Hunters Point: Community Activism

In history, there have been many social changes that have occurred like the industrial revolution, the abolition of slavery and the Civil Right Movement. The less powerful not having enough voices to overcome the obstacles being erected by the powerful and many more examples. These voices play a major role when it comes to making big political and social changes. In “Return to Hayneville,” Gregory Orr recounts his experience and involvement in the Civil Rights Movement of the 1960s. He argues that vocal campaigns and movements in public discourse and deep connections within people, help bring about change in today’s society. Whereas, In Vivian Yee, Alan Blinder and Jonah Engel Bromwich, “Parkland Students Start a Social Movement” they bring

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.

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.”

When you think about the pinnacle city, the turning point in the Industrial Revolution, Flint, Michigan comes to mind. It was a city that perfectly encapsulated the American Dream and set the standard for the working class in America. Flint, Michigan was home to General Motors and at one point they were the driving force of the economy. However, that success was fleeting due to globalization and with many competing companies outsourcing, GM had to make many tough decisions that ultimately led to its downsize. When GM left Flint, the city was devastated and it’s exit contributed to the poverty we see now. The post-industrial era not only left the city in despair, but also left many things in questions, such as the large amounts of lead used during that era that has thus left the city more vulnerable. The current crisis in Flint is able to portray the damages of this ‘industrial legacy’ that has now affected their water. The Flint water crisis could have been avoided had they properly assessed the situation and went in with the proper tools. Just how they were able to assess and adjust laws to save people during the industrial revolution, Flint needs to implement the same changes. This case is able to illustrate the ways in which race and socioeconomic status intersect with one 's insurance to uphold human rights and environmental health.

In her speech “Political Activism and Protest from the 1960s through the Age of Obama,” Angela Davis argues that Black history involves a constant struggle for freedom. This struggle is meant to expand the liberties of not only Black people, but of all marginalized people, and it has occurred throughout history in all parts of the world. As a result, Davis asserts that Black history and activism are universally relatable. She continues to discuss activism in her speech, at one point declaring, “we have to learn how to imagine the future in terms that are not restricted to our own lifetimes” (Davis 117). Her declaration means that social change does not come about if people passively accept the world’s current state. Instead, social change occurs when people “imagine the future” (117) that they wish to live in and work at shaping all aspects of society so that it will progress towards the future they envisioned.

Here the authors address an important solution; allow residents to hire their own experts from the community who are well versed in delivering the proponents message to the residents in a manner that does not exclude anyone from the process. The landfill began operating in 2006, as the proponents deemed there was not any substantive opposition to the project through official Environmental Impact Assessment (Deacon & Baxter, 2013). Deacon and Baxter in this case set out to understand the role and relation between power and participation as it relates to procedural environmental justice in order to challenge understanding of environmental justice and cease production and reproduction of environmental injustice. The residents protested as they felt they were being sacrificed for economic growth, “the landfill has become a symbol of the slow decline of the community of Lincolnville” (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia, 2006). They call this environmental racism, which is the racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, targeting minority communities for the siting of polluting industries or the exclusion of people of color from public and private boards, commissions and regulatory bodies (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia,

In both “ Harrison Bergeron” and “Freedom on the Menu The Greensboro Sit-ins,” Weatherford shows us how standing up for the things you believe in can impact change. After studying both stories, readers might conclude that ultimately it is up to you, you could either try and push for a change and nothing happens or there is a change but if you do nothing then there is no change. Though we all feel passionate about matters of injustice, we don’t have to stand there and take their injustice we have to stand up for yourself and stand up for what

Uprisings against police crimes, protests on Israeli occupation, lobbying for gay rights, striking for a higher minimum wage, etc. are all fought with the same fist and same power: that of the people. Just in recent months, black activists in Chicago have traveled with student groups to Palestine in opposition of apartheid, and Palestinians marched beside the black community during the Black Lives Matter movement. Political prisoner Angela Davis lead the community hand-in-hand with Rasmea Odeh, a contemporary victim of political repression. The same can be said about so many other organizations and communities here in Chicago. The struggles of so many across the globe are unified here in Chicago by the thread of tyranny and injustice. This unifying thread only serves to symbolize how struggles belong to no single body or group of people, but are obstacles that must be overcome by the global

Historically, “ideas of Black inferiority and White superiority have been embedded in multiple aspects of American culture, and many images and ideas in contemporary popular culture continue to devalue, marginalize, and subordinate non-White racial populations”. Racism has influenced decades of land use, housing patterns, and infrastructure development. With the creation of housing subdivisions, the white and wealthy moved to modern communities, while the non-white and poor were left to live in areas that were rundown. Today, we see that in some cases, zoning laws have fueled environmental, as well as residential, racism. In certain communities around the nation, “expulsive” zoning has pushed out residents, and allowed industries to move into communities, and pollute the land, air, and water. These zoning laws define land for residential, commercial, or industrial uses, and impose narrower land-use restrictions. In this case certain individuals are forced to leave their community, and give any property they have up to these “dirty” industries. Without more stringent enforcement mechanisms and penalties in place, this nation will continue to see this type of discrimination and environmental racism.

Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Those violations, she said, have taken two forms: long-term disregard for indigenous land rights and a "bureaucratic disregard for consultation with indigenous people."

Why should all residents in San Francisco switch to CleanPowerSF? But hold on, wait: you must be wondering what it is. In the thriving city of San Francisco, there is a Community Choice Aggregation (CCA) program called CleanPowerSF administered by the San Francisco Public Utilities Commission (SFPUC). The broad goal of this program is to provide cleaner and cheaper energy opposed to current plans by investor-owned utilities (IOU) like Pacific Gas and Electric Company (PG&E).

In the “NAACP Press Release” on November 16, 2012, members of the NAACP and its supporters express the eminent danger facing families surround coal-fired power plants. Many health issues have arisen in these areas such as asthma, bronchitis, heart conditions and birth defects according to the NAACP. NAACP President and CEO stated that “children are getting sick, grandparents are dying early, and mothers and fathers are missing work.”

After screening a brief film documentary, Misty Luminais, PhD, and Rhonda Williams, PhD, will place the stories of this group of women into a larger cultural and historical context of Ohio. Luminais is a senior research associate and coordinator of the Voicing and Action Project. Williams is a professor of history and the founder of the university’s postdoctoral fellowship in African American. The discussion begins 4 p.m. Nov. 22, 2016, at the Thwing Center, 10900 Euclid Ave. For more information,

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.

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