Race and Environmentalism

Paper Summary:

This paper looks at the attempt to dump unwanted projects that pose a large number of health and environmental risks, on poor and minority communities. The paper addresses the racial bias reflected in the environmental decisions made by the City of Los Angeles, and uses the Vernon incinerator case as an example of the city's decision-making process and how organized communities can fight back.

From the Paper:

"The Mothers of East Los Angeles actually came together before the Vernon incinerator proposals appeared on the horizon. They originally sought to prevent the construction of an eighth penal institution to their neighborhood. The Mothers of East Los Angeles began meeting regularly at their church in 1984 to discuss the problems facing their community. They developed a political awareness and began traveling to Sacramento to make their views known to state legislators and officials. These elderly women became well-known in the state capitol and managed in time to bring legal action against the prison plan, leaving it in abeyance indefinitely while in the courts. They soon had another project to occupy their time. In 1985, the state had started the process for building the first large scale hazardous waste incinerator in a metropolitan area, and it was to be placed right in the middle of East Los Angeles where the Mothers lived."

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