Before going further a definition of terms such as environmental racism, equity and justice is important in order to more fully appreciate the following poems. The following concepts are often used in the literature without definition. Therefore the definitions to the following concepts will hopefully provide a framework for our discussion. However these definitions will undoubtedly change was continue both research and discourse. An extension of racism, Environmental Racism refers to those institutional rules, regulations, and policies or government or corporate decisions that are used target certain communities for least undesirable land uses based upon certain prescribed biological characteristics.
Environmental Equity refers to the equal protection of environmental laws.
For example, it has been shown that under the Superfund clean-up program that abandoned hazardous waste sites in minority areas take 20 percent longer to placed on the national priority action list than those in white areas. It has also been shown that over the last several years my teaching and research focus has been on the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color. To date people of color communities find themselves in communities where they suffer from disproportionate amounts of toxic induced and aggravated respiratory diseases of cancer, and of a shorten life expectancy. This is unequal protection. Therefore laws should equally be enforced to ensure the proper siting, clean-up of hazardous wastes, and the effective regulation of industrial pollution, regardless of the racial and economic composition of the community.