...Environmental Inequality in the United States Introduction Minority and poor populations have been experiencing an unequal amount of exposure to various environmental hazards. The goal of this paper is investigate the situation at hand and provide an explanation to whether this treatment is ethical. Thus, in this paper, I will not only attempt to analyze reasons why these populations experience more pollution than other populations and the types of pollution that they experience, but I will also explore the solutions provided by other researchers on how to solve environmental inequalities. Previous research has been carried out to detect why most, if not all, of the polluting industries, such as power plants and waste facilities, tend to be located in minority and poor neighborhoods (Carter; Morello-Frosch; Pellow and Park; Bullard and Wright). Normally, people that live in low income neighborhoods will experience a disproportionately high amount of pollution compared to those living in high income neighborhoods (Morello-Frosch). Therefore, parks, trees, and outdoor recreational areas tend to be located in wealthy neighborhoods. Consequently, minority and poor neighborhoods tend to have the lowest ratios of parks-to-people (Carter). This means that there is a low amount of park space per 10,000 people. Other research shows that even if we ignore the level of income, minority neighborhoods, such as African American and Hispanic neighborhoods, will still experience higher levels...
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...SOC103 Environmental Racism and Transnational Corporations “All Americans have a basic right to live, work, play, go to school, and worship in a clean and healthy environment” (Bullard, Dixie xiii). Unfortunately, this is not true for all. Afro-American communities in the South and other visible minorities across the globe, live through the harsh realities of environmental racism every day. (Bullard, Racism 3) In Confronting Environmental Racism, Robert D. Bullard defines environmental racism as: Racial discrimination in environmental policymaking. It is racial discrimination in the enforcement of regulations and laws. It is racial discrimination in the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste disposal and the sitting of polluting industries. It is racial discrimination in the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in communities of color. And, it is racial discrimination in the history of excluding people of color from the mainstream environmental groups, decision-making boards, commissions, and regulatory bodies. (3) Environmental justice on the other hand, is a form of environmental equity. It refers to “the equal protection of environmental laws amongst all people, irrespective of their race or social status. (Peluso 389) With very little influence in decision-making from minority groups, policymakers deliberately target these low-income communities of visible minorities. Environmental racism...
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...Pollution generating businesses do not target minorities or poor people when locating their facilities. Instead, they choose sites for some of the same reasons that these same sites are attractive to poor minorities. There has been a large controversy over whether or not the practices of these business constitute racism. The location choices are not intentionally discriminatory, although it may seem that way, so therefore it is not racism. A great deal of factors come into play when a business is looking at where to site ion the most commercially reasonable location. The siting of the Camden St. Lawrence Cement Company's plant in a nonwhite neighborhood in 2001 was not environmentally racist because the siting decisions for large plants such as this one are based on the ability to secure the required permits, sufficient transportation networks, and low land costs. The siting of this plant in 2001 in the Waterfront South...
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...Just Garbage Students name: Institution Affiliation: Just Garbage The Environmental racism that disproportionates shares of environmental hazards is evident in the United States. Toxic wastes illegally dumped and legally stored in land associated to the poor and nonwhite community. Economic discrimination influenced choosing where to dump the toxic wastes. The less disadvantaged people, with little income and probably none, are affected by this since they can only afford to stay in the least desirable neighborhoods compared to their wealthy counterparts. Economic discrimination as described is necessary and does not infringe on the rights of people. Toxic wastes result from manufacturing processes. Manufacturing is important as it satisfy the demand of the people. Our economy requires consumer demand to keep people working to meet the ever increasing demand, which results in more waste produced. This makes it justifiable to dump the waste in settlements of low-income earners making them suffer the burden of toxic wastes. Libertarianism claims that individuals have the right to be free from interference from other people. Burdens imposed by other individuals are unjustifiable and no person not consented should be burdened by burial of toxic wastes. This, however, is not possible to achieve because of our civilization that relies on modern life. Securing every individual’s consent is impractical. If duly informed of the hazard, someone affected is bound to object making...
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...Racism 2 In this current disenchanted world, there is no meaningful order of things or events outside the human domain. When the forests and the farms are no longer considered sacred and the spirits we tempted with food and sacrifice have no mysterious risks associated with the systematic rape of mother Earth. Then a disenchanted nature is no longer alive. The living Earth commands no respect, reverence or love. It is nothing but a giant machine, to be mastered to serve human purposes. The animists(1) took care of this planet on up to the last few hundred years. As man accidentally discovers the beginnings of commerce that opens the doors to an industrial nation, then an industrial world will soon discover industrial waste. Whether the notion that a mountain or a tree is to be regarded as a person is taken literally or not, the attempt to engage with the surrounding world as if it consists of other people might possibly provide the basis for a respectful attitude towards living things. If your disenchantment is over the environmental problems and destruction, then the environmental racism byproduct can be regarded as an attempt to reveal to you that we are part of the world collective and that we are in a sense, the world itself. Environmental racism(2) is one of the biggest problems the world faces today. Issues created by corporate polluters produce trouble in the form of economic, as well as, physical. For some individuals and cultures, it affects them every...
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...The message coming across from John Eligon in his article, “A Question of Environmental Racism in Flint” is that Michigan is not concerned about one of its city’s lead-polluted water. Environmental racism is a type of discrimination where people of minority communities are forced to live in close proximity of environmentally hazardous environments, such as toxic waste, pollution and urban decay. In Flint, Michigan, it is unable to be denied that most of the residents living here are black and poor, which is why the issue is known as environmental racism. It is even asked in the article how, “If Flint were rich and mostly white, would Michigan’s state government have responded more quickly and aggressively to complaints about its lead-polluted...
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...socio-economic status that who’s residents are predominantly people of color. The link between extreme pollution, toxic waste, lack of proper utilities such as clean water, and exclusion in the decision-making in regard to the use of natural resources and race make up environmental racism. When researching a subject such as this, the primary points to analyze are the origins of the environmental racism, both domestic and international examples, and the intent behind the corporations that poison these specific communities. These points are of particular relevance because they provide context. Next, it shows that environmental racism is a global phenomenon. Lastly, and most importantly, exploring intent will give context to whether the use of the word racism is valid....
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...accessibility to health care. This paper will explore and provide evidence into how the social determinants of health, especially racism or racial discrimination impacts on Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islanders or Indigenous Australian people’s access to health care. Exploring the impact of social determinants of health on Indigenous Australians and the numerous poorer health outcomes experienced by this population group will...
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...I knew that racism was fairly common in our society, but not to the extent it actually is. Racism is a very hurtful thing that our society needs to work on to try and avoid. I think that once racism is acknowledged the problem can be addressed and attempt to fix the problem accordingly. I don't believe racism can be fixed, but people can be more informed on racism, and do what they can to prevent it. I really enjoyed learning a lot of the material we covered in class. Most of it I slightly knew about, but I now have much more insight about the material and an overall better...
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...Every day people are being affected by the environment they live in.Low-income,hispanics,blacks and asians are paying off things that they didn't want to happen to the planet.Also they are living dangerously in places where toxic waste is affecting their health.Environmental racism is something that affects black minority and low income people around the world. To begin with in the Orlando article page 1 paragraph 11 it states ‘’separate residential limits or districts for white and negro residents’’.This explains that U.S minorities have been placed in separate areas for a long time as noted in the article.Another example is in that same article page 2 paragraph 13 that states ‘’we could eliminate all of it if we were serious mccown...
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...Environmental justice has become one of the biggest movements currently happening throughout the country. It fights to combat the environmental racism imposed by white lawmakers, which targets communities of color, causing them to have worse living conditions than their white counterparts. Examples of these injustices include lawmakers purposely placing landfills next to the homes of black communities at a disproportionately larger amount than any other race. The health effects of this phenomenon cause hundreds of people to suffer complications such as asthma. Many researchers understand the environmental racism plaguing our country and develop their argument using rhetoric to fight the power structure that allowed this injustice in the first place. I believe that this issue continues to...
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...Shavar Walker Sarah Seeley Comp 101 2/22/16 Flint Michigan Lead Exposure (Environmental Racism) The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is instance of environmental racism, because if it were a higher economic, non-minority group of people, this case wouldn’t even be taking place. This issue could have been prevented years ago if not prevented then at least worked on. Imagine if it were New York City? with a more diverse and stable group of individuals. According to the Detroit Free Press majority of all the Flint residents paid water rates. Flint residents paid the highest water rates in America even as their water was tainted with lead, according to a national study released Tuesday by the public interest group Food and Water Watch. A survey of the 500 largest water systems in the country, conducted last year, found that on average, Flint residents paid about $864 a year for water service, nearly double the national average and about three-and-a-half times as much as Detroiters pay. The figure is based on an annual household consumption of 60,000 gallons. Ailene Butler an African activist who lived in Flint for 18-20 years was asked, “why she and her neighbors had not moved away,” Butler pointed out that discriminatory real estate practices particularly redlining had trapped black people in the North End.” So even the residents wanted to escape they were financially trapped. According to the LA times, the flint toxic water crisis was 50 years in the making....
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...number of social problems, such as polarization and inequality. To solve the problems resulting from urban sprawl, many international organizations put technology forward as the most efficient and economically feasible approach. This essay will outline how urban sprawl results in these problems and point out the risks of depending on technologies to address environmental issues as well as its limitation to solve the social ones. In many countries in the world, urban sprawl imposes great stress on both of ecological and social well-being. In the first place, urban sprawl causes a lot of environmental problems. One of the burning issues for the international community is global warming. In order to support the running of current transportation, the utilities to warm or cool spacious houses and household appliances in neighborhoods on the outskirts of cities, energy mainly created by fossil fuels becomes greatly demanded, thus giving rise to higher emissions of greenhouse gases, especially carbon dioxide, which is considered as one of the arch-criminals causing global warming (Gonzalez, 2005). Besides climate change, other environmental problems, such as loss of forests and farmland, loss of architecture diversity and higher levels of noise, also result from the over expansion of cities. In addition to ecological impacts, urban sprawl arouses quite a few social conundrums like social inequality. For the urban sprawls with the improvement of mobility, in some motorized countries...
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...In this framework, institutionalized racism is defined as differential access to the goods, services, and opportunities of society by race. Institutionalized racism is normative, sometimes legalized, and often manifests as inherited disadvantage. It is structural, having been codified in our institutions of custom, practice, and law, so there need not be an identifiable perpetrator. Indeed, institutionalized racism is often evident as inaction in the face of need. (Jones, 2000, p. 1212) The Tohono O’odham and Pima tribes like every other American should have the right to have the proper amount of resources to improve their health outcomes in their tribes. When the Coolidge Dam was built the goal was sealed with a passed peace pipe to President Coolidge a promise that the Tohono O’odham and Pima tribes would have access to water so they could thrive and start working to get back their culture and health this did not happen. Instead the rest of Arizona gained access...
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...Put differently, when one accepts and live the stereotypically classification of his/her race and thereby limit that person’s ability to advance or think of advancing beyond that stereotype, such a person may be experiencing internalized racism. An acquaintance of mine who is of Arab ancestry was interested in counter terrorism position in one of the top security agencies in the United States but showed hesitation in applying because he felt he may not be considered or trusted because of the 9/11 terrorist attack. Kahatsu defined evidence –based public health as “the process of integrating science- based intervention with community preferences to improve the health of population” Coriel 2010 p.5 Evidence-based practice involves best available research evidence (qualitative and quantitative) from sources like scientific literature in systematic reviews and journal articles, public health surveillance data, program evaluation, community members and media. Evidence –based practice...
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