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Environmental Racism and Injustice

The article examines the historical development of environmental racism and injustice in South Phoenix, Arizona over the past century. It describes how racist discourses and discriminatory policies and practices by white elites spatially segregated minorities into South Phoenix. This area became stigmatized as polluted and dangerous, justifying further neglect and the concentration of hazardous industries and waste sites in minority neighborhoods. Lack of investment, redlining, freeway construction, and airport expansion further deteriorated environmental and living conditions for Latino and African American residents of South Phoenix. The article argues this represents environmental racism stemming from a complex interaction of racially motivated policies and decisions that disadvantaged minorities, even if not always intentionally, to serve white privilege and capitalist growth imperatives.

To answer the questions:

1. Prejudice refers to negative attitudes, beliefs or feelings toward people based on their race or ethnicity. The article provides examples of prejudiced views depicting Mexicans and Mexican American neighborhoods as filthy, diseased, and immoral. In contrast, discrimination involves actions, policies and treatment of racial/ethnic groups that create disadvantages or disparities. Examples of discriminatory practices in Phoenix included racially restrictive housing covenants, redlining of minority areas as too "hazardous" for investment, segregated schools, and public places, and steering of industrial development and freeways into minority neighborhoods.

2. Prejudice and discrimination are related but distinct concepts. Prejudiced attitudes don't always lead to discriminatory actions. And discriminatory policies can reproduce racial inequalities even without overtly prejudiced intent, through institutionalized racism. Examining both prejudice and discrimination, and how they interact, is important for understanding the complex historical and structural roots of racial disparities and environmental injustices. In Phoenix, prejudiced discourses about race and place helped rationalize discriminatory decisions that concentrated industrial hazards and deteriorated living conditions in Latino and African American areas. But the impacts stemmed from an ensemble of racially influenced policies and practices more than simply individual prejudice.