Environmental Racism
- Voicing Gen Z
- Aug 17, 2021
- 4 min read
Project Patriarchy x Voicing Gen Z
This article is a collaboration with Voicing Gen Z. Voicing Gen Z is a youth-led organization that strives to be a platform wherein Generation Z's voices are amplified and heard. With everything going on among ourselves and the society, [they] found it wise to become an organization where others can be informed and educated regarding current affairs.
Article Written by: Allison D
What is Environmental Racism?
Environmental Racism is when communities that are populated by a non-white majority are disproportionately subjected to the intrusive building of undesired facilities like toxic waste plants, landfills, mines, and others. These facilities cause health risks to the people who live around them, whether that be from airborne chemicals or particles, polluted water or accidents that happen in these facilities.
Benjamin Charles first coined the phrase Environmental Racism in 1982, during a human rights campaign that was about building these kinds of undesired businesses in black neighborhoods. Environmental Racism has been a form of systemic racism for a very long time. Black communities were often made into mining towns in the south in the 1900s. The dust from the mines polluted the air in these communities, making respiratory diseases more prevalent in black neighborhoods compared to white neighborhoods.
As the more explicit forms of racism have been outlawed, systemic racism is still an ongoing problem, often harder to get policymakers to fix since these racist practices are ingrained within the societal system. Environmental Racism falls within this category. A study done in 2007 by Dr Robert Bullard found that black children are 5 times more likely to contract lead poisoning from contaminated water than white children are, as a result of environmental racism. In 2018, the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) did a study that discovered people of color are at a 28% higher threat of contracting diseases and other health complications from their surrounding facilities as a result of Environmental Racism.
What are the reasons for it?
Environmental racism happens in individual towns and cities, so it is difficult to get the federal government involved with creating policies to stop this from happening, because opposition can argue that the federal government is overstepping its boundaries. Therefore, it is usually up to the local government to come up with solutions for Environmental Racism. The more affluent members of towns and cities tend to have more control over local governments, therefore they have the resources to get the local government to refuse to let companies build unwanted facilities near their properties. Poorer, working class communities don’t have these kinds of connections. They don’t have the resources to put up a strong enough fight against companies and their towns to stop them from building dangerous facilities near their homes.
Redlining is also at fault here. In the 1960s, cities were sectioned off based on how desirable they were for investment. Colored and poorer neighborhoods were colored in red on maps to signify to potential investors that they should avoid these parts of the city. Therefore, black neighborhoods were unable to develop like white neighborhoods were able to. Fast forward to today, the land in poorer neighborhoods is cheaper than the land in white neighborhoods. Companies want to buy the cheapest land, and that cheapest land almost always falls within poorer communities.
Where is this happening?
Environmental Racism can be found all over the United States. For example, the people of Warren County in North Carolina experience Environmental Racism because of the black communities being largely disproportionately affected by trash dumping. 82% of trash produced by the county is dumped in landfills in black communities, however the population of these black communities only accounts for 28% of Warren County’s total population. In Flint Michigan, 100,000 people were subjected to lead poisoning because of the city never installing corrosion inhibitors in the water pipes. This water crisis affected mostly the black communities, since their water pipes were the oldest. These are only two examples, however similar events like this are experienced in every corner of the United States.
This is not just an American problem. Environmental Racism happens everywhere in the world. Some examples of this include ER against the Romani people in Europe, their communities are often used to house hazardous facilities like toxic waste dump sites. The Aamjiwhaang people of Canada have to live with 40% of all of Canada’s chemical facilities in and around their reservation. This shows that if someone has the money to stop the building of these spaces, they would rather dump them all on a minority of people so they are unable to do anything about it, keeping these spaces out of the nice rich neighborhoods.
What can be done about it?
The first big hurdle of solving this problem is getting more people to know about it. Local governments are able to get away with this because people with the desire and the resources to stop it aren’t aware of what is going on. Media pressure campaigns and activism campaigns are two things that would help bring attention to the burden faced by minority communities. With more attention, research institutions would be more interested in finding out what exactly is going on. Data will show how these poorer neighborhoods are at such risk for health problems because of these undesired facilities. With concrete numbers, people would have to pay attention to the problem at hand. Eventually, policy makers will catch on, and hopefully something will be done about it. However, right now, what people can do is create more awareness for environmental racism and get more people to understand the gravity of the situation. Organizations like Indegiones Environmental Network, Union of Concerned Scientists, and Communities For Better Environment are all working towards ending Environmental Racism.
Environmental Racism is systemic. It is able to teeter between legal and illegal, but because of this, millions of people around the world must suffer. In order to make society more just, more fair, more equitable. Environmental Racism must be put to a stop.
You can learn more about Voicing Gen Z through their instagram and voicinggenz.carrd.co and check out our article "Cuba's Economic Crisis: A Historical Context" written and edited by Project Patriarchy's Aarush Santoshi and Jazmine Noori on their website!
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