Back History Month 2026: Environmental Racism

Day 21

Environmental racism is real, and it’s killing people. Environmental racism was coined by Dr. Benjamin Chavis Jr. He defined it as, “Racial discrimination in environmental policy making, the enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the life-threatening presence of poisons and pollutants in our communities, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the ecology movements. [1]” It’s NOT “the environment/nature being racist.”

Some examples of environmental racism are chemical plants being build in predominantly Black neighborhoods, oil and gas pipelines being build on Indigenous land, and neglected infrastructure in predominantly BIPOC areas leading to drinking water being contaminated with either sewage or other toxins. In all these cases, the people who are forced to deal with the negative effects are BIPOCs. Most of the time, like in the case of the lead-contaminated water Flint, MI, the predominantly wh1te state officials looked the other way [2][3]. Incidents like these are far too common here in the US, but there’s another, more prevalent example that needs more attention: food deserts.

Food deserts are form of environmental racism where people in a certain area don’t have access to healthy/fresh food due to corporate divestment. While these food deserts are often in urban areas, rural areas also suffer from the same problem. Food deserts are common on Native American reservations, for example [4]. The result is people in these areas being forced to rely on unhealthy options for food. Instead, they must rely on whatever food they can get at a gas station or liquor store. This leads to them buying high-calorie foods optimized for taste instead of nutrition (e.g. potato chips), raising their chances of becoming obese and/or getting diabetes. Even in places where healthier options are available, these foods are more expensive than unhealthy options (e.g. fast food) [5]. A poor person who needs to feed their family for the day will likely choose the latter because they’re more affordable.

What can be done? Zoning laws. One of the reasons people build chemical plants in Black neighborhoods is because they’re allowed to do so. Changing zoning laws to keep these polluters away from where people live and/or where they get their water would significantly reduce their harm. For food deserts, we could have the government step in where private companies will not. Since the government doesn’t need to make a profit, it could build stores and/or food banks where people can access healthier options at affordable prices. Mayor Mamdani wants to put some of these in New York City [6]. The United States is the richest, most powerful country in the world. There’s no reason for environmental racism of any kind to exist here!

Sources:

[1] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Environmental_racism

[2] https://www.nrdc.org/stories/what-environmental-racism

[3] https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flint_water_crisis

[4] https://doi.org/10.7275/best_text.3250

[5] https://socialwork.tulane.edu/blog/food-deserts-in-america/

[6] https://economicsecurityproject.org/news/cnn-zohran-mamdani-wants-to-build-government-supermarkets-america-already-has-them/

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