Environmental Racism and its Victims

So far, we have analyzed what environmental racism and injustice is, where environmental injustice thrives, and elements of environmental injustice. In these posts, I always mention the people who are affected by environmental injustice, however, in this blog post, I will go on to explore the people directly affected by environmental injustice.

Throughout this blog, I will call "victims" of environmental racism "unfortunate beneficiaries," (a term I totally just made up.) I am choosing to do this to reiterate that these people are not just victims, but survivors; survivors whose unfortunately is killing them.

Back to Basics: Who is Affected?

It's no secret that environmental racism and injustice is a systemic, bigoted practice. It affects marginalized people who do not live in affluent areas. It thrives on capitalism, classism, racism, sexism, ableism, and the further intersections of those ideas.

Environmental racism is the intentional placement of hazardous waste sites, landfills, and polluting industries in communities inhabited by mainly African-Americans, Latinos, Native Americans, Asians, Pacific Islanders, migrant farm workers, and the working poor. 


The United Church of Christ (UCC) helped birth the environmental justice movement in 1987 when the UCC Commission for Racial Justice published Toxic Waste and Race, a supplemental study in understanding environmental racism. In this study, the terms "environmental racism" and "environmental justice" were coined. The UCC explains that minorities are especially vulnerable because they are perceived as weak and passive citizens who will not fight back against the poisoning of their neighborhoods because they fear that it may jeopardize their jobs and economic survival. 

This racism is the deliberate selection of communities of color to be used as a place where landfills can be built, and where toxic waste is disposed of. These unfortunate beneficiaries of environmental racism are often excluded by traditional environmental groups, and by the board in charge of making these decisions.

A town in Louisiana, Mossville, founded by a former slave

The Unsung Heroes

The unfortunate beneficiaries of environmental injustice have not been complacent in their circumstances; they have been speaking out. They are not the passive minorities who will not fight back. These minority communities have been at the forefront of environmental justice. Here's a short list of what they have done:

• 1991: The First People of Color Environmental Summit was held in Washington, DC. Over 1,000 people attended.
• 1992: The "Environmental Justice Act of 1992" was introduced to Congress by Congressman John Lewis and Senator Albert Gore.
• 1999: The Black farmers discrimination case against the USDA settles for $1 billion to 15,000 Black Farmers.
• 2002: First North American Indigenous Mining Summit held to develop action plans to address coal, uranium, and metallic mining activities in Native lands.
• 2006: The Concerned Citizens of Agriculture Street Landfill won their class-action lawsuit (after fighting for 13 years!) to be brought out of their contaminated community.
• 2007: The EPA finds Citgo guilty of environmental crimes in Corpus Christi, Texas.
• 2009: Judge orders Chevron to stop work on oil refinery expansion in Richmond, CA, resulting in a huge victory for the Asian Pacific Environmental Network.
• 2010: Black residents of Mossville wins hearing before the Inter-American Commission on Human Rights on charges that the U.S. government has violated their rights regarding pollution.

Environmental racism perpetuates the notion that minority communities will not fight for their right to a clean environment. This notion has been proved wrong again and again, as the fight against environmental racism continues today.