Environmental Racism

 

Introduction

            Environmental racism has been described as lack of justice in the environment regarding practice and policy making within racialized context (Holifield, 2018).  The problem relating to racial profiling in the United States is not only related to police profiling and the act of violence but also issues to do with the environment.  The race plays a significant role in determining environmental policies involving the land use, regulations, and zoning. Therefore, the Latin American, African American, indigenous and also individuals from the low-income communities are likely to live in areas which are highly polluted than those from the other races.

            The communities of color face a disproportionate burden for environmental contamination due to the pollution that occurs either in their neighborhood or around there neighborhood. Environmental pollution affects each and every human being, and therefore, there is a need for environmental justice or all.

Concept

            Benjamin Chavis introduced the concept in 1982.  During this time, he was among the management of a church named United Church of Christ (Zimring, 2017).  Chavis introduced the term in response to poor disposal of waste which carries high health risk in a particular town in Warren County (Holifield, 2018).  His report together with the one from the US general accounting office resulted in the public attention which found a close association between the poor minority and the people of color with location/sites of hazardous waste.

            The term environmental racism has been defined to include discrimination of individual race in the policy-making and in implementations of laws and regulations which in some way target the individuals from communities of color. Lack of good political representation mainly in the leadership of ecological movements is also thought to facilitate the situation.

             There are mainly existence of patterns that are key in determining presence of environmental injustice.  This are hazardous waste exposure, the accessibility of water, the vulnerability of the community to flooding and the discriminatory waste management processes (Collins, Grineski & Chakraborty, 2018).  Social scientist has viewed the sitting of the hazardous waste in the minority communities as intentional racism while to others it is structural and institutional.

 Individuals from the communities of color find themselves in environmental racism due to factors such as the presence of cheap land resulting from the lack of that capability to resist the corporation.  The other is the low political representation which thus makes them have little power thus allowing businesses to operate with little resistance to their operations (Holifield, 2018).  People from the color communities are also paid the minimum wages which makes them unable to move out of the polluted environment to better areas with little or no pollution.

Environmental racism has drawn public attention, and it is therefore clear that individuals of all races are affected by ecological changes.  The dumping of hazardous waste to the neighborhood of individuals of color makes them more exposed to various dangers to their health (Checker, 2016).  Some of the conditions that the people living in the highly polluted areas are an asthma attack, lung diseases and also the presence of cancers especially lung cancer.

Major environmental decisions have to involve the people of all races because the class is linked with race.  The race also touches almost all the institutions including the employment, housing, land use decisions, and even facility sitting.  The decisions cannot be made by only those individuals who are in power yet the distribution of power itself is not equal.

The people from the communities of color need to be empowered such that they are able to organize themselves and get involved in the decision making processes.  It is essential that justice is integrated into almost all the areas because it involves the places people work, live, plays, attend school and also both the physical and cultural environment.  Access to water free from contamination is also part of environmental justice, and it is an essential basic need of human (Checker, 2016).  Individuals from communities of color know the challenges that they face in accessing the clean water, and therefore, approaches to address the issue requires their involvement in decision making because it is an important part of their daily living.

The issue of flooding is also key while addressing environmental racism.  Numerous changes have occurred in the natural environment due to the human activities which disrupt the normal flow of water.  With the rise in population in the communities of color and also the general environmental issues involving dump sites in the neighborhood, there is a higher risk of flooding (Checker, 2016).  To address the issues, there is a need to make important decisions also involve people from the communities in decision and policy-making which can require better methods to resolve the problem such as developing better drainage systems.

Conclusion

            Environmental racism is an issue that has really affected the individuals from the communities of color and also those from low social, economic class.  This is facilitated by the issue of poor representation in politics and little control over the operations of the business. The issues of environmental racism involve exposures to hazardous waste, access to clean water, vulnerability to flooding and management of waste.  There is need therefore to come up with better ways to address the issue facing these communities which involves empowering and involving them in the development of policies.

 

 

References

Collins, T. W., Grineski, S. E., & Chakraborty, J. (2018). Environmental injustice and flood risk: a conceptual model and case comparison of metropolitan Miami and Houston, USA. Regional environmental change, 18(2), 311-323.

Checker, M. (2016). chapter 5 environmental racism and community health. A Companion to the Anthropology of Environmental Health, 101.

Holifield, R. (2018). Environmental Racism. The Blackwell Encyclopedia of Sociology, 1-4.

Zimring, C. A. (2017). Clean and white: A history of environmental racism in the United States. NYU Press.