Housing Inequality in AmericaMain MenuThe Generational Illusion: An EssayAn Essay by Collin AndrewsEnvironmental Racism: How Residential Segregation Shapes Environmental InequalityHistoric Preservation Coast to CoastTitle PageNative American Housing: How Poor Housing Harms Indigenous HealthHow Poor Housing Harms Indigenous HealthPets & Housing: It's "Ruff" by Katie ClineHow NIMBYism Exacerbates Housing InequalityWhere's the Wealth!How Housing Discrimination has led to racial wealth inequality in the United StatesImmigrant Housing Inequality in AmericaIswat JinadSurveillance InequalityAn investigation into how poor communities are oversurveilled creating a cycle of more targeted and aggressive forms of surveillance for them and those around them.Post-WWII Urban Flight and the Birth of the SuburbsHousing Discrimination in Suburban AmericaRace, Repressive State Apparatus, and Homelessness: From Colonialism to COVID-19Tina NandiHousing Inequality and Access to Quality EducationMQ: Title PageVisualizing racial housing discriminationSplash page for path that includes interactive resources regarding racial housing discriminationProject information and creditsAndy Schocket278555063cc66428c8eadf42f48d412091c5aaf9Melissa Laddab8653014603439710b65435181f2130cee53400Andrew Bartelc9a57442f34fea7858b734ce98f4ec79bd5565b0Collin Andrewsf69afa6ae7fb0f33058b9e0cb476f7451a667cefTina Nandi6e38643c2c1510534cce4e954f0eeb8108bce699Iswat Jinad196dd805bf51f7a46fbf2d94ab069e97fc004d75Marcus Harris7e23857364c2363b25872718aea81323bdd37773James Cousinoe9398a1542d344c824ddaaf967819ae589cd2b61Katie Cline512add1943f75cbd770d4788dcdea90b706922c4Trisha A Bonham7fa13b399c9331700d719225b96f3bf9e54c4570Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410Kristine Ketel826fdfc33a24cff2c1e0ab79396dd2ae2bae3ed9Morgan Quinleyc8a47798c223cced64347bc9a7d80f6a64402e45
RA: Citation 1
12022-11-22T16:18:54-08:00Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410412374plain2022-12-06T14:25:13-08:00Rene Oswald Ayalac01cc7385c24c3926f2f03a40860f6a4f703f410Ryan Holifield, “Defining Environmental Justice and Environmental Racism,” Urban Geography 22, no. 1 (February 2001): 78–90; Joel D. Kaufman and Anjum Hajat, “Confronting Environmental Racism,” Environmental Health Perspectives 129, no. 5 (May 2021):051001-1-2; David E. Jacobs, “Environmental Health Disparities in Housing,” American Journal of Public Health 101, no. S1 (December 2011): S115–S122.
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12022-11-22T15:40:44-08:00Introduction34plain2022-12-12T08:19:11-08:00One of the ways that housing inequality impacts one’s quality of life is through greater exposure to environmental pollutants and lack of access to quality environmental good such as clean air and water. The term environmental racism is used to describe how communities of color, particularly those with predominantly poor and working-class residents, often deal with a disproportionate number of environmental hazards in their communities and the consequences this has on their health and overall well-being. The following graphic from The Nation provides data showing how communities of color are disproportionally exposed to environmental hazards.
Environmental activists and researchers who study environmental inequality argue there are multiple aspects to environmental racism, including: 1) the siting of landfills and toxic waste producing facilities near communities predominantly comprised of people of color, 2) weak and/or racially discriminatory regulation and enforcement of environmental policies, 3) the concentration of people of color in substandard housing, and 4) the exclusion of communities of color in the decision-making ofenvironmental policies which impact their own communities.
Environmental racism has a lasting impact on the health of members of these communities as the presence of toxins and pollutants can deteriorate one’s health, such as through lead poisoning or developing asthma, and/or by developing underlying conditions that make one more vulnerable to other diseases. Henderson and Wells (2021) poignantly term the consequences that environmental racism has on Black communities as the “contamination of Black lives.”
The water crisis in Flint, Michigan is often cited as a contemporary example of environmental racism that received national attention. To cut city costs, in 2014 Flint officials changed the city’s water supply from Detroit to the Flint River, which resulted in lead leeching from the pipes and exposing the predominantly Black residents of Flint, Michigan to water with elevated lead levels. It was only after months of organizing by Flint residents that city officials declared a lead advisory and the crisis received national attention. Flint is just one example of many communities across the country that face heightened health risks as a consequence of environmental racism.
The following pages explore the history of the concept of environmental racism and the different ways that scholars and activists have explained why communities of color are more prone to dealing with environmental hazards. I then turn to a recent event, the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis, and consider how an environmental racism framework can provide us with a way to understand the history that informs the present-day crisis.
