Customer Reviews

Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices From the Grassroots

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Too often it's assumed that all environmentalists are white, class-privileged neo-hippies and that people of color are too busy with "real" issues. This book shows that activists of color are extremely dedicated to fighting pollutants in their community. This book stresses that a disproportionate number of communities of color have been targeted for toxic wastes sites, etc.; so it is not environmental classism, but specifically environmental racism. This book does a good job in showing how Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos are equally engaged in fighting this tragedy. This book may be too simplistic for longtime activists. For non-scientists like myself, many of the chemical compounds mentioned and stuff like that went right over my head (figuratively, of course). Still, this helped me learn more on the topic and is a good starter book. I think this book can help bring progressives across color lines together.

Robert Bullard, whose work on environmental justice has really made "local" struggles for a cleaner environment much more visible in academic literature, along with Benjamin Chavis, Jr., a Church activist working to organize and support local struggles against environmental racism, have put together a very readable collection. Chavis and Bullard, open up a forum for other grassroots activists to participate in ongoing academic discussions of the environment and the detrimental effects of waste industries and environmental pollutants on minority and poor populations. CONFRONTING ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM is a nice collection of essays that incorporates the important voices of the individuals who are in the frontlines of change. The one thing I would have liked to see more of is accounts from a broader geographic region. However, if the edition is explicitly about the US (although it never says it is), it is indeed an insightful edition for all who are interested in environmental justice and grassroots social movements.