environmental racism -or- One World, One Environment June 29. 2004


After seening the F9/11 movie by Micheal Moore, I started thinking hard about the systemic problem of the US governments role in oppressing the already poor and oppressed. The poor people of this country are dieing for us and they are being recruited in a very racist way by the US militrary. I wrote a paper about 2 years ago that delt with a similar issue. Environmental Racism. I wonder if anyone else sees this connection and if they do... do they care enough to change the systems that cause it. At the time I wrote this paper I claimed my place of residence in Griffith, IN.
As I step out my door, I am greeted every morning by the dull hum of Interstate 80/94. Something inside me says I would miss the noise if the interstate were to "go away," but I, nor the thousands that surround the highway, would miss the tons of pounds of waste fumes that are spewed into the atmosphere each year. I'm sure that road has been one of the contributing factors in my asthma, for when I went to college in a rural community with no interstate highway near, my asthma went away. My personal dilemma only begins to scratch the surface of what the communities merely 3 miles north of Interstate 80/94 are struggling with to survive. If you were to travel north from my house, you would begin to notice a change in the landscape only two mile after you left the doorstep. The effect of pollution can plainly be seen in everything that is around you. The trees (if you can find any) begin to look tired and worn out. The buildings all have a yellowed look as if they were teeth stained by too much coffee or cigarette smoke. You can even just begin to see the smoke stacks from the steel mills even further north. As you continue to travel, there is something else that is changing that may not be as easily seen from a roadway, the color of the skin of the people living in the communities around you is beginning to get darker. As you enter the community directly connected to the steal mills and oil refineries which are causing the majority of pollution in the area, you would be hard pressed to find a single white person living there. Most of the people in this community realize they are sacrificing a healthy environment but they are sacrificing it for employment. The people that live in these communities are making lower to middle middle income but they are making it from the same companies that are killing them and their families with their waste. Why is it, though, this is not the case for white families as well? How is it I only see black and Latin families risking their lives in this toxic waste dump to make money for their families?

Fortunately, I am not the only one who sees this trend. The United Church of Christ in a landmark study Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States found that race was a major factor in the proximity of families to hazardous wastes.1 They called this phenomenon "environmental racism"2 To determine this, the study looked at every zip code in the United States and located the sites of toxic waste emission and/or dumping. The sites that were most densely populated by waste were also the sites that had a majority of minorities in the area. The study also took into account social class or income and determined that race was a bigger
factor than income.


... One year after this report was published, the PC(USA) moved into new offices in Louisville, Kentucky and created the Environmental Justice Office.3 Its mission, which I believe to be in part if not solely in response to the UCC study, is to4:
  • produces, promotes and distributes faith-based environmental resources for individuals, congregations and presbyteries
  • coordinates a network of over 60 Presbytery "Restoring Creation Enablers" who support education, leadership development, and environmental ministries throughout their presbyteries
  • offers leadership training in environmental issues through national and regional conferences, seminars, and workshops
  • communicates with the Presbyterian Washington Office and the Presbyterian UN Office on advocacy around environmental issues
  • hosts study seminars for Presbyterians to understand first-hand the environmental concerns of particular regions
  • participates in regional, inter-faith Global Climate Change Campaigns
  • cooperates with the World Council of Churches in international climate change negotiations
  • networks with other denominations' environmental staff persons through the National Council of Churches of Christ Eco-Justice Working Group. (Find out more about the NCCC Eco-Justice Working Group and ecumenical environmental work at www.webofcreation.org)
  • promotes the Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) "Energy Star Congregations" program
  • relates to Presbyterians for Restoring Creation, a Presbyterian community dedicated to environmental wholeness with social justice, seeking to be a prophetic voice for substantive change in the church and in the world


The first statement that the PC(USA) released in response to environmental injustice was in 1990 with its Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice.5 The statement speaks of many different actions the Presbyterian Church (USA) should be taking to help defend the Environment and all who live in it. The statement was amended by the 207th General Assembly in 1995 when another statement was produced by the Assembly, Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment.6 These statements combined with the Environmental Justice Office has responded to the unjust situation to which racial minorities are subjected.

These two statements outline a plan of action or steps that should be taken by all individuals to help bring about environmental justice to all of our communities. There is little debate that the environmental injustices we see around us are not the product of the racist system that was (is?) in place from the founding of our county to the civil rights movement. This system has been so intertwined with the economics and decisions of our society that even when we feel as if we are no longer racist as a society, a report comes along informing us otherwise. Our consumption, our mindless waste, and even traveling in our cars adds to the injustice that is around us and if we come to know that these actions cause the harm of others based on race, what else can we call ourselves but racists. This is what I see the statements attempting to answer. The statements give direct ways in which individuals and communities can bring about this environmental justice that has been secretly hiding in our willingness not to care about where our wastes go. If we know of the injustice that is about us, it is impossible to continue to live as we did in ignorance. The tools for our action are all around and must be utilized. There are thousands of people who have been affected by this type of racism.7 We are to blame for these deaths, for these murders. There have been responses to this injustice we must join our voices to the response lest we allow ourselves to shed the blood of innocents.

The PC(USA) has responded to the environmental injustices with some very good initiatives at correcting the wrongs of environmental racism.8 The first major step we can take, as prescribed in the statements, is to work in the public square and work on societal policies that "result in reducing the generation of hazardous wastes and reduction in the use of hazardous substances. Techniques include (a) substituting non-hazardous for hazardous substances used in production processes,(b) changing end-products so fewer hazardous substances are required,(c) modifying or modernizing production lines, (d) better housekeeping practices during production, and (e) recycling hazardous substances and other materials within the production process."9 Others items in the statements focus on changing the way businesses see environmental policies. In other words supporting policies that reward companies for environmentally friendly production. There are many more action items that are listed in the PC(USA) statements but all in all the real goal of these statements is to change the way in which the governmental, economic, and social systems work so as to be just to all humans on the Earth. The current trend is to use and waste without care for others but the statements challenge that trend and offer a solution for protecting the rights of individuals and communities while still allowing for sustainable consumption.

When I chose this topic I had never even heard or contemplated the fact that racism had something to do with what I was seeing in my own community and the communities around me. I never even thought to ask myself, "why is it more racial minorities live around 'the mills'?" This only goes to show that "statements of environmental justice" are not enough. Action from those statements must be taken for any real change towards justice to take place. I don't think I would have ever become aware of the tragic situation there is in the United States for minorities. Maybe it was because I was feeling the health effects of living near centers for toxic waste and felt I was part of the plight. What ever it was, I myself was a part of the problem that was/is killing me and so many of my community members. But my ignorance of the situation is of course my own fault but in some small ways I feel that PC(USA) should have better informed its congregants about the social ills associated with race and toxic wastes. There are many tragedies in this world that need a solution and I think that bringing the issue of environmental racism and environmental justice to the fore front would help to fix many of the social problems in our society. We must take action and we must take it now before another life is lost to the tragedy of our Environmental Racism.
  1. United Church of Christ Commission on Racial Justice, 1987. Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, New York: United Church of Christ.
  2. ibid.
  3. PC(USA) - Environmental Justice, <http://www.pcusa.org/environment/index.htm> , 2001
  4. ibid.
  5. PC(USA) 202nd General Assembly, 1990, Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice, Louisville, KY: PC(USA)
  6. PC(USA) 207th General Assembly, 1995, Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment, Louisville, KY: PC(USA)
  7. United Church of Christ Commission on Racial Justice, 1987. Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, New York: United Church of Christ.
  8. PC(USA) 207th General Assembly, 1995, Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment, Louisville, KY: PC(USA)
  9. PC(USA) 207th General Assembly, 1995, Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment, Louisville, KY: PC(USA), Section A, Item 1.

Works Cited


  • PC(USA) 202nd General Assembly, 1990, Restoring Creation for Ecology and Justice, Louisville, KY: PC(USA)
  • PC(USA) 207th General Assembly, 1995, Hazardous Waste, Race, and the Environment, Louisville, KY: PC(USA)
  • PC(USA) - Environmental Justice, <http://www.pcusa.org/environment/index.htm> , 2001
  • United Church of Christ Commission on Racial Justice, 1987. Toxic Wastes and Race in the United States, New York: United Church of Christ.

Works Consulted


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David  Tuesday, June 29. 2004 @ 11:01
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