Environmental Racism in the U.S.

After the tutorial discussion where we broke down different types of racism and discussed how structural and institutional racism are built within all aspects of a society, I decided to write a post on environmental racism in the U.S. as an example of how institutional racism works. Bunyan Bryant defines environmental racism as “an extension of racism that refers to those institutional rules, regulations, and policies of government or corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for least desirable land uses, resulting in the disproportionate exposure of toxic and hazardous waste on communities based upon prescribed biological characteristics. Environmental racism is the unequal protection against toxic and hazardous waste exposure and the systematic exclusion of people of color from decisions affecting their communities” (6). There are towns all over the U.S. with high populations of African Americans in the South and Mexican Americans in the West that have ended up being burdened by toxic dumps being placed near their homes, along with pesticide drift for those who live in the farming areas. 

Kettleman City in California is an example of a community intentionally chosen for a new chemical dumping site (despite the fact that one already existed there) because it was 95% Latino and considered as a community that would not push back against this new dumping site. The company Chemical Waste Management was fined heavily for faulty records and violations that included toxic leakage into local water supplies. When local residents found out what was happening and how harmful it was to their community, they formed a community coalition called El Pueblo Para el Aire y Agua Limpio (People for Clean Air and Water) and began protesting the new proposal for the chemical waste dump and filed lawsuits which caused the company to abandon its plans. This whole story, and many others like it, are examples of how racism is embedded so deeply within institutions. It also serves to show that new racism which seeks to be colourblind and claim that everyone is now equal, does not understand how racial formation works and how environmental inequality impacts health, resources and opportunities.

Sources:

American Behavioral Scientist 2000; 43; 581 DAVID N. PELLOW  Environmental Inequality Formation: Toward a Theory of Environmental Injustice

And

http://www.invisible5.org/?page=kettlemancity