MODULE 3: Environmental Racism

Please sit in reporting groups

 AGENDA

1. Recap: environmental justice module
2. Cole and Foster

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Module 3: Environmental justice

Three theories of environmental injustice:

1. Robert Bullard & Luke Cole and Sheila Foster:  environmental racism
2. Peter Wenz next time: violations of PCBB (we'll see what this is)
3. Kyle Whyte: kinship disruption

They all agree:

1. Environmental injustice is a major problem in the world today
2. Environmentalists should be fighting against environmental injustice

But each theory looks at a different facet of environmental injustice.

• You could think all three are real...or two...or one...or none

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Environmental Racism 

Starting point: racial disparities

• Bullard, "The Mountains of Houston"
• Dozens of examples in Bullard's SMU slideshow
• Bullard: racial disparities are greater than economic disparities and not entirely explained by economic disparities
• What's the evidence?
• Not much in "Mountains of Houston" article
• Cole and Foster discuss in first four pages
• Here's Appendix A
• Also Bullard's website -- 18 books, hundreds of articles

Next question: should we interpret the disparities as environmental racism?

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5 minute group meetings --

Unfinished reporting groups--environmental orgs, geoengineering, faking nature, rewilding, recycling

• Finalize assignments, using the reporting doc
• I will touch base with each group

Finished reporting groups--invasive, endangered, population, water

• Browse the evidence about racial disparities
• Discuss: should we grant there are racial disparities that go beyond economic disparities.

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Cole & Foster: yes, the disparities should be construed as environmental racism

• Luke Cole (environmental activist) 
• Sheila Foster (law professor now at Georgetown)

From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement (2001)

They focus on Covanta trash incinerator in Chester, Pennsylvania--biggest one in the country--protests continue today -- article

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Cole and Foster's main claims (article here)

1. There are racial disparities in living environments that go beyond income disparities 
• Evidence (above)
2. Racial disparity beyond income disparity is not enough to prove racism
• Could conceivably be an innocent pattern
• What are some innocent disparities?
3. To count as environmental racism, a racial disparity has to be caused by racism
4. The classic case of "caused by racism" is when siting decisions are made with racist intentions (Bullard calls this PIBBY--put it in Blacks' back yards).
5. But more commonly disparities are caused by a more "subtle and structural" sort of racism (p. 64)

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Enter: the skeptic Cole and Foster are (implicitly) responding to.  The skeptic grees with with 1-4, but not 5.

Skeptical argument #1: lifestyle choices (EPA 1992)

1. Racial disparities are mostly caused by lifestyle choices.
2. If they're caused by lifestyle choices, they're not caused by racism.  THEREFORE
3. Environmental disparities are not caused by racism

EPA's examples 

1. Minorities are disproportionately exposed to hazards because more choose to live in cities
2. Latinos are disproportionately exposed to pesticides because more Latinos choose farm labor.
3. Asians are disproportionally exposed to contaminated fish because more Asians choose to eat more fish.

C&F REPLY:   We have to ask why? See p. 59A

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Skeptical argument #2: Market forces

1. Landfills, petrochemical plants, incinerators, etc., are built, which lowers rents; lower-income people then move in, who are disproportionally non-white.
2. Those are "market forces" not racism. THEREFORE,
3. Environmental disparities are not caused by racism.

C&F REPLY: What's their reply?

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Skeptical argument #3: No racist intentions

1. To sue for environmental discrimination, you must show that a particular person  had racist intentions.
2. Explicit racist intentions are uncommon today. THEREFORE,
3. Environmental disparities are usually not caused by racism.

C&F REPLY: 

1. As a legal matter, yes, intentional discrimination must be shown for a successful lawsuit. (see p. 63 A)
2. "the nature of racism has become appreciably more subtle and structural" (p. 64)
3. Spatial segregation of racial groups is ubiquitous, not innocent, and rooted in racism

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Segregation Info

• Segregation of Dallas
• Plumer and Popovicn, "How Decades of Racist Housing Policy Left Neighborhoods Sweltering" (New York Times, Aug. 24, 2020)-
• Richard Rothstein, The Color of Law: A Forgotten History of How Our Government Segregated America

MODULE 3: Environmental Racism

 AGENDA

1. Population debate follow up
2. Reporting groups (5 minutes or so)
3. Environmental injustice

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Population debate follow up

1. Lots of empirical issues
2. A key conceptual issue not dealt with: 

Does adding population add intrinsic value to the world, as Toby Ord argues?

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Finished reporting groups--invasive, endangered, population, water

• Discuss the Ord question, using the workbook

Unfinished reporting groups--environmental orgs, geoengineering, faking nature, rewilding, recycling

• Finalize assignments, using the reporting doc
• If you have time, discuss the Ord question, using the workbook

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Module 3: Environmental injustice 

Some environmental wrongs are wrong but not injustices

• cutting down a beloved tree for no reason
• hunting an endangered species to extinction
• polluting a whole city's water supply

Some environmental wrongs are injustices

• policies that are unfair to certain groups

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Plan

(A) Alleged forms of environmental injustice

1. Environmental racism  (Feb 19, 21)
2. Principle of commensurate benefits and burdens (Feb 24, 26)
3. Kinship disruption theory (Feb 28)

(B) Water injustices - Mar 3

(C) Should environmentalists focus on injustice? - Mar 5

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Environmental racism

Today: racial disparities in the distribution of burdens and benefits 

Friday: but is it really racism? 

Today's author: Robert Bullard, "father of the environmental justice movement"

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Racial disparities

A. WASTE SITES IN HOUSTON (Bullard, "The Mountains of Houston") -- watch video up to 3:45

Background

1. 1979--white city council plans "Whispering Pines" landfill in Northwood Manor, a middle class 82% Black neighborhood in Houston
2. A class action suit was filed against the city--Bean vs. Southern Waste Management
3. Dr. Bullard, a sociologist, was asked to study waste patterns in Houston to support the plaintiffs
4. Blacks made up 25% of Houston's population, but 100% of landfills were in Black neighborhoods
5. Other waste management sites also disproportionally in Black neighborhoods
6. "This city siting pattern in turn set the stage for private waste disposal firms to follow" in later years. (Bullard p. 2)
7. Also talks about incinerators, waste transfer stations, recycling facilities (dirty vs. clean), illegal dumping, the priorities of white-led environmental groups like the Sierra Club
8. What did you learn from this article?

B. OTHER DISPARITIES--DR. BULLARD'S TALK AT SMU in 2023

1. Heat islands (36, 40)
2. Aftermath of natural disasters (45)
3. Living near petrochemical plants and heavy industry (25-29)

C. BLACKOUTS IN TEXAS, FEB 2021 (NYT) (More info) (more photos)

D. WATER QUALITY  (Benton Harbor, Michigan, vs. St. Joseph, Michigan)

E. LIVING NEAR GREEN SPACE (source for image below) (NYT article)

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Next question

1. When are disparities "just disparities"
2. When are they unjust/racist?

Next Reading: Cole and Foster, Environmental Racism