Running head: ENVIRONMENTAL RASICM AND ACTION 1

Environmental Racism and Action

Kelly Eckard

Salt Lake Community College

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Environmental Racism and Action

Environmental racism is a term used to describe an environmental injustice that occurs

within the communities of minorities or destitute people. This seems like an easy alternative for

the middle and upper middle class of the United States, the effects are downstream and in the

end, will have an effect on all classes of America, not just low-income nonwhite Americans.

Environmental racism refers to the extremely contact of underprivileged racial groups to

environmental disease elements through the unfair public procedure and industrial practices.

“Activist Benjamin Chavis is credited with coining the phrase “environmental racism” in 1987

during a demonstration against the placing of a toxic-waste landfill in an African American

community in Warren County, North Carolina. The segregation of neighborhoods by race and

ethnicity enables governments and other agencies to practice environmental racism. The

economic and political inequalities that arise from such segregation create impoverished regions

whose residents have lower environmental awareness and little political power” (Ogunsetain,

2017).

Action needs to be taken by everyone and not just the government to stop the impacts of

environmental racism on societies, cultures, and the environment. To assist in the combatting of

environmental racism, the environmental justice movement began. It was started by individuals,

primarily of a minority race who were seeking justice with the inequalities of the environment

and a lack of government protection in their community. Robert Bullard discusses protests in

Warren County, North Carolina, in his writings of Environmental Justice in the Twenty-first

Century, “The movement has come a long way since its humble beginnings in Warren County,

North Carolina, a rural and mostly African American community where a proposed landfill for

disposing of polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) ignited protests and resulted in more than 500
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hundred arrests. […] This prompted a study and revealed that three of the four off-site,

commercial hazardous waste landfills in the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency’s Region 4

[…] happen to be located in predominately African-American communities” (Bullard).

The Civil Rights Movement of 1960 was the initial step made in the vision that is seen to

battle the war on environmental racism against the public health dangers in low-end

communities. When we look deeper into environmental racism we can see a connection to

intersectionality. Intersectionality is a theory in which we see an overlap in genders, cultures,

sexualities, class, race, and oppression by discrimination. This connection is brought to light by

the noticeable race, gender, and class. The majority of environmental racism is seen in low-

income families of nonwhite race and in a more underprivileged community.

“Using an environmental justice paradigm, he uncovers the underlying assumptions that

contribute to and produce unequal protection. […] Clearly, people of color communities have

borne a disproportionate burden and have received differential treatment from government in its

response to health threats such as childhood lead poisoning, toxic waste and contamination,

industrial accidents, hurricanes, floods and related weather-related disasters, and a host of other

man-made disasters” (Bullard).

In 1970 the Environmental Protection Agency was established by the United States

government and President Richard Nixon to protect human and environmental health. The EPA

provides fair treatment in which no group of people should endure negative impacts resulting

from governmental, industrial, and commercial operations or policies. “Whether by conscious

design or institutional neglect, communities of color in urban ghettos, in rural 'poverty pockets,'

or on economically impoverished Native-American reservations face some of the worst

environmental devastation in the nation” (Bullard). Communities have the chance to voice their
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opinion and be involved with the EPA by having “meaningful involvement”. The term

meaningful involvement broken down is when people of the community are able to participate in

decisions made about actions that may impact their environment or health. With the public’s

involvement, they are able to influence the agency’s decision making about the regulations and

laws in their community. The communities concerns are heard and have an impact on the

decision policies. With the help of community action, the decision makers in local areas are able

to seek out and facilitate those potentially affected by the negative impacts of environmental

racism.

The EPA’s priority objectives for 2020 are to “Address pollution and public health

burdens caused by violations of environmental laws in the nation’s most overburdened

communities, strengthen the role of environmental justice in EPA’s compliance and enforcement

work, and enhance work with our regulatory partners in overburdened communities” (epa.gov,

2018). The EPA is following through with their objective and the execution of it, by addressing

pollution and public health problems caused by violations of environmental laws in the nation’s

most communities. The EPA will do so by enforcing rules and laws in the communities most

affected by this social issue and by strengthening the role of environmental justice in EPA’s

compliance and enforcement work.

In addition to the government creating principles of environmental justice, “Delegates to

the First National People of Color Environmental Leadership Summit held on October 24-27,

1991, in Washington DC, drafted and adopted 17 principles of Environmental Justice. Since

then, The Principles have served as a defining document for the growing grassroots movement

for environmental justice” (Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice, 2018).
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Other environmentalists don’t see the government doing as much as they can even with

the EPA in place. The EPA is successful on many levels but there is much room for

improvement and fascinating suggestions that it has not actually succeeded in its main vision of

bringing justice to the environment and to cultures that are being affected negatively by

pollutants. “One reason for this is because we are not conceptualizing the problem correctly. I

build my argument by first emphasizing the centrality of the production of social difference in

creating value. Second, I review how the devaluation of nonwhite bodies has been incorporated

into economic processes and advocate for extending such frameworks to include pollution. And

lastly, I turn to the state. If, in fact, environmental racism is constituent of racial capitalism, then

this suggests that activists and researchers should view the state as a site of contestation, rather

than as an ally or neutral force” (Pulido, 2017).

The natural environment in which we live and grow is where the environment includes all

living and non-living things. Because this includes all beings, this includes the animals the water

that we drink, and the food that we eat, are also being impacted by the environmental racism.

“Placing a plant such that proposed by IT in a small rural community surely minimizes the evil

for the greatest number of people in the state” (Young).

The air we breathe is being impacted by environmental racism. The side-effects of

environmental racism are water contamination in low-income areas and communities. Climate

change affects low-income regions. More issues of lead poisoning are being reported. Landfills,

hazardous waste sites, and other industrial facilities are most often located in communities of

color. Air pollution and higher rates of exposure to its pollutants are affecting nonwhite

communities and impoverished areas. “Environment problems cannot be dealt with separately;

they must be linked to the development process, bringing the environmental concerns in line
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with the imperative of economic growth and development. In this context, the right to

development for the developing countries must be fully recognized” (Sachs).

Environmental racism is seen when the government or companies deliberately aim at

certain communities for unwanted use of their land exposure to hazardous waste on race or

income level. “Environmental racism is caused by several factors, including intentional neglect,

the alleged need for a receptacle for pollutants in urban areas, and a lack of institutional power

and low land values of people of color. It is a well-documented fact that communities of color

and low-income communities are disproportionately impacted by polluting industries (and very

specifically, hazardous waste facilities) and lax regulation of these industries” (Green Action for

Health and Environmental Justice, 2018).

I agree that the government needs to have more of an impacting punch as they combat

this social issue but they need to have stronger laws and policies that enforce the laws. I also

think that is also up to us as a society to take a part in the action as well. If there are things that

you want to be changed as an American you can write your legislature and have your voice

heard. These are topics in which there is no time to stand by being a fly on the wall, there are

children, animals, plants, water and societies and cultures that are relying on changes to be made.

In the meantime, changes can begin to be made by us. We can reduce the carbon footprint; we

can preserve water and ensure that we are not putting hazardous items downstream. There are

things that we can do locally on our part to help the bigger cause.
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Works Cited
Bullard, R. D. (2007). Equity, unnatural man-made disasters, and race: why environmental
justice matters.

Bullard, R. D. (n.d.). Environmental Justice in the Twenty-first Century.

epa.gov. (2018). Retrieved from epa.gov: https://www.epa.gov/environmentaljustice/ej-2020-

priority-areas

Green Action for Health and Environmental Justice. (2018). Retrieved from Green Action for
Health and Environmental Justice: http://greenaction.org/?page_id=420

Ogunsetain, O. (2017). Environmental racism. Environmental racism,

https://libprox1.slcc.edu/login?url=http://search.ebscohost.com/login.aspx?direct=true&d
b=ers&AN=96397315&site=eds-live.

Pulido, L. (2017). Geographies of race and ethnicity II. Geographies of race and ethnicity II.

Sachs, W. (n.d.). Global Ecology and the Shadow of 'Development'.

Young, I. M. (n.d.). Justice and Hazardous Waste. Justice and Hazardous Waste.