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Factors behind Environmental Racism
Toxic waste is dumped disproportionately in low-income areas, especially neighborhoods of color. Environmental racism or an environmental injustice is highlighted as the act of dumping toxic waste and other hazardous industrial output in surroundings inhabited by non-whites, normally low-income neighborhoods (“Chapter 2: What Is Environmental Justice?”, 2017). Flint in Michigan is a good example of an area with lead-contaminated water, mostly resided by the black community. The act is quite evidenced in several cases in which the black community and the Latin immigrants tend to be housed near dumping sites. In this regard, I will focus on two factors that have highly been associated with the discrimination.
In the first instance, the industrialists always have a hand in choosing a target to dump environment hazards in marginalized areas of the colored group. They choose so with the knowledge that most non-whites are of poor and may lack political might to put the concern legislatively or rather influence the decision (Massey, 2004). The resistance to fight the hazard is less, considering most households are more concerned with basic needs.
Alternatively, the factor of post-site settlement plays a major low. In areas where industries have been set tend to attract a lot of semi-skilled labor personnel (Massey, 2004). The personnel, therefore, will eventually move closer to the factories and not far away from the disposal sites.
Notably, the issue has come up even on the international scale in which, already developed countries tend to export most disposables to third countries as charity items (“Poor Americans Face More Toxic Exposure,” 2017). In the real sense these are items are not durable and toxic. Concerns of legislations are underway but still not effected thoroughly.
- Chapter 2: What Is Environmental Justice?. (2017). Usccr.gov. Retrieved 13 February 2017, from http://www.usccr.gov/pubs/envjust/ch2.htm
- Jane Kay, C. (2017). Pollution, Poverty and People of Color: Living with Industry. Scientific American. Retrieved 13 February 2017, from https://www.scientificamerican.com/article/pollution-poverty-people-color-living-industry/
- Massey, R. (2004). Environmental Justice: Income, Race, and Health (1st ed., pp. 1-26). Global Development And Environment Institute Tufts University: Medford, MA 02155. Retrieved from http://ase.tufts.edu/gdae
- Poor Americans Face More Toxic Exposure. (2017). The Huffington Post. Retrieved 13 February 2017, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/heres-life-inner-city/poor-americans-face-more-_b_814847.html
- Targeting minority, low-income neighborhoods for hazardous waste sites | University of Michigan News. (2017). Ns.umich.edu. Retrieved 13 February 2017, from http://ns.umich.edu/new/releases/23414-targeting-minority-low-income-neighborhoods-for-hazardous-waste-sites