Environmental racism is, in few words, a concept within the environmental justice movement that sustains the belief that low-income or minority communities are disproportionately exposed to hazardous environments, usually environments that are affected by climate change. This concept involves more than environmental justice, it includes health, race, economics, politics, and more.

There are several factors that contributed and continue to contribute to the existence of environmental racism. They include intentional neglect from surrounding communities and positions of power as well, climate change as a whole, a lack of institutional power, a lack of minorities in positions of power, lack of attention to the subject, and much more. This basically adds up to capitalism. Were it not for the greedy heads of multi-billion dollar corporations that exploit our natural resources, and look out for only themselves, we would not be in this position. There needs to be a way for the ideology and system of government/economy that we have to adapt so it can include minorities and have them benefit from it as much as the 1% does.

A good amount of the communities in the USA affected by environmental racism are indigenous. Environmental racism in the case of indigenous Americans has been regarded as a subtle form of genocide. When speaking of indigenous communities, they are affected almost exclusively by design on federal, state, and local levels, even though any type of discrimination against these communities is illegal and goes against international human rights laws.

African American communities in the USA also suffer from this concept, and the Flint water crisis is a textbook case of environmental racism. If you do not know what the Flint water crisis is, it is basically a crisis that coincided with an outbreak of Legionnaires’ disease (which is a severe form of pneumonia), and spread water with alarming levels of lead in it throughout the city. This originated when, due to financial limitations, the city had to switch from Detroit’s water to the Flint River.

This is a very big problem, and can only be 100% demolished with systematic changes in the form of government as well as social, political and economic aspects of the world. But everyone can help in their own way. To help fight against environmental racism, it is necessary to use any privilege you possess to your advantage. If you have a platform in which you can inform about the topic and recent/ongoing cases of it, go for it! There are so many people who don’t have the chance to fight for what they believe in, and they need help. Just by letting people know what is going on, you are doing more than you believe.

With people in positions of power who refuse to believe in these concepts, even through they are fully backed up with loads of statistics and facts, we as a society will never advance. Nature is suffering, and it’s suffering is contagious. We shouldn’t be picking and choosing who is affected, we should make sure no one or no thing is affected in the first place. 59.5% of Flint’s population is made up of POC (people of color). It is evident why this is environmental racism, and why this is more than enough proof that the concept is more than a concept. It is a problem, and we need a solution.

Sources:

Learning, Lumen. “Sociology.” Lumen, courses.lumenlearning.com/alamo-sociology/chapter/reading-environmental-racism/.

Ihab Mikati, Adam F. Benson, Thomas J. Luben, Jason D. Sacks, Jennifer Richmond-Bryant, “Disparities in Distribution of Particulate Matter Emission Sources by Race and Poverty Status”, American Journal of Public Health 108, no. 4 (April 1, 2018): pp. 480-485.

Koehler, Sezin. “How Environmental Racism Affects Indigenous Communities in the USA.” Wear Your Voice, 27 Sept. 2017, wearyourvoicemag.com/race/environmental-racism-affects-indigenous-communities-usa.