Preview

Environmental Injustice Examples

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
646 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Environmental Injustice Examples
Even though racism is and has always been an issue, we don’t often think about all the ways it can affect people of color. One example of this is environmental justice and racism, this is where corporations dump environmentally hazardous or degraded elements, such as toxic waste, pollution and urban decay near low-income or minority communities (Environmental Racism 2012, 1). It’s another unjust way African Americans have been and still continue to be treated. Many families have grown up in danger of being affected by these harmful substances and haven’t had a fair say when it comes to the accumulation of waste proximal to their area. From the early 1920s-1978, more than 80% of Houston's garbage landfills and incinerators have been located

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    Carolyn Finney contends that the African American community has not widely embraced the environmental movement because of a divergence in its cultural perception of nature from that of the European American community. This divergence, Finney argues, is rooted in a long history of institutionalized racism which portrayed Black people as primitive and closer to animals. Such was evident in the eugenics movement and other historic avenues of racism. This fact has resulted in a negative perception of what some consider “natural” which exists on a cultural and personal level among African Americans. These ideas are perpetuated by a Caucasian dominated outdoor culture which existence is evidenced by a lack of equal black representation and participation in outdoor industrial advertisement and outdoor activities. They are also reinforced by depictions of African Americans as or invoking animals. Finney cited a recent cover image of Lebron James which mimicked a racially charged 20th century depiction of King Kong as well as a political cartoon that depicted President Obama as a monkey. Ultimately in the presence of so much underlying negativity around African Americans in nature many may be unwilling to embrace Cronon’s idea that humanity should be classified as inseparable from the natural…

    • 594 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 346 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    savage inequalities

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages

    East St. Louis is a city in ruins with no doctors or hospitals that care for pregnant women, no garbage removal service and no escape from poverty. The buildings on the main street are abandoned and chemical plants pour pollution into the air. Because unemployment is so high, the city can't make money from tax revenues and has to close down city hall and fire service workers who do things like pump out the flooded sewers. Almost everyone here is black and desperately poor. The city is located below some bluffs where white, wealthier residents live. The sewage and factory runoff from these residents' homes pours into East St. Louis but the more wealthy citizens do not contribute any funds to cleaning up (Chapter 1). As I the past the wealthy are taking advantage of the situation and running the system to their benefit.…

    • 1225 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Environmental Justice

    • 2381 Words
    • 10 Pages

    1. You should have a basic understanding of the terms ‘valid’ and ‘sound’ and be able to identify valid and sound arguments.…

    • 2381 Words
    • 10 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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:…

    • 326 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    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.…

    • 380 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Oppression is a significant issue that has been growing in discourse as of late. As time progresses, the way people are treated and the opinions they hold change. When there is a group of people who have their rights changed, it will cause other groups to believe they are being cheated out of chances the privileges those people are allowed access to. While this may be accurate in rare cases, it is also difficult to argue strongly on the side of the people who have been, and still are considered to be in positions of power. Discrimination is an entirely different realm than systematic oppression, and people who are in these positions of power would simply not be able to experience these things. Examples that are becoming widely known to the…

    • 1539 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Good Essays

    Race is a quality that everyone has. To be seen as Caucasian, African American, Asian, and etc; has everything to do with race and sometimes racism. Stephen Kumalo and his son Absalom set off on a journey through South Africa facing people driven by racial injustice. Under desperate circumstances, Kumalo showed that you cannot let the color of your skin and racism stop you from conquering your goals. Stephen Kumalo said in the “I have nothing against the white Men; I believe that all races are equal”. This type of race issues is mirrored in two recent events. The Washington Post details an act of racism and racial injustice in an article titled “Donald Trump’s false comments connecting Mexican immigrants and crime”. This article details President Candidate, Donald Trump, Speaking bad about Mexicans. Another example of racial injustice and racism, Similar to the race issues in Kumalo’s journey is a story from New York Times of a young black male in Baton Rouge who was shot because of his race.…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    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…

    • 890 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Many people are being affected, but whom exactly? Blacks & Hispanic populations, poor people are mostly mistreated in society, especially with environmental racism. Health and environmental risks cast upon blacks, and Hispanics in the communities in which they live.it is stated…

    • 311 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    According to box 4, “In pensacola a superfund site abuts a play area where most of the children are blacks.” This shows that, it shouldn’t be only black people going to this playground next to this superfund site. Also, around the time of March 31, 2014, “rich countries can’t afford to deal with poor countries.” This shows that, rich countries argue $100 billion a year is not realistic on a demand. Last but not least, according to box 2, page 1, paragraph 3. there were “garbage transfer stations nobody wanted near the predominately black harlem neighborhood.” This shows that, things like garbage depts and toxic waste sites tend to be located in black and hispanic areas like…

    • 471 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Whilst a deep theoretical analysis of race, gender, class, sexuality and ability is needed to understand the roots and origins of societal issues today, equally important is taking that theory out of the classroom and into action based praxis. As an undergraduate student at Columbia in the fall of 2013, I co-founded the campaign for Columbia to divest from fossil fuels and engaged with youth across the country to build a movement for climate justice. Having no experience in community organizing or campaigns prior to college, I had a steep learning curve when I organized a summer conference with trainings for hundreds of students focusing on how to build an anti-oppressive and inclusive climate justice movement. I have kept the core values of…

    • 1229 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Living in a neighborhood of color wherein there is no preference for people with low income, represents a socio-historic process where rising housing costs, public policy, persistent segregation, and racial animus facilitates the influx of violence between black and white menace as a results of residential displacement which is otherwise refer to as gentrification. This has however deprived many citizens of the United States, a good quality of life as it boils down to an argumentative issue between the rich and the poor balance of standard of living. American’s extinction is not necessarily the amount or kind of violence that characterizes our history,” Richard Slotkin writes, “but the…

    • 1820 Words
    • 8 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Environmental Racism

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Three examples of racial hegemony include the geographic, political, and cultural injustices subjected to minorities and low income individuals and communities. For example, the siting of toxic waste facilities in low income communities demonstrates geographic hegemony of racial injustice. These communities are frequently targets of environmental racism because they are often times smaller, less accessible and poorer than those in more affluent or white neighborhoods. Because of this, large corporations and [white] politicians find it easy to place facilities in these neighborhoods with little to no resistance. This also demonstrates that political hegemony also influence environmental racism. Most of the top councilmen and politician in government are white and/or Anglo. Because of this, most of the policies and regulations imposed on communities cater to their objective. This is demonstrated in the Granado struggle for grazing. They fought the New Mexico Department of Game and Fish (NMDGF) who cater to a singular public - the rich and wealthy who are interested in large game/elk hunting and prohibiting grazing. It illustrates cultural hegemony because it ignores the social and cultural differences between Anglos and Hispanos and dismisses the existence of inequality and hinders the development of the Granado’s economic and cultural development.…

    • 324 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Better Essays

    Environmental Crimes

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages

    Environmental crime is a serious and growing concern at national as well as international level, and one which takes many different forms. Environmental crime in broad terms means an act which is committed with the intention of damaging or causing damage to the ecological and biological systems to ensure business or personal benefit. The types of acts commonly recognised as environmental crime are: pollution or other contamination of air, land and water; illegal discharge, dumping and transport of, or trade in, hazardous and other regulated waste; illegal trade in ozone-depleting substances; illegal, unreported and unregulated fishing; illegal trade in (protected) flora and fauna and harms to biodiversity; and illegal logging and timber trade.…

    • 1510 Words
    • 7 Pages
    Better Essays