Environmental racism

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As environmental racism is racist discrimination in the implementation of environmental regulation, the above-average burden of individual groups by pollution or exclusion of minorities in environmental decision-making referred.

The term was coined in 1987 in the United States by Benjamin Chavis, a leading exponent of the civil rights movement , who was president of the NAACP from 1993 to 1994 . At that time, civil rights activists revealed that, for example , environmental hazards emanating from landfills affected minorities such as Hispanics or blacks more than average , while the white majority was relatively spared. Income differences between the ethnic groups were often cited as an explanation, which led to relatively poorer minorities living in more polluted and therefore cheaper residential areas. A 2007 study, however, shows that this hypothesis is too simple and shows significantly more complex distribution patterns for environmental racism. Nevertheless, it has been shown that environmental racism occurs in almost all major cities in the USA.

The term was later used, among other things, in relation to the situation in the Niger Delta and in Western New Guinea .

A movement that has arisen since the 1980s opposes environmental racism as a positive alternative, particularly the concept of environmental justice .

See also

literature

  • Robert D. Bullard (Ed.): Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots , South End Press, 1993, ISBN 978-0-89608-446-9
  • Luke Cole and Sheila Foster: From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement , New York University Press, 2000, ISBN 978-0-8147-1537-6
  • Ryan Holifield: Defining Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism , in: Urban Geography, 22, pp. 78–90, 2001 (online)
  • Derek Leslie (Ed.): An Investigation of Racial Disadvantage , Issues in Environmental Politics, Manchester University Press, 1998, ISBN 978-0-7190-5036-7
  • James P. Lester: Environmental Injustice In The United States , Tandem Library, 2000, ISBN 978-0-613-91759-9
  • Laura Westra and Peter S. Wenz (Eds.): Faces of Environmental Racism: Confronting Issues of Global Justice , Rowman & Littlefield, 2nd edition 2001, ISBN 978-0-7425-1249-8

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ In the definition of Jeanette Hofmann: "Environmental racism" describes a form of social distribution of environmental pollution that mainly affects the living spaces of minorities. "In: Jeanette Hofmann (Ed.): Knowledge and property. History, law and economy of non-material goods , Federal Agency for Civic Education, Bonn, 2006 (PDF) , p. 37.
  2. ↑ United Church of Christ Commission for Racial Justice: Toxic Wastes and Race In The United States: A National Report On The Racial and Socioeconomic Characteristics of Communities With Hazardous Waste Sites , New York, 1987
  3. ^ Science Daily: Environmental Racism Study Finds Levels Of Inequality Defy Simple Explanation , July 11, 2007
  4. ↑ Segun Gbadegesin: Multinational Corporations, Developed Nations, and Environmental Racism: Toxic Waste, Oil Exploration, and Eco-Catastrophe , in: Westra / Wenz 2001, pp. 187ff.
  5. ^ Commission on Human Rights Begins Debate on Racial Discrimination