Knowra Environmental racism Environmental racism Environmental racism is the disproportionate exposure of racialized communities to pollution and other environmental hazards, alongside unequal access to environmental benefits and protection.
Environmental justice : A movement and framework seeking fair treatment and meaningful participation in environmental decisions for all communities. It frames environmental racism as a systemic injustice and organizes efforts to remedy it.
Warren County PCB landfill protests : 1982 protests in Warren County, North Carolina, against a landfill containing PCB-contaminated soil. The protests helped bring national attention to hazardous-waste siting in Black communities.
Robert Bullard : An American sociologist whose research documented the unequal placement of hazardous facilities in Black communities. His Houston studies helped establish environmental racism as a subject of empirical research.
Environmental inequality : Unequal distribution of environmental harms or benefits across social groups or places. It describes disparities broadly, while environmental racism specifically concerns racialized patterns and structures.
Zoning : Government regulation of land use that determines which activities and structures may occupy particular areas. Zoning can separate polluting industries from affluent areas while placing them beside marginalized neighborhoods.
Flint water crisis : A public-health emergency caused by lead-contaminated drinking water in Flint, Michigan, after a 2014 water-source change. The crisis exposed how government decisions and delayed responses can endanger a predominantly Black city.
Benjamin Chavis : An American civil-rights leader who popularized the term “environmental racism” in the 1980s. His organizing and public language gave the concept a widely used name.
Climate justice : An approach to climate change that addresses unequal responsibility, impacts, participation, and resources. It applies justice concerns to climate causes and consequences that can intensify existing racial inequalities.
Redlining : The discriminatory denial of loans and services to residents of neighborhoods, often based on race. Historic redlining shaped disinvestment and land-use patterns that left some communities more exposed to hazards.
Cancer Alley : An industrial corridor along the Mississippi River in Louisiana, containing numerous petrochemical plants and communities exposed to pollution. Its concentration of facilities and nearby Black communities has become a prominent focus of environmental-justice disputes.
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