Environmental Racism

Environmental racism refers to the process and outcome of racial discrimination in the enactment and enforcement of environmental laws, rules, and regulations and in targeting minority communities for the siting of polluting industries. It also refers to the exclusion or restriction of people of color from representation in public and private boards and commissions and from meaningful participation in environmental movement organizations. The broader term, environmental justice, refers to environmental inequities in relation to a larger set of social categories, such as social class and gender. Environmental justice also refers to the movement to address environmental injustice and environmental racism. The term environmental racism was coined by Reverend Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. of the United Church of Christ (UCC) Commission for Racial Justice. Grassroots environmental justice activists have adopted the term to articulate grievances and as a frame to mobilize supporters and claim the right to a clean and healthy environment “where we live, work and play.”

In 1990, the Southwest Organizing Project and the Gulf Coast Tenants Union publicly charged mainstream environmental organizations with environmental racism, that is, with excluding people of color from their boards, staffs, and memberships and failing to address their concerns programmatically. The growing national presence of the environmental justice movement was manifested at the First People of Color Leadership Summit in 1991, where 17 environmental justice principles were adopted.

Since then, the understanding of racial discrimination in environmental policy making has improved. Environmental racism existed long before it was defined as such. Over time, however, the more blatant forms of discrimination associated with environmental inequality have given way to subtler, institutionalized forms. Recent calls for equal protection and nondiscrimination in environmental decision making have invoked the U.S. Constitution and the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and advanced ideals of environmental rights.