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What is Environmental Racism?
What is Environmental Racism?
"Environmental racism refers to the institutional rules, regulations, policies or government and/or corporate decisions that deliberately target certain communities for locally undesirable land uses and lax enforcement of zoning and environmental laws, resulting in communities being disproportionately exposed to toxic and hazardous waste based upon race.", so says Green Action, at greenaction.org.
Essentially, this means that rules target communities of color or poor communities, and don't pay attention to the environmental needs of the community, disregarding toxic waste or other environmental problems. It is yet another form of racism, embedded deeply into even environmental issues. In short, environmental racism is essentially the concept that people of color are disproportionately affected by the climate crisis' impacts -- as well as it's causes.
As you will soon discover, these issues are more closely knit together than one might think.
Protests!
Protests!
How are the environmental protests and the current racial justice protests connected, you ask?
Good question. Grist remarks, "The Minnesota legislature has spent the last five years preparing for the kind of protests that have rocked the city over the past week in the wake of the police killing of George Floyd — by attempting to criminalize them.". The government had been arresting both environmental and social justice activists present at protests. Grist elaborates, "While there is no comprehensive count of the number of people arrested and prosecuted under these new laws, activists protesting oil and gas activity have been charged with felonies in Houston and Louisiana."
These governments have been persecuting both groups of activists, setting up laws, bills, and curfews to prevent these protests. Some even claim that the government, as quoted above, has been " . . . preparing for the kind of protests that have rocked the city . . .".
What do you think? Could the government have utilized, even weaponized, these former protests in anticipation of further outrage of their citizens?
Looking For More?
Looking For More?
While we are sure to have more content coming quite soon, here are some interesting sources about these topics to keep you at bay . . . (Click the button at the bottom to check out these powerful articles and essays!)
Medium Article:
2. New York Times Article:
3. Washington University of St.Louis Article:
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