We the Polluted People (A Discussion on Environmental Racism and Environmental Justice)
In this week’s episode, we discuss environmental racism and environmental justice. We begin by defining what environmental justice and environmental racism is and contextualize the issue. We then launch into case studies of environmental racism, including Warren County, NC (the birthplace of the environmental justice movement), Hurricane Katrina, Cancer Alley, and the Flint water crisis.
We then interview Rob Friedman, a policy advocate for environmental justice and involved with the New York programs for the National Resource Defense Council (NRDC). In our conversation we talk about the Trump Administration’s effect on environmental racism, housing discrimination, food deserts, environmental injustice indigenous communities face (DAPL Pipeline, Standing Rock protest), and solutions for change. We also discuss the inequalities of natural disaster recovery efforts and what to expect with Hurricane Harvey.
After learning about all of these individual situations of environmental racism, it astounds us that although Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 prevents government entities that receive federal funds from discriminating, the agency has yet to make a single formal finding of discrimination.
Something we have learned throughout the case studies of environmental justice and environmental racism, as with many other problems, is that solutions start at the local level. We cannot stand idly by while zip codes, race, and income remain predictors of health. Change starts at the grassroots level. We want to push ourselves to become more active in the environmental justice movement and encourage all of you to join. We are the change; we are the difference.
Later this week, we will be uploading a bonus episode with Peggy Shephard, an environmental justice leader and chief director of We Act, an environmental justice organization based in New York. So, check later this week and next week for new episodes.
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Links!
www.youtube.com/watch?v=nnF5I7lt6nQ
www.youtube.com/watch?v=QW3tV4C8IGM
www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZOjZxcxgeBw
www.nytimes.com/2017/08/26/us/hur…html?mcubz=0&_r=0
www.theatlantic.com/politics/archiv…ide-out/538068/
www.weact.org
www.nrdc.org/stories/environmen…l-justice-movement
www.theatlantic.com/video/index/529…e-new-jim-crow/
greenaction.org/?page_id=420
www.nytimes.com/2016/01/22/us/a-q…html?mcubz=0&_r=0
www.foodispower.org/environmental-racism/
www.teenvogue.com/story/how-enviro…s-global-warming
www.pollutionissues.com/Ec-Fi/Environ…l-Racism.html
www.theroot.com/environmental-rac…oncern-1791343793
www.washingtonpost.com/news/morning-….cf9d9b0dd0af
www.nrdc.org/stories/environmen…l-justice-movement
www.pratt.edu/news/view/beyond-f…vironmental-racism
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.2307/3325435/full
sites.duke.edu/docst110s_01_s201…-justice/history/
www.washingtonpost.com/archive/polit….55da2fb60880
www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/f…n-north-carolina
d3n8a8pro7vhmx.cloudfront.net/unitedchur…1418439935
www.newyorker.com/news/news-desk/e…s-racist-history
understandingkatrina.ssrc.org/Sze/
www.sciencedirect.com/science/articl…49089X06000135
www.reimaginerpe.org/20years/alston
