Dr Robert Bullard has been called the ‘father of the environmental justice movement’. He told The Guardian's environmental justice reporter, Nina Lakhani how the movement began: ‘I started working on environment and race in 1978/79 by collecting landfill data for a landmark civil rights lawsuit filed by my wife in Houston, Texas, against the city and the state. This study found that between the 1930s and 1978, 82% of all the waste in Houston was dumped in black neighbourhoods, even though only 25% of the population was black. This was not random or isolated; it was targeted and widespread across the southern states and the nation. We lost in court, but the concept of environmental racism was born.
The seminal Environmental Justice principles adopted by the National People of Colour Environmental Leadership Summit in 1991 built on this [legal case] and became the foundation for social justice movements across the world. Even so, the same discrimination and racism continues to dictate who gets dumped on and who gets resources to mitigate floods, wildfires, and other disasters. Of course, those with wealth and political clout do best; if you have money you can buy bottled water or move house. The poor cannot go anywhere.’
The statistics on environmental racism are shocking. Research has proven that it encompasses all aspects of African Americans’ lives: environmentally unsound housing, schools with asbestos, facilities with lead paint. Dr Bullard’s research has found that African American children are five times more likely to have lead poisoning than Caucasian children, and that a disproportionate number of people of colour reside in areas with hazardous waste facilities. His research has raised awareness of the environmental racism that pollutes America. Bullard is truly deserving of the title ‘father of the growing environmental justice movement’.
Written by Zahra Peer Mohamed
Artwork by Zara Masood
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