Bridging Social and

Environmental Justice

Unique Vance, UCSB

Marjan Kris Ramos Abubo, UCLA

Student Commission on Racial Equality

Environmental Racism

definition: placement of low-income or minority

communities in proximity of environmentally

hazardous or degraded environments, such as toxic

waste, pollution and urban decay.

“Throughout the history of the United States, there has existed an

inextricable link between the exploitation of the land and the exploitation

of people. The grassroots Environmental Justice movement defines the

environment as “the place where we live, where we work, and where we

play.” It sees the ecosystem which forms the basis for life and well being

as being.

History of the Environmental Justice

Movement

Foundations of the United States:

-Genocide

-Settler Colonialism

-Slavery

-White Supremacy

-Capitalism

We cannot understand the present without the context of history.

Institutionalization of white peoples supremacy over all other people and

the planet.

Federal Housing Association

Underwriters: “minorities affect property value”

Racial suburbanization

Integrated = Instability

Blockbusting, a “white exodus”

Today: Gentrification

Forms of Environmental InjusticeProcedural: Fair

treatment of all

people in regards

to government

regulation, rules,

etc.

Geographical:

Burdening

some

communities

with the waste

of others while

not allowing

them the same

benefits.

Social:

Environmental

decisions

represent the

larger issue of

racial bias in the

United States.

Flint, MI. & Porter Ranch, CA

Markets are not RACE-NEUTRAL

Flint

Population: 100,000

57% Black / African American

37% White

3% Latinx

3% Other

Below the Poverty Line: 42%

Porter Ranch

Population: 30, 571

Below the Poverty Line: 4.4%

Flint

Spill: April 2014

Containment:

TBD

Porter Ranch

Leak: October 23,

2015

Containment:

February 2016

The Environmental Justice Movement

Environmental Justice is the fair treatment and

meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race,

color, national origin, or income with respect to the

development, implementation, and enforcement of

environmental laws, regulations, and policies

Participatory and Representative Justice

- The RIGHT to participate in the social and

democratic process of planning development and

sustainable community building

First Peoples / Indigenous Folx

@ the forefront"There is nothing moral about tempting a starving man with money."

– Keith Lewis, of the Serpent River First Nation in Ontario, reflecting on his impoverished

community’s 50 years of working in and living near uranium mines & mills, and the health and

environmental catastrophe that has resulted.

Reclaiming the Environmental Justice Movement

Open Answer

1. What does the EJ Movement look like on your UC

Campus?

2. Issues, Problems, etc.

3. What is eco-socialism?

Prison Ecology Project, HRDC

EJ 2020 Agenda

War on Drugs/Crime/etc.

Exposure to Toxins

Poor Infrastructures

Environmental Change

Prison Overpopulation

Prison Industrial

Complex

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