Eco-Apartheid in African-American Communities

African-descended people, sad to say, have always struggled with environmental injustice issues. The most unacceptable and disgraceful attributes toward human beings such as colonialism, segregation and racism left many people in the African diaspora vulnerable to ecological degradation. The demand for cheap goods and neoliberal economic policies deprived these people of their land, traditions, health, and livelihoods. For these reasons, environmental justice advocates, as a general rule, refer to the unequal distribution of environmental benefits as "eco-apartheid". Therefore, those who bear the burden of these inequalities righteously refuse to accept environmental injustice.

Measures established by international environmental movements, more often than not, backfire on people of colour. Projects financed by international NGOs destroy livelihoods and traditional ways of life. In the United States, regulations established by environmental activists in the 1970s have been harnessed by middle-class whites, leading to a proliferation of toxic sites in African-American communities. In the US, for instance, people of colour make up 56% of the residents living in neighbourhoods with dangerous waste facilities.

African-Americans tend to live in areas with lower property values and have fewer assets, lower levels of education, and less political power. Under these circumstances, local governments and companies consider minority neighbourhoods attractive locations for polluting industries. Often, they emphasize the jobs that these industries offer and completely downplay their dangers. In their need for economic development, minority communities have been slow to recognize that they are polluted.

References:

Checker, M., 2008. Eco-apartheid and global green waves: African diasporic environmental justice movements. Souls, 10(4), pp.390-408.