As a prerequisite for our Environmental Justice class, our group was responsible for putting together a Word Cloud presentation based on the readings we have covered in class. I was assigned the Laura Pulido essay, “Geographies of Race and Ethnicity 1: White Supremacy VS. White Privilege in Environmental Racism Research”. Guided by the Critical Thinking Method, I was able to clearly understand the reading. The critical thinking method was a helpful source to me not only because it helped me understand clearly, but because it helped me to identified Pulido’s concerns. I was able to identified Pulido’s target, also I was able to identify the why behind of her concerns, as well as what mattered most to Pulido and I. What matter most to me as a…
The most current example of the environmental racism was the water crisis in Flint. In April of 2014, residents in Flint were exposed to lead-contaminated tape water after Flint switched the water source from Detroit water to Flint River. Most of those residents were black and poor. Michigan’s state government did not immediately response to the issue. White supremacy and capitalism played important roles in this late response. Poor black community had always been placed on the bottom of the hierarchy where the wealthy whites were on the top. They would not have access to resources which were available to the wealthy whites. The wealth whites disaccumulated resources from the poor minorities in order to overaccumulate their…
It is noticed that areas where minorities live usually have environmental issues. the only reason why the issue of the environment and race took place because of the grassroots environmental justice Activist. In the environment is not the only place…
Reverend Benjamin Chaves, the Executive Director of the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ during the Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States report in 1987 and a well recognized environmental justice (EJ) advocate, refers to “environmental racism” as racial discrimination in:…
In the end, the destructive after effects of environmental racism is not exclusive to any single country around the world, but it is a global pandemic. "Racism and globalisation come together in the environment, with the phenomenon referred to as 'global environmental racism' - a manifestation of a policy which has found domestic expression in countries like the United States, but which also has a global dimension." Environmental racism is an example to a double standard set by society, where what is acceptable in one community or population is not acceptable whatsoever in other communities. One example would be the environmentally devastating method of extracting natural resources by corporations in developing countries. If such methods were…
The environment people live in impacts them every day. Some people have to go to jail over this issue. Environmental Racism is something that all people are not treated fairly with every day.…
I have had many classes throughout high school on racism and oppression. I had no idea what environmental racism was. It made sense when explained. It was when low-income and minority communities were forced to live in degraded environments. These households would be exposed to toxic waste, pollution, and urban decay. The statistic was that in L.A. county, people were divided by race from ages 0 to 17. 18.4% of Blacks contracted asthma, with Whites at 8.1%, Latinos at 6.4%, and Asian/Pacific Islanders were 6.7%. After everything we have learned in this class, these numbers did not surprise me. It is a harsh reality that Black communities are exposed to poor environments. There was a documentary in class that showed how neighborhood drilling was the main cause of health issues. People were starting to protest against this, which shows forms of resistance. In response to what happened in Aliso Canyon, U.S. cabinet members and celebrities showed up to speak out on this matter. However, the predominantly Black community of Eight Mile, Alabama had a similar crisis: a 500-gallon spill of mercapton that leaked into the soil and groundwater. Unlike Aliso Canyon, Eight Mile did not receive any support from celebrities or U.S. cabinet members. I find this shocking because it suggests that race played a major role in the outcomes of these two…
‘’Hazardous waste landfills were disproportion located in minority and low-income communities’’. This shows that waste sites that were out of proportion was only placed in poor communities with low-income. ‘’Asthma prevalence in the u.s is significantly higher in minority and low-income populations than in the general population’’. That mean that in low-income and poor communities had asthma more than other communities. ‘’Heat waves and drought are increasingly in rhythm in every major continent including our own’’. We are being affected by even more things other than the racism that goes around.…
Environmental racism is the social injustice represented by the disproportionately large number of health and environmental risks cast upon peoples of color in the communities in which they live. On a national scale, nothing illustrates Canada's startling environmental inequities more clearly than the lack of access to clean drinking water in First Nations Communities. First Nations homes are 90 times more likely to be without safe drinking water than other Canadian homes. This lack of access to clean water not only highlights a dangerous health risk to First Nations communities, it is also a denial of First Nations’ access to cultural and social practices involving water; in effect, this neglect by the government of British Columbia is a…
Racism (or Racist): An attitude, action, or practice of an individual or institution, backed by societal power, that undermines human and legal rights or economic opportunities of people because of specific physical characteristics, such as skin color. (Derman-Spark, 2010).…
Everyone lives in n a neighborhood, but does everyone know what conditions that they are living in? Some people don’t acknowledge the fact that environmental racism is actually happening everywhere, where minutes. Environmental Racism is the placement of low-income or minority communities in the proximity of environmentally hazardous or degraded environments such as toxic waste, pollution an urban decay. Environmental racism is detrimental to health, effects the poor, and has toxic exposure.…
of this country – especially in regards to affairs that are hazardous to both the health and environment of the people when the leadership of the country changes. There is this fear of how the country will function based on the President’s party lineage and that is a testament to how problematic and inconsistent the ideals of this country are when it comes to political topics, including environmental policy and climate change. Environmental racism and injustice, as a subset to the problems environmental policy brings, suddenly becomes acceptable and a sacrifice the leaders of this country have to accept in society because action will not be taken to reverse such issues or problems. As Senator Boxer questions how leaders, who are given the responsibility…
Separate residential or districts have limits for white and Negro residents. U.S minorities have been placed in separate areas for a long time as noted in the article “Environmental Justice”. The poorest people in the world, who have had virtually nothing to do with causing “Global Warming”, will be high on the list of victims as climatic disruptions intensify. Warren County was one of the poorest counties in the state, and had the highest percentage of black residents. The researchers found strong links between race or ethnicity and exposure to toxic air pollutants, and everyone was at risk of elevated cancer risk due to toxic air.…
The nature people are surrounded by impacts their daily lives. Some people think that Environmental Racism is harsh, horrible, and terrible. But others think that the effect of it for them is worth it, great, marvelous, and magnificent. Environmental Racism is something that affects blacks, minorities, and low income people around the world everyday.…
Pollock explains “environmental inequity may be directly measured by the degree of difference in pollution exposure between social groups.” There are many recent examples of environmental injustice in our country. Pinderhughes explains a few, such as how in the Navajo Nation, children who are raised in uranium mining areas are developing cancer at 15 times faster than the national average; In Memphis, Tennessee, there are higher rates of cancer, chronic respiratory illness, and neurological disorders in non-whites; and in Lake Charles, Louisiana, people of color are experiencing eye irritation, nosebleeds, nausea, and cramps due to contaminated water and fumes blown in by wind from chemical plants. Many of these toxic facilities are placed in minority communities, possibly due to a number of different reasons. Pinderhughes explains that, in white communities, penalties for the development of hazardous waste sites are 500% higher than communities that are mostly comprised of minorities. Also, the government tends to take a longer time to address hazards which occur in minority communities, and accept solutions that are less stringent than would be in white communities – for example, choosing to contain hazardous areas as opposed to pursuing treatment, or permanently destroying the waste and toxins located there. The disproportionate number of hazardous waste sites in minority communities…