Environmental racism

Environmental racism, ecological racism, or ecological apartheid is a form of racism leading to negative environmental outcomes such as landfills, incinerators, and hazardous waste disposal disproportionately impacting communities of color, violating substantive equality. Internationally, it is also associated with extractivism, which places the environmental burdens of mining, oil extraction, and industrial agriculture upon indigenous peoples and poorer nations largely inhabited by people of color.

Environmental racism is the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards, pollution, and ecological degradation experienced by marginalized communities, as well as those of people of color. Race, socio-economic status, and environmental injustice directly impact these communities in terms of their health outcomes as well as their quality of health. Communities are not all created equal. In the United States, some communities are continuously polluted while the government gives little to no attention. According to Robert D. Bullard, father of environmental justice, environmental regulations are not equally benefiting all of society; People of color (African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans) are disproportionately harmed by industrial toxins in their jobs and their neighborhoods.   Within this context, understanding the intersectionality of race, socio-economic status, and environmental injustice through its history and the disproportionate impact is a starting point for leaning towards equitable solutions for environmental justice for all segments of society. Exploring the historical roots, impacts of environmental racism, governmental actions, grassroots efforts, and possible remedies can serve as a foundation for addressing this issue effectively.

Response to environmental racism has contributed to the environmental justice movement, which developed in the United States and abroad throughout the 1970s and 1980s. Environmental racism may disadvantage minority groups or numerical majorities, as in South Africa where apartheid had debilitating environmental impacts on Black people. Internationally, trade in global waste disadvantages global majorities in poorer countries largely inhabited by people of color. It also applies to the particular vulnerability of indigenous groups to environmental pollution. Environmental racism is a form of institutional racism, which has led to the disproportionate disposal of hazardous waste in communities of color in Russia. Environmental racism is a type of inequality where people in communities of color and other low income communities face a disproportionate risk of exposure to pollution and related health conditions.

Examples include the siting of polluting factories (sewage treatment, smokestacks) in residential areas of particular ethnic or minority groups. It is also evident in the new political trend of eco-racism which talks of "demographic pollution" and blames immigrants for consumption of more resources, higher emissions of pollutants, and more waste.