February 1994
Philanthropy Journal of North Carolina • 13
Racism
Continued from page 1
sure it’s race or is it class or econom
ics?,” says Executive Director David
Harris. “The answer to that question
is that, yes, it is economics and class.
But the predominant factor is race.”
NORTH CAROLINA ROOTS
Use of the term “environmental
racism” dates to 1982, when civil
rights leader Ben Chavis led a suc
cessful protest against a toxic waste
dump planned for a section of most-
ly-hlack Warren Connty.
Marchers criticized industry and
local government leaders for select
ing the commnnity as a chemical
dumpsite — a move they defined as
environmental racism.
The movement picked up speed
five years later when the United
Church of Christ issued a report
showing that three out of five black
and Hispanic Americans live in com
munities with one or more uncon
trolled toxic waste sites. The report
identified race as the key factor in
locating hazardous facilities.
More recently, the issue of envi
ronmental racism has been propelled
into the political spotUght.
In North Carolina, the N.C.
Environmental Review Commission
has been holding hearings on “envi
ronmental justice” to help lawmak
ers better understand the issue.
In Washington, the White House
and federal agencies are working on
a new executive order that would
require more careful study of health
risks involved in government build
ing projects in minority neighbor
hoods.
Bolstered by renewed attention
from government and the media, a
growing number of nonprofit envi
ronmental groups have placed envi
ronmental racism at the top of their
“There is a growing knowledge
that there’s a link between social
needs and environmental situations,”
says Jane Preyer, a project coordina
tor for the N.C. Environmental
Defense Fund in Raleigh.
“This issue is part of the chang
ing way we are looking at environ
mentalism in general.”
FORGING NEW LINKS
Pressure from grassroots organi
zations has led traditional conserva
tion groups to he more responsive to
the needs of minority and low-
income communities.
In Tyrrell County, for example.
The Conservation Fund, based in
Chapel Hill, recently joined forces
with county leaders to create a non
profit dedicated to environmentally-
sound job development.
Last summer, the Tyrrell County
Community Development Corp.
established a youth conservation
corps that trains mostly black
teenagers from poor, rural communi
ties to work in state parks and a
local wildlife refuge.
Supporters say the presence of
the Development Corp. has helped
ease pressures that often lead poor
and minority communities to accept
toxic facilities or massive hnilding
projects.
“What we’re trying to prove is
that you don’t need to go either with
economic development or environ
mental preservation. The two can he
compatible,” says Mikki Sager, pro
gram coordinator for The Conser
vation Fund.
FUNDERS SEEK SOLUTIONS
In 1992, North Carolina founda
tions gave $5.7 million — or 3 per
cent of the $222 million in total
grants that year — to environmental
causes.
Although breakdowns were not
available for the amount that went to
programs on environmental racism.
T.
grantmakers agree that foundation
support for the issue is growing.
But while money is flowing,
activists say the bulk of support is
going to existing environmental
groups — not to fledgling grassroots
efforts.
“I get a sense from the philan
thropic community that, weU, you’ve
dealt with the issue of environmental
racism. It’s a fad,” says Angela
Brown, a staff member of the
Southern Organizing Committee and
hoard member
of the Fund for
Southern Com
munities.
Part of the
problem is that
issues involving
race still are
thorny ones for
foundations.
“The staffs
and hoards of
foundations are
generally white
and middle
class,” says
Victor De Luca,
a program offi
cer with the
New York City-
based Jessie
Smith Noyes
Foundation —
a leading na
tional environmental funder. “Some
of the issues raised by the environ
mental justice movement contradict
some of notions and beliefs that mid-
die class folks have lived by.”
Other grantmakers cite the small,
localized nature of groups fighting
environmental racism as the reason
foundations have been slower to sup
port their work than that of state or
regional environmental networks.
A QUESTION OF DEMOCRACY
Responding to criticisms that
government has also reacted slowly
here is a
growing knowl
edge that there's
0 link between
social needs and
environmental
situations.
JANE PREYER
Environmental
Defense Fund
to the issue, Richard Regan, a leg
islative analyst in Governor Hunt’s
Washington office, has this to say:
“Like North Carolina, a lot of
states are institutionalizing the issue
by studying it first. That troubles
some folks who say it’s been studied
for some time. But I think it’s a good
first step in solving it.”
Regan says the federal govern
ment is surveying some 500 solid
waste landfills — approximately 15
of which are located in North
Carolina — to see whether they have
been placed in predominantly poor
and minority communities.
He believes the results will give
citizens the evidence they need to
convince lawmakers that they are
the victims of environmental racism.
Such evidence is needed, state
officials say, because despite grow
ing awareness of the issue, not
everyone agrees on the source of the
problem.
“It means different things to dif
ferent people,” says George Givens,
counsel for the state Environmental
Review Commission “For some peo
ple it means the siting of controver
sial facilities in minority or disadvan
taged areas. To some it has to do
with worker exposure or workplace
safety.”
Industry leaders insist they use
only scientific data when locating
hazardous waste dumps or other
facilities.
“Our hope is that as the public
becomes more educated on the safe
ty, the economic benefit and the envi
ronmental responsibility of disposing
of the waste we all seem to continue
to create, issues like this will be less
necessary and people will find it less
necessaiy to mount opposition,” says
Maureen Allen, a spokeswoman for
Browning-Ferris Industries Inc.,
which operates several waste dispos
al and recycling plants in North
Carolina.
FUTURE CHALLENGES
Observers say the most pressing
task facing the environments justice
movement is defining issues in ways
that do not alienate potential sup
porters.
“Initially, the movement was
speaking in terms of equity in the
sense that there was an inequitable
distribution of environmental risk,”
says Robert Cox, a professor of com
munications studies at the Univer
sity of North Carolina at Chapel HUl
who spoke at recent state hearings
on environmental jnstice.
“Increasingly, those communities
dropped the term “equity” because
they found they were being misun
derstood. They were being labeled
NMBYs [for “Not in my back yard”]
by the press and politicians.”
Although the number of environ
mental jnstice groups seeking sup
port poses a challenge for fonnda-
tions, many see the movement as a
chance to rethink giving priorities.
“This will he an opportnnity for
environmental funders to collaborate
more with human services and urban
funders to do something bigger for
the whole sector,” says Pam
Maurath, assistant coordinator for
the Environmental Grantmaker
Association in New York City.
Expanding environmental work
to incorporate issues of race and
class also can boost organizing
efforts.
“The state is doing the social
change movement a service by hav
ing these big, bad facilities come in,
because people who have not tradi
tionally worked together are now
coming together on the same goal,”
says Vick of the Blue Ridge
Environmental Defense League.
“What we as people of North
Carolina need to realize is that if we
stop indiscriminate dinnping on poor
and minorities, its going to help all of
us.”
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