African-Americans often failed to see the link between the fact that they had higher health costs than whites and lived in more environmentally-polluted areas. Environmental discrimination, states Bullard, is a critical component of larger acts of social and economic disenfranchisement. Furthermore, the sudden, intoxicating burst of economic expansion caused many to overlook the fact that the symptoms of underdevelopment that had plagued the South, such as a lack of access to education and an emphasis on lower skilled, dead-end jobs, were still present. Despite job growth, the manufacturing jobs failed to substantially empower either blacks or whites of lower income status. The incomes and home values of areas near hazardous-waste processing facilities were substantially lower compared with those who were not near such areas.
However, even amongst poor communities, the percentage of individuals who were of minority status was more likely to be exposed to toxins, the most "significant" factor even more determining exposure to toxic waste (Bullard 1990: 35). Knowledge is power, stresses Bullard, and critically analyzing patterns of economic development is a vital component of improving resident's lives in the region. Poorer communities have less financial and legal resources to lobby against encroachments by large, powerful companies into their areas, hence companies gravitate "to disadvantaged areas" lacking economic and political capital (Bullard 1990: 37). These communities also have significantly less knowledge and time to research and identify risks than wealthier communities.
Yet Bullard ends his book on an optimistic note, stating that the 21st century will become an era in which people "stop asking the question 'Do minorities care about the environment?' The evidence is clear and irrefutable that white middle-class...
Since Bullard wrote his manifesto, the problems he has outlined have only grown. While environmentalism may have grown fashionable, there is the clearly still a middle-class ethos to the movement. Mobilization against public health threats in poor community may be increasing, but polluters have grown even sneakier and politically powerful to avoid government regulation. As 'the government' as a force of positive social justice is increasingly demonized as a negative rather than a positive force, it is even more essential that minority communities strive to resist such rhetoric. Particularly when the economy is in a recession, this can prove difficult, but it is essentially for community health and the future of the planet.
Bullard's book effectively links environmental and economic discrimination, noting now the effects of racism can have health repercussions beyond that of a loss of income. Discrimination results in a less healthy workplace but also access to a less healthy community. After extensive historical analysis, he provides a clear solution: political mobilization. Unless African-Americans actively work to take back their communities from polluters by prioritizing the environment, they will continue to suffer the aftereffects of discrimination -- at home as well as at work and school.
Bibliography
Bullard, R.D. 1990. Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Boulder, CO:
Westview.
References
Bullard, R.D. 1990. Dumping in Dixie: Race, class, and environmental quality. Boulder, CO:
Westview.
http://www.ciesin.org/docs/010-278/010-278chpt2.html
