Environmental Racism And Discrimination

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Environmental racism or discrimination is placing low income families in polluted areas. In 1970, the Mothers of East Los Angeles and Chicago’s People for Community Recovery, sensed that there was an unbalance of forcing minorities and the poor to toxic surroundings. This treatment has been around for years now starting with it being one of the premier civil rights and environmental issues in the year 1990. (Boerner, 1995). There was an evident link between the poor and minorities being forced to reside in contaminated space. Fighting environmental injustice started as a modest grassroots social movement because it has become a national problem. At that time, the placing African Americans in polluted areas were linked, and became a civil rights…show more content…
Behind the emotion, however, two critical questions arise: does the existing evidence justify such a high-level commitment of resources to environmental injustice claims; and what reasonable steps should society take to ensure that environmental policies are fairly enacted and implemented? (Boerner, 1995). (This paragraph was awesome!) To see that pollution matters on a bigger note, Flint, Michigan is not the only place on the earth that has water issues. Places all over the world, especially in developing countries are suffering from contaminated water. However, to keep this proposal narrowed down, and because of time consumption, focusing on places in the U.S will be most appropriate. (Good!)

In 2014, the state of Michigan decided to switch the cities’ water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River because of doing this there was a major environmental issue that had our nation shocked. The citizens of Flint, Michigan were subjected to unusable drinking water. The switch was made during a financial state
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Those that are living in areas where the air is contaminated, are at a great risk of lung cancer, heart disease, damage to the brain, nerves, livers, and kidneys. There are those that notice that this is a major issue and develop legislations to protect those that fall victim to such harm. For example, the California Government Code 65008 is an almost entirely unexplored opportunity to bring civil rights claim (, it challenges local…) challenging local government actions that impose disproportionate environmental burdens or other harm on low income neighborhoods of color., (Bellows, 2014). This law (not only) protects citizens against racial discrimination, but it (, but also protects) protects those that are lower class citizens. (Bellows, 2014). The barriers in current federal law to successful environmental justice claims against local governments are varied. To file a claim under 65008, there has to be evidence of intentional environmental injustice based on race. (Bellows, 2014). With limited opportunities to bring environmental justice claims under federal law, opportunities within state law are increasingly important. Section 65008 can serve as an important model for advocates and legislators outside of California looking to extend civil rights law and challenge instances of local

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