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Noted author says black kids' problems linked to environment "A lot of times, our kids are being labeled as dumb and slow learners, but a lot of it has to with where we live. Lead poisoning is affecting one-third of all African American children as I speak. " Photo by T. Kevin Walker Robert Bollard spoke to student* and fatuity at Wake forest University last week, environmental Racism is rampant throughout the nation, Bullard says. By T. KEVIN WALKER THE CHRONICLE Although it affects the air we breathe and the water we drink, environmental racism has taken a backseat to more audacious forms of discrimination. But an expert in the field warned last week that environmen tal racism is more serious than a racial slur could ever be. "As black people, we really have to be involved and educated because our communities are on the front-lines," said Robert Bullard. Bullard is the Ware Pro fessor of Sociology at Clark Atlanta University and the direc tor of the school's Environmental Justice Resource Center. Bullard told students and fac ulty at Wake Forest University that landfills, chemical plant$, lead smelters and other environmental hazards exist in poor and minority neighborhoods at a disproportion ately high rate. Until fairly recently, Bullard said, existing environmental laws have failed to protect those com munities from the serious health risks posed by haz ardous sites. "We have one set of environmental laws. Those laws need to be applied equally across the board," he said. "The Er ironmental Protection Agency is just now begin ning to understand what equal environmental pro tection is all about." Race, though, is not always a factor when hazardous facilities spring-up in communities. Bullard said. Poor white communities, like those in Appalachia, also find themselves victims because they lack economic and political mus cle. Economics and class have been factored into environmental racism and has produced a much more far-reaching movement called environmental justice or injus'ice. ''Environmental justice is broader than just race because poor white communities get dumped on too; (however) when poor white folks get dumped on it's because they are poor, but when middle-class blacks get dumped on it's (more racial). We don't find a lot of cases where middle-class or upper-class whites are being dumped on," Bui lard said. Bullard first became involved in the issue more than 20 years ago. His wife, a lawyer, had filed a suit on behalf of middle-class African Americans in Houston whose community was chosen as the site for a solid waste dump. Bullard was convinced by his wife to do research for the case and over the years he has been involved "in dozens of similar cases. Bullard showed slides of the Houston dump's entrance, with its neatly trimmed hedges and stately wooden gate. He said private com panies and local governments often try to dress-up environmen tally-unsafe sites so that they will appear to be harmless. "You can put a bow on it, dress it up and dress it up, but a garbage dump is a garbage dump," he said. He has written a number1 of books on the subject. Bullard's most famous book, perhaps, is 1990s "Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class and Environmental Quality." The book chronicles a bevy of environmental justice battles from below the Mason-Dixon. One of those battles took place in North Carolina and is credited with bringing the environmental justice issue to the national spotlight, Bullard said. , The 1983 case revolved around the state s decision to place moun tains of toxin-riddled soil in a black neighborhood in Warren County. Bullard showed slides of African American protesters lay ing in the street so that trucks could not enter the site to dump more soil. More than 500 people went to jail for protesting against the dump, Bullard said. Today, Bullard said, the state of North Carolina is having to invest millions of dollars to clean up the Warren County site and the envi ronmental havoc that it reeked. 4* Bullard also pointed to a more recent example, where grassroots efTorts actually thwarted a Japan ese company's attempts to con struct a hazardous chemical plant in a black community in Louisiana. , . ., The Shintech Corporation promised to bring high paying jobs to the community, but a group of protesters, headed by a retired school teacher and a grandmother, balked at the idea and complained to EPA officials. Eventually Shin tech backed down and set its sights elsewhere. "The environmental justice movement is not anti-jobs; it's not anti-development. It's pro justice and equity," Bullard said. The South doesn't have a monopoly on incidents of environ mental injustice. It is happening all over the country, Bullard said. He showed the audience a slide of a high-tech park in the heart of Harlem. N.Y. The park, with its immense artificial-turf football field, lay in a neighborhood that has a balanced mix of middle class. affluent and low-income peo nlo ? piv. But those^ who fre quent it are getting more than a walk in the park. "It sits on top of a sewer treatment plant," Bullard said, using his laser pen to highlight pipes that sprout near the edge of the park. "Every body's children should have a right to play out side on a clean playground." In the long run, Bullard said, the effects of environmentally-haz ardous plants and landfills may be seen in the intellectual and social development of the children who live near the sites and in upsurges in disease rates. Compounding the situation, Bullard said, is lead poisoning. Lead levels are also higher in poor communities, where many families live in old houses which still have lead pipes. "A lot of times, our kids are being labeled as dumb and slow learners, but a lot of it has to with where we live," Bullard said. "Lead poisoning is affecting one-third of all African American children as I speak. We have gotten lead out of gasoline, but we still have lead left in housing." But Bullard says environmental injustice doesn't begin and end with hazardous conditions in neighborhoods and homes. It also extends into the workplace, where poor and minority people often work environmentally - hazardous jobs that put them at the greatest risk for serious health problems. "You shouldn't have to have a trade-off: your health for a good job," he said. "It's a triple whammy- it's in the neighborhood, on the job and in the home. An environmental problem can also translate into a social problem and an economic problem." Bullard says that during his early days in the movement, many law suits, including the Houston case, were lost because plaintiffs could not prove that environmen tally-unsafe facilities were placed in their communities because they were minorities or poor. Although legal action is the last resort, Bullard says those involved in the movement have successfully used a 35-year-old law to win suits. "We've become more sophisti cated," Bullard said. "Now, we are using Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 to prove there is a pat tern (in environmental injustice). We don't have to show intent." In 1994, President Bill Clinton signed Executive Order 12898, which reinforced the '64 Civil Rights Act and environmental laws enacted over the years. Bullard, who served on the EPA National Environmental Justice Advisory Council, joined EPA Secretary Carol Browner, Clinton and other council members in the Oval Office for the signing. The environmental justice center he heads assists com munities that are facing environ mental threats by, among other things, answering questions and doing research on sites that pose possible dangers. It is one of four such centers that exist today, all of which are located at historically black col leges and universities. In the epic war against environ mental injustice. Bullard says citi zens, especially poor and minority people, must prepare themselves for combat with information and , awareness because the battles will take place on many fronts. "A clean workplace. A decent wage and a healthy community, these are things we see as rights, not as privileges," Bullard said. In his latest book, "Just Trans portation: Dismantling Race and Class Barriers to Mobility," Bullard tackles yet another aspect of environmental injustice. He says, one reason why asth} ma and other respiratory probleni} plague many poor and minority children is because major highways are often constructed near thetr neighborhoods. Like its close cousins, the phe nomenon, known as transporter tion injustice, is not unique to air? one part of the country. It could be the next major leg# challenge in the ever-growing envi ronmental injustice movement. ?, "Civil Rights is embodied Si transportation beginning wiQi Plessy versus Ferguson," Bullaid said. "We are still dealing wifl) Plessy, even though Brown versds the Board of Education ovet turned Plessy. The closest distanoe between two points is not always straight line because highways go around affluent areas, but they can cut straight through our neighbor} hoods." % * RECHARGE, REUSE, % RECYCLE. We all know recycling aluminum, plastic and paper is great for the environment. Now you, can recycle Nickel-Cadmium (Ni-Cd) rechargeable batteries. These p batteries are used in mahy portable . - ? i . ! products such as cellular phones, power tools and camcorders, and they can b?^~- ^ recycled when, they're no longer useful. ?ffl^EASY. Just look for the RBRC Battefy , Riding Seal and for me, Richard Kant, I wher^eer you buy Ni-Cd batteries. ^For-rnafe information, call ^OW-BArrtRY dr vi>it our website, www.rbrc.com. * I Tt? Charga Up i to Recycle! | international f spokesperson is Richard Karn of "TVs Home Improvement. Look for ? the Seal^^_ iorv-pra? pubic Mrvto* organttaton cmM to promo* t? wcyeMng oI Httmt Cmtmu* (*??4) mJmymbta b*?nM The Chronicle o , ' 0 wschron@netunlimited.net I SPRINGBOARD H t o of u c c e s s I " MBA 1 H _ Evening and Executive Programs Winston-Salem * Information Session S Thursday, March 25 : 5:30 - 7:30 p.m. (Formal remarks begin at 6 p.m.) Wake Forest University Worrell Professional Center Call today! X00.428.6012 or 336.758.4584 www.mba.wfu.edu 1' . ' ? ' ?- ? 1 ' ? ' 3 *<>' 4 2 ' Review all your ?sr -siss* JSSZl, S?SK? 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Winston-Salem Chronicle (Winston-Salem, N.C.)
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March 11, 1999, edition 1
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