4. Environmental Racism
definition: placement of low-income or minority
communities in proximity of environmentally
hazardous or degraded environments, such as toxic
waste, pollution and urban decay.
“Throughout the history of the United States, there has existed an
inextricable link between the exploitation of the land and the exploitation
of people. The grassroots Environmental Justice movement defines the
environment as “the place where we live, where we work, and where we
play.” It sees the ecosystem which forms the basis for life and well being
as being.
6. Foundations of the United States:
-Genocide
-Settler Colonialism
-Slavery
-White Supremacy
-Capitalism
We cannot understand the present without the context of history.
Institutionalization of white peoples supremacy over all other people and
the planet.
7. Federal Housing Association
Underwriters: “minorities affect property value”
Racial suburbanization
Integrated = Instability
Blockbusting, a “white exodus”
Today: Gentrification
8. Forms of Environmental Injustice
Procedural: Fair
treatment of all
people in regards
to government
regulation, rules,
etc.
11. Flint, MI. & Porter Ranch, CA
Markets are not RACE-NEUTRAL
12. Flint
Population: 100,000
57% Black / African American
37% White
3% Latinx
3% Other
Below the Poverty Line: 42%
Porter Ranch
Population: 30, 571
Below the Poverty Line: 4.4%
14. The Environmental Justice Movement
Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and
meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race,
color, national origin, or income with respect to the
development, implementation, and enforcement of
environmental laws, regulations, and policies
Participatory and Representative Justice
- The RIGHT to participate in the social and
democratic process of planning development and
sustainable community building
15. First Peoples / Indigenous Folx
@ the forefront
"There is nothing moral about tempting a starving man with money."
– Keith Lewis, of the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario, reflecting on his impoverished
community’s 50 years of working in and living near uranium mines & mills, and the health and
environmental catastrophe that has resulted.
16. Reclaiming the Environmental Justice Movement
Open Answer
1. What does the EJ Movement look like on your UC
Campus?
2. Issues, Problems, etc.
3. What is eco-socialism?
17. Prison Ecology Project, HRDC
EJ 2020 Agenda
War on Drugs/Crime/etc.
Exposure to Toxins
Poor Infrastructures
Environmental Change
Prison Overpopulation
Prison Industrial
Complex
