Blog # 7 My Topic
My topic is Environmental Racism against minority based, low income urban communities. This is probably one of the hardest topics to narrow down and research. I was originally going to try to narrow it down even further to environmental racism against hispanic communities in N.Y. but I found virtually no literature on this topic so I had to broaden it and I hope that will be ok. Let me know what you think people, please.
Environmental racism is exactly what it sounds like, just as I stated in my paper it is basically the degradation of the environment by industry in communities of vulnerable people who are targeted because of race, income or ethnicity. Let me give you an example which I feel will explain it the best way. Did you ever see the movie with Julia Roberts called Erin Brockovich? For those of you who did not it is about a woman who starts working for a small law firm in a rural area in the United States and was given a case to help work on that involved a large company.This company contaminated a community of people with toxins that was produced by a facility they placed in the area. A lot of these residents acquired cancer because of the toxins that was produced from this facility. The majority of these people were hard working but of the lower social economic status and uneducated. This made it very easy to take advantage of them and that is Environmental Racism or Environmental classism which usually goes hand in hand. These people's health was sacrificed by a toxic environment due to the actions of this wealthy powerful company who specifically targeted these people because it was the easiest way to get what they wanted and they placed little value on the health of these residents because of their economic status.
My goal is to explain to people who are unaware of this issue and people who are being affected by this issue the cause, effects and possible solutions of Environmental Racism. This is the audience I feel is the most important to reach because knowledge is power and it might get people to become pro active on such an important problem within our society. I hope that I can give my readers a clear explanation of what environmental racism consists of and instill in my readers a deep concern about this issue with examples of what happens to individuals affected by environmental racism.
I want my paper to be able to be used as a reference for students researching the topic. I would also like the reader to be able to use my paper as they would a web site or a panflit which is to get direct simple answers to questions they have on the issue and that was difficult for me to do. Whenever I read about an issue I want to cut to the chase and get the answers I am looking for in laymen terms and with good interesting examples to help me understand the issue better. That is my objective with this paper.
Here are some of the sources I will use for my paper with a brief explanation of what it is about:
http://academic.udayton.edu/
This web site has an article titled “COINCIDENCE OR ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM?” that looks at whether environmental racism exists or not. It researches the issue of hazardous waste facilities and if they are concentrated in communities of color. It looks at cases that argue for and against environmental racism.
http://www.unrisd.org/
This website has another article titled “Environment and Morality: Confronting Environmental Racism in the United States” which describes what environmental racism is in detail and also its connection with dominant society and its institutions.
http://www.ncpa.org/ National Center for Policy Analysis
This website has an article titled “Environmental Racism?” It brakes down environmental racism by categories such as, The Search for Environmental Racism and Moving to Areas With Pollution.
My topic is Environmental Racism against minority based, low income urban communities. This is probably one of the hardest topics to narrow down and research. I was originally going to try to narrow it down even further to environmental racism against hispanic communities in N.Y. but I found virtually no literature on this topic so I had to broaden it and I hope that will be ok. Let me know what you think people, please.
Environmental racism is exactly what it sounds like, just as I stated in my paper it is basically the degradation of the environment by industry in communities of vulnerable people who are targeted because of race, income or ethnicity. Let me give you an example which I feel will explain it the best way. Did you ever see the movie with Julia Roberts called Erin Brockovich? For those of you who did not it is about a woman who starts working for a small law firm in a rural area in the United States and was given a case to help work on that involved a large company.This company contaminated a community of people with toxins that was produced by a facility they placed in the area. A lot of these residents acquired cancer because of the toxins that was produced from this facility. The majority of these people were hard working but of the lower social economic status and uneducated. This made it very easy to take advantage of them and that is Environmental Racism or Environmental classism which usually goes hand in hand. These people's health was sacrificed by a toxic environment due to the actions of this wealthy powerful company who specifically targeted these people because it was the easiest way to get what they wanted and they placed little value on the health of these residents because of their economic status.
My goal is to explain to people who are unaware of this issue and people who are being affected by this issue the cause, effects and possible solutions of Environmental Racism. This is the audience I feel is the most important to reach because knowledge is power and it might get people to become pro active on such an important problem within our society. I hope that I can give my readers a clear explanation of what environmental racism consists of and instill in my readers a deep concern about this issue with examples of what happens to individuals affected by environmental racism.
I want my paper to be able to be used as a reference for students researching the topic. I would also like the reader to be able to use my paper as they would a web site or a panflit which is to get direct simple answers to questions they have on the issue and that was difficult for me to do. Whenever I read about an issue I want to cut to the chase and get the answers I am looking for in laymen terms and with good interesting examples to help me understand the issue better. That is my objective with this paper.
Here are some of the sources I will use for my paper with a brief explanation of what it is about:
http://academic.udayton.edu/
This web site has an article titled “COINCIDENCE OR ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM?” that looks at whether environmental racism exists or not. It researches the issue of hazardous waste facilities and if they are concentrated in communities of color. It looks at cases that argue for and against environmental racism.
http://www.unrisd.org/
This website has another article titled “Environment and Morality: Confronting Environmental Racism in the United States” which describes what environmental racism is in detail and also its connection with dominant society and its institutions.
http://www.ncpa.org/ National Center for Policy Analysis
This website has an article titled “Environmental Racism?” It brakes down environmental racism by categories such as, The Search for Environmental Racism and Moving to Areas With Pollution.
3 comments:
Wow, I'm surprised that there wasn't that much information on the environmental racism experienced by Hispanics. I applaud you for taking on this topic and recognize that it will be alot of information to condense.
Ethnic, and low income communities make easy targets for these atrocities. I really liked the fact that you were incredibly concise on how you would execute your findings,and I can sense that you share a strong connection with a topic.
Good Luck
Jocelyn =)
I like your topic; i am also doing something similar. However, i think your topic is to broad. In order to make it doable you need to find 1 or 2 communities to study in detail. The South Bronx, for instance is a great example of environmental racism against Hispanics. Look into neighborhoods like hunts point in the Bronx. I think there is also a site of the Sustainable South Bronx, which is an organization that deals with solving environmental inequalities.
Moreover, another community you can look into is Williamsburg in Brooklyn; I find this one particularly interesting. Williamsburg has recently become very gentrified; whites have almost completely replaced the predominantly Latino community of this area. Now what is most interesting is that years ago when Hispanics inhabited the area it had one of the highest asthma rates in the country due to industrial pollution. Nevertheless, as this community became more gentrified, factories and pollution have increasingly begun to disappear.
Your first website is just a site for a university; i could not find what you described. Maybe put the exact link to the article and not the domain.
I think this may be a good topic if you find a specific community to work on.
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