Environmental Racism 101

Websites/Examples of Environmental Racism

"What exactly is environmental racism?

The phrase environmental racism was coined by civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin F. Chavis Jr. He defined it as the intentional siting of polluting and waste facilities in communities primarily populated by African Americans, Latines, Indigenous People, Asian Americans and Pacific Islanders, migrant farmworkers, and low-income workers."

Excerpt taken from: NRDC (May 24, 2023)

Flint Water Crisis: Everything You Need to KnowAfter officials repeatedly dismissed claims that Flint’s water was making people sick, residents took action. Here’s how the lead contamination crisis unfolded—and what we can learn from it.

Advocates Are Sparking a Revolution in Louisiana's “Cancer Alley”Residents of St. James Parish are fighting to boot harmful petrochemical plants from this majority-Black community—and hoping to usher in more sustainable industries like solar....

A Fracking Boom Ransacks the Four CornersNative American activists in northwest New Mexico are putting up a firm resistance as the U.S. Bureau of Land Management hands over their homeland to allies in the oil and gas industry....

Exide Technologies: A Cycle of Environmental InjusticeA historical timeline of the battery recycler's violations, failed regulatory structure, and the struggle for community cleanup.

The Hard Truth: Environmental Injustice is Racist

Excerpt from: "Advocating for Southern California Communities of Color Impacted by Environmental Injustice"

"East and Southeast Los Angeles communities consistently get the highest score in a competition no one wants to win—the communities most impacted by myriad environmental and social harms including high levels of pollution, which results in serious health impacts on Latinx, Black, and similarly historically oppressed peoples. Among the many sources of pollution in Los Angeles, the now-shuttered Exide battery processing facility has single-handedly inflicted significant harm by broadcasting high levels of lead to its neighbors.

Throughout its 30-year operation, Exide spewed more than seven million pounds of lead over the households of 100,000 residents and produced the greatest risk of cancer among all pollution-emitting facilities in the South Coast Air Basin. Even seven long years after the facility’s permanent closure in 2015, more than 6,000 properties still require cleanup by the Department of Toxic Substances Control (DTSC), and the extent of the cleanup of the former facility is still unknown."

Source: Equal Justice Works (April 22, 2022)

Lesson Plans/Videos for Educators on Environmental Racism

Reporting on Environmental RacismIn this upper-grades activity, students use basic news reporting skills to explore the impact of environmental racism.

Amanpour and Company | Robert Bullard: How Environmental Racism Shapes the US | Season 2020 | PBSWalter Isaacson interviews Robert Bullard, the father of environmental justice.

Environmental Justice in Dallas | PBS LearningMediaFollow a Dallas community's fight to receive federal Superfund status to clean up the damage from a high-polluting lead smelter in this video segment adapted from Earthkeeping: "Toxic Racism." Hear from a reporter from the National Law Journal who explains some of the health effects of lead exposure and how after a cursory cleanup of a lead smelter site in West Dallas, the community was ignored, despite warnings from the Centers for Disease Control about elevated blood lead levels. Meet Luis Sepulveda, a community member who organized the West Dallas Coalition for Environmental Justice, which eventually succeeded in having the site win Superfund status.

Teach Climate Justice Campaign - Zinn Education ProjectTeaching climate justice has never been more urgent. We offer free downloadable classroom lessons, book and film recommendations, workshops for educators, and a sample school board climate justice resolution.

“Power is not brute force and money. Power is in your spirit. Power is in your soul. It is what your ancestors, your own people gave you power is in the earth. It is in your relationship to the earth.”

-Winona LaDuke