Environmental Racism

Environmental racism refers to the geographic relationships between environmental degradation and low – income or minority communities. While there are competing views as to an exact definition, the interplay between environmental issues and social ones are key to its understanding.

There’s much debate as to the exact definition of environmental racism, and the main issue of conflict is intent. Some definitions hold that intentional discrimination against minorities in issues regarding the environment is what constitutes environmental racism, while others state that the presence of unfavorable environmental conditions for minorities, intentional or not, is the crucial issue defined by the term.

A definition highlighting the importance of intent states that "environmental racism is racial discrimination in environmental policy-making and enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the presence of life threatening poisons and pollutants for communities of color, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the environmental movement. (Chavis, 1994, p. xii).".

Those who are critical of this viewpoint suggest that it is restrictive because deliberate racism is just one of a variety of forms of racism. Even if it’s not intentional, some groups, for a number of reasons, are more likely to be present in areas of environmental hazard and pollution than others. Thus, lack of intentionality doesn’t necessarily mean that it’s not environmental racism. The difficulty of proving group intent versus individual intent is one of the reasons why the intentionality requirement found in some definitions is seen as limiting.

Historically, the term is tied to the environmental justice movement that took place in the 70’s and 80’s in the United States. There is much discourse on environmental racism in the U.S., and while many of its cases are documented in great detail, focus on cases from other countries is important to have and should be highlighted as well.