SSCI 165Lgw Chapter Notes - Chapter LA Environmental Racism Torance & East LA/Vernon: Dow Chemical Company, Deindustrialization, If And Only If
Document Summary
Environmental racism in la pulido, sidawi, vos notes. Must focus on simultaneous evolution of racism, class formation, and development of industrial landscape, rather than questioning which came first (linear causality) Class not just income, but division of labor in relation to production. Race not static, but changing (racialization = continuous process) Must investigate history to supplement studies of contemporary socioeconomic & pollution patterns: gives more nuanced understanding of intent & motivation. Environmental equity research tends to compare pollution & demographic (usually census) data, but neithe(cid:396) (cid:272)ensus t(cid:396)a(cid:272)ts no(cid:396) (cid:862)(cid:396)a(cid:272)ial(cid:863)/ethni(cid:272) (cid:272)atego(cid:396)ies a(cid:396)e (cid:272)onsistent over time. Racism may account for enviro inequities, but sometimes class does too. Focus instead on how diff populations become vulnerable to enviro hazards: emphasize process, not dichotomous outcomes reconceptualize race/class as social relations. Problems w/dominant conceptualization of race denies fluid nature of racial categories: racial categories treated as fixed, racism conceived in unitary fashion, overlooks fact that minority status is historical product of struggle.
