What is environmental racism and how the concept came about

Environmental racism is a term coined in 1981 by African-American civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr.

environmental racism

Favela do Grajaú. Edited and resized image by Sergio Souza, available on Unsplash

Environmental racism, or environmental racism, is a term coined in 1981 by African-American civil rights leader Dr. Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr.. The concept emerged in the United States in a context of black movement demonstrations against environmental injustices.

environmental racism

Dr Benjamin Franklin Chavis Jr, coiner of the term environmental racism, poses for a photo. Edited and resized image from MeetDrBen is available on Wikipedia and licensed under CC BY-SA 3.0

The term refers to the unequal ways in which vulnerable ethnic groups are exposed to negative externalities and harmful environmental phenomena as a consequence of their exclusion from decision-making places.

In the original definition, translated into Portuguese, environmental racism is racial discrimination in the development of environmental policies, enforcement of regulations and laws, deliberate directing of black communities to toxic waste facilities, official sanction of the presence of life-threatening poisons and pollutants communities and exclusion of black people from the leadership of ecological movements. It refers to any policy, practice or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages (whether intentional or not) individuals, groups or communities on the basis of race or color.

In the international context, environmental racism also refers to disadvantaged ecological relations between the global north and south as a consequence of colonialism, neoliberalism and globalization.

Environmental racism is a product of traditional colonization, which exercised control over territories already occupied, using military and political power, subtracting rights and assets such as arable land or pasture. But environmental racism continues today through what might be called neocolonialism, a form of colonial control exercised by other means, not necessarily colonies.

The arrival of large developmental projects is an example of neocolonialism, being a process that expels native populations from their territories, destroys their cultures and degrades the environment. The processes of colonialism and neocolonialism promoted slavery, injustice and environmental racism, giving rise to unhealthy environments, such as the Brazilian favelas.

environmental injustice

Environmental racism is linked to environmental injustice, being a mechanism by which the socioeconomically disadvantaged are burdened with the environmental damage of the economic process; at the same time they enjoy less of the products of capitalism or have their right to enjoy natural resources taken away.

In Brazil, these groups are usually low-income populations, traditional ethnic peoples, workers, extractivists, geraizeiros (traditional populations from the cerrados of northern Minas Gerais), fishermen, pantaneiros, caiçaras, vazanteiros (people who have their lives linked to the river) , Gypsies, Pomeranians (German people originally from Pomerania), communities of terreiro, faxinais, urban blacks, riverside dwellers, indigenous people, quilombolas, among others.

black protagonism

The emblematic case that gave rise to the term environmental injustice was when the black population of Warren County, North Carolina, led an uprising against the installation of a PCB (polychlorinated biphenyl) toxic waste landfill.

  • Landfill: how it works, impacts and solutions

The spread of the complaint and demonstrations brought to light the fact that three quarters of toxic waste landfills in the Southeastern US were in neighborhoods inhabited mostly by blacks, showing that this was not an isolated environmental case, but a product of structural racism , being a specific type of environmental injustice.

In Brazil, the concept of environmental racism has expanded to other peoples, such as indigenous peoples. Undemarcated indigenous regions, slums, areas at high risk of landslides, dumps and urban areas not served by basic sanitation are typical examples of places inhabited by populations oppressed by environmental racism.



$config[zx-auto] not found$config[zx-overlay] not found