Environmental Issues In Action: Civil Rights Movement

The novel, “The Intersectional Environmentalist" by Leah Thomas, employs readers to view environmental justice related movements and initiatives from a perspective that includes historically marginalized groups of people, particularly the BIPOC community. Mainstream environmental movements tend to focus on environmental conservation without considering social and economic disparities that stem from environmental issues. By integrating diversity in environmental justice practices, environmental concerns can be approached in an equitable manner that is beneficial to all people. The author also highlights a continuing theme throughout the novel: intersectionality, or the “cumulative way various forms of discrimination intersect, particularly in

The concept of social justice, and the environment have always been under great threat. However is it possible to mend the two, combine them together, in order to create an equal atmosphere and a sustainable society? The majority of the population have always wanted to prevent the minority in gaining their rights in fear of losing their power, and the nature conquerors have disregarded the wilderness’ needs in fear of losing their profit. Environmental activists and advocates have sought to bridge the gap between the complicated and divisive relationship between the natural world and the advancing technological world. Rebecca Solnit, Wendell Berry, and John Muir all recognize the explicit relationship between social justice and the respect for the natural world.

Environmental justice “is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies” (www.epa.gov.). The case of Navajo-Hopi Struggle to Protect the Big Mountain Reservation provides evidence of an environmental justice framework.

In the early 1980s, Environment Justice activist prioritized their efforts to focus on the unequal amounts of waste dumps in minority communities. The increased awareness of these situations led to the development of EJ from the civil rights movement that happened around the same time. Environmental Justice is defined by its recognition that, “disparate and disproportionate environmental impacts occur among different communities across racial and socio-economic lines, affected communities should be appraised of environmental issues affecting them, and these communities should be incorporated in any decision-making process.” (Middendorf, 2007)

The overall objective to this Goal is to ensure that the public is both involved in identifying, avoiding and minimizing environmental justice concerns. In addition, another objective to this Goal is maintenance and assurance of Tribal Relations. Furthermore, another objective is to maintain a database of national and community based organizations and networks concerned with environmental justice. Moreover, this goal has U.S.D.A. performance measures and target dates in similar fashion as the other

Title: The Civil Rights Movement: A Historical Analysis of the Increasing Racial Factors in the Emergence of Intersectional Feminist Theory and Union Organizing for Women of Color

Here the authors address an important solution; allow residents to hire their own experts from the community who are well versed in delivering the proponents message to the residents in a manner that does not exclude anyone from the process. The landfill began operating in 2006, as the proponents deemed there was not any substantive opposition to the project through official Environmental Impact Assessment (Deacon & Baxter, 2013). Deacon and Baxter in this case set out to understand the role and relation between power and participation as it relates to procedural environmental justice in order to challenge understanding of environmental justice and cease production and reproduction of environmental injustice. The residents protested as they felt they were being sacrificed for economic growth, “the landfill has become a symbol of the slow decline of the community of Lincolnville” (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia, 2006). They call this environmental racism, which is the racial discrimination in the enforcement of environmental rules and regulations, targeting minority communities for the siting of polluting industries or the exclusion of people of color from public and private boards, commissions and regulatory bodies (Race and Waste in Nova Scotia,

The Environmental Protection Agency defined environmental justice as the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies. People shouldn’t be grouped in communities based off

Environmental Protection Agency and the Department of Energy. Those violations, she said, have taken two forms: long-term disregard for indigenous land rights and a "bureaucratic disregard for consultation with indigenous people."

A Civil action is movie based on a true story of court case about environmental pollution that took place in Wilburn, Massachusetts, in the 1980's. The court case revolves around the issue of trichloroethylene, an industrial solvent and its contamination of a local source. Jan Schlichtmann An American Attorney specializing in personal injury Law filed a lawsuit over industrial operation that "cased several children to die from leukemia and cancer, as well as a wide variety of other health problems, among the citizens of the Town."1 Jan originally rejects a seemingly unprofitable case, Jan finds an environmental issue involving groundwater contamination that could be a good case against "some defendants with deep pockets."2 The local tanneries

Social movements are one of the primary means through which the public is able to collectively express their concerns about the rights and wellbeing of themselves and others. Under the proper conditions, social movements not only shed light on issues and open large scale public discourse, but they can also serve as a means of eliciting expedited societal change and progress. Due to their potential impact, studying the characteristics of both failed and successful social movements is important in order to ensure that issues between the public and the government are resolved to limit injustices and maintain societal progress.

The Civil Rights movement is one of the most important acts to change the way not only African Americans were able to live their lives but all races and colors. It would slowly break down the social, economic, political, and racial barriers that were created by the The Age of Discovery and Transatlantic Slave trade. I believe without the Civil Rights acts our country would result to be no better than what it was when the Emancipation Proclamation just took effect. In the 1950s and long before, Southern folk, who were white had created a system that would interpret them as a superior race over blacks. The system would defend whites rights and privileges from being taken away from them while establishing terrible inhumane suffering for African Americans. In the South blacks were controlled in all aspects economic, political, and personal, this was called a “tripartite system of domination” - (Aldon D. Morris) (6) Though it isn’t as prevalent racism and discrimination towards other races that aren’t white is still found in America and can be in schools, the workplace, even when you are in the general public but you no longer see discriminating signs saying “Whites” or “Blacks” or Colored” along the front of bathroom, restaurants, and shopping malls doors. Nor do you see people being declined the right to buy a home based on their color or access to school and an equal education being declined because one didn’t meet racial requirements. The acts of violence towards

As stated in the thesis, environmental injustice mostly affects minority communities. In a map presented by the Los Angeles Times, in Southeast LA there are 26 communities- which 83.9% of the inhabitants are of minority groups (Southeast, n.d.). Similarly, another map released by EPA from the 1990 U.S. Census illustrates that in places where there is 80 to 100% of people of color there is at least 2

The American Civil Rights Movement is personified through several prominent personalities. These figures exhibited strong character throughout their careers in activism that revolutionized the ideals and opportunities of the 20th century, standing as precedents for courage and perseverance in the face of widespread systemic oppression. However, not all of these figures received the acknowledgment and acceptance that their legacy deserved. One such figure was Bayard Rustin, a lifelong Civil Rights activist in the African American and LGBTQ communities whose experiences exemplified the hardships faced by American minorities. His career was defined by perpetual conflict and confrontation as both sides of the Civil Rights Movement attempted to demonize and discredit him. Despite this obstacle, Bayard Rustin’s controversial decision-making and sheer tenacity made him an influential force in the ongoing fight for equality in the United States of America.

With this thesis I wanted to create a broader view on the systems behind all the critiques on volunteerism projects in order to contribute to projects that are both beneficial for volunteers as well as for host communities. The theoretical aim of this thesis was to contribute to the scientific debate on how volunteerism projects impact volunteers and host communities, through showing how this impact is influenced by processes of liminality and Othering. On top of that, I wanted to question the notion of “giving aid” as the starting point of volunteerism projects. The story represented two groups; volunteers and host communities, who joined volunteerism projects with good intentions. Some, however, unaware of the unintended consequences and how their expectations would work out.