Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards: A Time for Discourse.

• Author: Kisch, Rhona J.

It's clear that low-income and minority communities have been asked to bear a disproportionate burden of this country's industrial lifestyle.... They're angry and rightfully so. To solve this, we have got to incorporate environmental justice concerns into everything we do."(1)

1. Introduction

   Declaring an end to "environmental racism" is an integral pad of the national environmental agenda in 1994.(2) Long held suspicions that minority communities are disproportionately affected by environmental hazards have been validated by two landmark national studies," the introduction of an eco-justice bill(4) and continued attention by both the Environmental Protection Agency(5) (EPA) and the Clinton administration.(6) Despite national recognition, however, policy makers continue to question the breadth of issues contributing to environmental racism. The book delivers the diverse subjects presented at the Conference to a wider audience.

   Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards: A Time for Discourse,(7) edited by Bunyan Bryant and Paul Mohai,(8) helps fill the current educational void about environmental racism. The book compiles the complete collection of essays presented(9) by scholars(10) at the 1990 Conference on Race and the Incidence of Environmental Hazards (the Conference). The essays document numerous instances of environmental racism. Specific topics range from broadly theoretical to scientifically technical. The issues covered include: toxic waste and race in the United States, minority support for the environmental movement, environmental voting records of the Congressional Black Caucus, modeling "environmental discrimination," environmental blackmail in minority communities, studies on toxic fish consumption, the disproportionate effects of occupational injury, hazardous waste incineration in minority communities, environmentalism and civil rights, the international impact of pesticides on farm workers, and political factors which influence African policies on international toxic waste dumping.

2. Issues Presented

   The book contains chapters discussing the impact of politics, economics, public health, and international policy on the environmental racism debate. Additionally, the book includes chapters presenting case studies and empirical data documenting the effects of environmental racism on minority communities. These studies add a technical, scientific dimension to the subject. Overall, the diversity of topics presented reinforces the breadth of the environmental racism agenda.

   Chapter by chapter the book exposes the interdisciplinary thinking typical of scholars working on environmental racism issues. The reader is repeatedly bombarded with the message that any solution to the environmental racism problem is rooted in education, political empowerment, economic foresight, and sound policy creation. While each chapter focuses on its own piece of the environmental racism problem, the interdisciplinary message permeates the entire book.

   The introduction and summary, written by the editors after the Conference, provide context for the issue as a whole. The introduction briefly summarizes the material contained in each chapter, however, the editors fail to provide any additional background or insight about the environmental racism movement. The summary stretches a bit further than the introduction by providing a short chronology of events since the Conference. However, the summary, like the introduction, fails to communicate the fervor of the movement or the rapid rise of the environmental racism agenda to a level of national prominence.(11) By failing to put the book in a historical context, the editors lost an opportunity to comment on both the importance of the environmental racism movement and the way national policy makers are addressing the complex issues embodied in the environmental racism agenda.

   The individual chapters tell the following stories. In Chapter Two, Charles Lee summarizes the impact of the landmark 1987 report on race and toxics,(12) touching on the interrelationships between government, academia, grassroots communities, and the environmental and civil rights movements.(13) Lee describes the events that led to the publication of the 1987 report and discusses what he views as the most significant change since the report was published: "the increasing activism of minority communities."(14)

   In Chapter Three, Dorceta Taylor discusses why the national environmental movement continues to exclude minorities.(15) Taylor challenges the assumption that minorities care less than whites about the environment.(16) She notes, however, that the structure of the national environmental movement must change to make room for minority interests.(17)

   In Chapter Four, Henry Vance Davis discusses the Congressional Black Caucus' (CBC) role in supporting conservation issues.(18) According to the League of Conservation Voters annual scorecard,(19) the CBC has the strongest conservation voting record in Congress. Davis argues that the CBC's support should be applauded but cautions that "[b]lind support is not enough."(20) Davis concludes that for conservation efforts to continue the CBC must educate itself about the interrelationship between legislative motive, economic interests, and environmental issues.

   In Chapter Five, Michel Gelobter uses an economic model to discuss the relationship between environmental regulation and discriminatory outcomes.(21) Government may "aggravate the regressive and discriminatory distribution of pollution" already faced by minorities(22) if it ignores certain variables. Some variables Gelobter believes the government should consider are: the definition of discrimination;(23) the physical measure of discrimination; the economic measure of discrimination; the comparison of cost measures and physical measures; time and space dimensions of discrimination; and the residual proof or description of discrimination.(24)

   In Chapter Six, Robert Bullard examines "institutionalized discrimation"(25) and its role in environmental elitism and job blackmail. Bullard notes that "[t]here is inherent conflict between the interests of capital and those of labor."(26) Many of the conflicts stem from the fear that "environmental regulations are automatically linked to job loss."(27) Bullard argues that the only solution to environmental elitism and job blackmail is...