M3.3 Enivronmental Justice

United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) defines Environmental Justice as 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. The definition sounds fair and all inclusive but it doesn't hold true in practice. Environmental Racism is defined as environmental inequality or discrimination, is the process whereby environmental decisions, actions, and policies result in racial discrimination or the creation of racial advantages. It is well known that environmental calamities disproportionately effect minorities and those of low socioeconomic status.  
Black Lives Matter (BLM) is a member-led organization whose mission is to build local power and to intervene in violence inflicted on Black communities by the state and vigilantes. BLM hopes to highlight injustices against the African American community and one of those issues is environmental injustice due to racism.According to the federal government's General Accounting Office 3 out of 5 African-Americans are living well below the level of poverty and also reside in areas situated close to toxic waste sites (Bullard & Johnson, 2000).“I can’t breathe" became BLM's phrase-the murder of Eric Garner when he was put in an illegal choke hold after selling loose cigarettes, a “quality-of-life” offense. A sufferer of asthma, Garner told the police officer, “I can’t breathe” eleven times (Dillon and Sze 6). The rates of hospitalizations and deaths due to asthma are both 3 times higher among African Americans than among whites (CDC, 2003 & Heron et al, 2009), Garner was an African American man who like many in his community suffered from asthma.   EcoJustice Professor Rita Turner from University of Maryland, Baltimore  urges us to see how environmental racism is comparable to the physical violence of police brutality (Turner, 2017). 


References:
Centers for Disease Control and Prevention. Asthma prevalence, health care use and mortality: United States, 2003-05.
Dillon, Lindsey and Julie Sze. “Police Power and Particulate Matters: Environmental Justice and the Spatialities of In/securities in U.S. Cities.” English Language Notes. Special Issue (2016): 1-11. 18 Nov. 2017. 
Heron MP, Hoyert DL, Murphy SL, Xu JQ, Kochanek KD, Tejada-Vera B. Deaths: Final Data for 2006. National vital statistics reports; vol 57 no 14. Hyattsville, MD: National Center for Health Statistics. 2009.
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://www.pollutionissues.com/Ec-Fi/Environmental-Racism.html
(n.d.). Retrieved from http://blacklivesmatter.com
Turner, Rita. “The Slow Poisoning of Black Bodies: A Lesson in Environmental Racism and Hidden Violence.” Meridians: Feminism, Race, Transnationalism 15.1 (2017): 189-204. Academic Search Premier. Web. 7 Nov. 2017. 
Image 1: Dunn, TL.Shutterstock Images from Cabral A. and Medina L. Race Best Predicts Whether You Live Near Pollution. The Nation. March 6,2016. Retrieved from https://www.thenation.com/article/race-best-predicts-whether-you-live-near-pollution.
Image 2: Morin J.,  Miami Herald Runs Powerful Eric Garner Political Cartoon. Dec 5, 2014. Retrieved from https://www.complex.com/pop-culture/2014/12/miami-herald-eric-garner-cartoon.

Comments

  1. UnknownSeptember 16, 2018 at 8:47 PM

    Powerful words, Claudia. I appreciate that you make the connection between asthma rates in black communities and the infuriating incident that lead to Eric Garner's death. The environmental inequalities that communities of color face don't just happen in a vacuum and the ability to make those connections and weave all of these factors together to show how everything is connected is something that very few people understand. Thanks for helping me think through Eric Garner's death using an environmental justice lens.

    ReplyDelete
  2. snaymallickSeptember 16, 2018 at 9:23 PM

    I agree with you Claudia that it is well known that environmental calamities disproportionately effect minorities and those of low socioeconomic status. It is unfair to see that many minorities are seen in a negative light because they live in a unfortunate environment. Eric Garner's story is powerful and thank you Claudia for opening my eyes to the injustice minorities can face.

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