Environmental Justice for All: It's the Right Thing to Do
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ROBERT D. BULLARD*
Environmental Justice for All: It's the Right
Thing To Do
Despite recent attempts made by the United States govern-
ment to level the playing field, African Americans, Latino Amer-
icans, Asian Americans, and Native Americans continue to bear
a disproportionate burden of environmental and health risks
where they live, work, and play. People of color, working class
people, and poor people are disproportionately impacted by air
pollution,' municipal solid waste landfills and incinera-
tors,2 toxic waste sites,3 lead smelters,' toxic fish consump-
tion,5 and childhood lead poisoning.6
* Ware Professor of Sociology and Director of the Environmental Justice Re-
source Center at Clark Atlanta University. B.S., 1968, Alabama A&M University;
M.A., 1972, Atlanta University; Ph.D., 1976, Iowa State University.
1 Victor Brajer and Jane V. Hall, Recent Evidence on the Distribution of Air Pollu-
tion Effects, CoNTEMP. POL'Y ISSUES, Apr. 1992, at 63-71; Lauretta M. Burke, Race
and Environmental Equity: A Geographic Analysis in Los Angeles, GEOGRAPHIC
INFO. SYSTEMS, Oct. 1993; Dee R. Wernette and Leslie A. Nieves, Breathing Pol-
luted Air: Minorities Are Disproportionately Exposed, EPA J., Mar.-Apr. 1992, at
16-17.
2 ROBERT D. BULLARD, INVISIBLE HOUSTON: THE BLACK EXPERIENCE IN BOOM
AND BUST 60-75 (1987); Robert D. Bullard, Solid Waste Sites and the Black Houston
Community, 53 Soc. INQUIRY 273-88 (1983) [hereinafter Solid Waste Sites].
3 COMMISSION FOR RACIAL JUSTICE, UNITED CHURCH OF CHRIST, TOXIC WASTE
AND RACE IN THE UNITED STATES: A NATIONAL REPORT ON THE RACIAL AND
SOCIO-EtONOMIC CHARACTERISTICS OF COMMUNITIES WITH HAZARDOUS WASTE
SITES (1987) [hereinafter RACE].
4 See ROBERT D. BULLARD, DUMPING IN DIXIE: RACE, CLASS, AND ENVIRON-
MENTAL QUALITY 1-20 (1994).
5 Patrick C. West et al., Minority Anglers and Toxic Fish Consumption: Evidence
from a State-Wide Survey in Michigan, in RACE AND THE INCIDENCE OF ENVIRON-
MENTAL HAZARDS: A TIME FOR DISCOURSE (Bunyan Bryant and Paul Mohai eds.,
1992).
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Environmental Justice for All: It's the Right Thing to Do
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