Research Guides
Environmental Justice: Race and Equity
"Environmental racism refers to the deliberate placement of toxic and hazardous waste sites, incinerators, landfills, and polluting industries in communities populated mainly by minorities, including Latinos, African Americans, Asians, migrant farm workers, and the working poor. It also includes “any government, institutional, or industry action, or failure to act, that has a negative environmental impact which disproportionately harms—whether intentionally or unintentionally—individuals, groups, or communities based on race or color.” (Race and Racism in the United States: An Encyclopedia of the American Mosaic)
Selected books
Clean and White: A History of Environmental Racism in the United StatesA history of environmental racism in the United States focusing on constructions of race and hygiene.
There's Something in the Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous and Black CommunitiesExamines the legacy of environmental racism and its health impacts in Indigenous and Black communities in Canada, using Nova Scotia as a case study.
From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice MovementTraces the roots of the movement for environmental justice, using social, economic and legal analysis to illustrate the historical and contemporary causes for environmental racism.
Environmental Racism and ClassismAnthology with many examples of poor and minority communities that suffer physically, emotionally, and financially from living in a toxic environment.
Race, Place, and Environmental Justice after Hurricane KatrinaThis book asks why some communities get left behind economically, spatially, and physically before and after disasters strike.
Noxious New YorkExamines the culture, politics, and history of the movement for environmental justice in New York City, tracking activism in four neighborhoods on issues of public health, garbage, and energy systems in the context of privatisation, deregulation, and globalisation.
Suggested search terms
In addition to the term "environmental racism", also search for specific groups (African Americans, Latinos, or Native Americans, for example), places (the South, Chicago, etc.), and/or specific environmental issues, such as water or air pollution, health impacts, toxics, etc.