Environmental Racism

Abstract

The concept of environmental racism emerged in the United States in the 1980s to refer to the socially uneven distribution of pollution and environmental resources along racial lines. The term “environmental justice” initially referred to the movement that arose to confront environmental racism, but has since expanded to encompass multiple forms of environmental inequities and problems. Environmental racism now refers to both a mobilizing framework and a field of scholarly research. Three strands of research can be identified under the category of environmental racism: research on questions of equity and the distribution of pollution and hazards; work on the politics and strategies of the environmental justice movement; and writing on the relationship between race and the environment more generally.

‘Generation Z’ and ‘ second generation’: an agenda for learning from cross-cultural negotiations of the climate crisis in the lives of second generation immigrants

“…Critical environmental scholars have identified patterns in the presentation of racialised subjects in climate change research and policy (Anantharaman 2018;Klocker and Head 2013;Pulido 2017). Research addressing the impacts of climate change has been concentrated in communities with significant populations of colour, whether policy-led climate adaptation research in the Global South, or environmental justice-oriented scholar-activism in disadvantaged communities in the Global North (Agyeman 2005;Schill and Austin 1991;Taylor 2014a).…”

“…Research addressing the impacts of climate change has been concentrated in communities with significant populations of colour, whether policy-led climate adaptation research in the Global South, or environmental justice-oriented scholar-activism in disadvantaged communities in the Global North (Agyeman 2005;Schill and Austin 1991;Taylor 2014a). Nonetheless, the knowledge held by such communities and lessons learned from grassroots scholar-activism is frequently treated as too 'local' to have wider applicability, and has failed to penetrate what some critical environmental scholars term [white-led] 'wilderness and wildlife' environmentalism (Pulido 2017;Schill and Austin 1991). Scholars of environmental justice (EJ) in the USA have argued that, although many people engaged in local pro-environmental action are people of colour, it is white environmentalists who tend to receive acclaim for environmental conservation (Purifoy 2018;Taylor 2014b).…”

“…Although now widely referenced and employed around the world, EJ scholar-activism is rooted in struggles of racial inequality in the USA and has advanced through a stated goal of fighting 'environmental racism' through scholarship (Pulido 2017). Owing to its historical roots, EJ has attended primarily to the ways that African American, Latinx/Chicanx and indigenous communities have been affected by and have resisted climate and environmental injustices.…”

“…Owing to its historical roots, EJ has attended primarily to the ways that African American, Latinx/Chicanx and indigenous communities have been affected by and have resisted climate and environmental injustices. Less attention has been given to newer and less politically-established groups of colour (including more recent immigrants), and EJ scholars have cautioned that there is a danger of assuming shared experience of groups that are marginalised by race, ethnicity and immigration status (see Pulido 2017). Nonetheless, EJ scholarship has made visible a 'minority grassroots environmental movement' that 'capitalises on the social and cultural strategies of people of colour and demands in turn that their lifestyles, traditions and routines be respected by polluters and mainstream organisations alike' (Schill and Austin 1991, 79).…”

Social justice in China’s cities: Urban-rural restructuring and justice-oriented planning

“…In the discussion, I draw on frameworks from environmental justice scholarship because the field has productively problematized justice in theory and practice. While the field emerged in relation to explicitly “environmental” issues, as Pulido (2016) details, activists and scholars contributed to a substantive shift from conceiving of environment as “natural” or “wilderness” spaces, to everyday places where citizens live, work, and play. This reframing refocused justice on urban spaces, residential areas, and the environs of everyday life.…”