Committing to Environmental Justice
When Robert Bullard created the term “environmental justice” over 30 years ago, every single dump in Houston was located in a African-American neighborhood. Sadly too little has changed in three decades. Minorities and low income individuals are still far more likely to live in neighborhoods near dumps, toxic industry, power plants, freeways, and other environmental wastelands. These marginalized communities are rising up by beautifying their neighborhoods and protesting new, dangerous projects.
Transforming Injustice Into Beauty
Majora Carter is producer and host of the Peabody Award winning public radio series, The Promised Land-heard on 120 stations across America, and serves on the Boards of the US Green Building Council and The Wilderness Society. From 2001 to 2008 she was the executive director of the non-profit she founded: Sustainable South Bronx-where she pioneered green-collar job training and placement systems in one of the most environmentally and economically challenged parts of the US. This MacArthur "genius" is now president of her own economic consulting firm. Read more.
Read Majora Carter's essay: "Transforming Urban Injustice into Beauty and Empowerment"
Endnotes & References
Brains of Science
Support local organizations trying to keep dangerous industry away from residential areas. Find out more at: www.ccej.org
Why? New power plants and dumps shouldn’t be built close enough to anyone’s home to endanger either their health or the health of their family.
Robert Bullard - The Genesis of Environmental Justice