recognized as a subgroup of structural racism, the intent of placing people of color into poor, marginalized, and environmentally hazardous communities becomes clear. An example of this is the use and establishment of various toxic waste sites surrounding predominantly black neighborhoods, which lead to various social and physical health issues. More specifically Chicago’s own Altgeld Gardens is a great context to view these paradigms at work, once the various aspects leading up to the creation

Emelle, Alabama holds one of the largest commercial hazardous-waste landfills in America, yet African-Americans compose 90% of the town’s population. In Philadelphia, Mississippi, a Choctaw Native American reservation holds a 466-acre hazardous landfill (Wright 532). These statistics reveal the sensitive boundary between racial and social classes. Specific human factors have driven the need for change in environmental practices, such as growing human population, increased natural resource consumption, and the effluent discharges of manufacturing. These factors have resulted in a significant negative impact on world ecosystems (Dietz, Ostrom, and Stern 1907). What ties social equity and environmental stewardship together is the definition of environmental justice. Environmental justice is defined by the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) as “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.” Fair treatment means that absolutely no individual or group should receive a disproportionate allocation of negative environmental burdens from federal, state, and local policies or operations (Wright 532). The developing dilemma is how the American government must handle this hazardous waste issue, with legislators choosing who will suffer the consequences of toxic waste disposal. Despite increasing expenses, should

Although tradeoff may be made between ‘ecological sustainability’ and fulfilment of basic human needs (Lélé, 1991), this should not be an encouraged practice because human beings will always give preference to their needs over environmental protection no matter how trivial they may be. The ultimate remedy for sustainable development therefore lies with practical good governance and political will locally, nationally and globally.

Theodore Roosevelt had once said, “The nation behaves well if it treats the natural resources as assets which it must turn over to the next generation increased, and not impaired in value”. These words have resonated since and have been an example as to why it is our duty as inhabitants of this planet to provide protection to the ever so fragile environment. But what is Environmental protection exactly? Well it is one of the most important, and expensive problems businesses and society are facing today. Why you may ask? Since the industrial age all the countries around the world have been burning an assortment of fuel to power factories, vehicles, heat homes, and even to cook with and when these fuels are burned they emit carbon dioxide and various other chemicals which over time add up and take a very long time to breakdown. As a result they trap heat from the sun in the earth’s atmosphere raising the global temperature and causing a domino effect on the environment. Likewise companies produce hazardous waste and dump them illegally in waters which kills vast amounts of marine life. Although laws are in place to protect the planet, inventions are slowly being created to provide alternative sources of energy and agencies already exist to protect the environment. However it is our duty as people in a society to act on our own by demanding for our government to show greater concern for the environment by reforming environmental protection laws with stricter guide lines,