Hi everyone, my name is Chau. I use she/her/hers
pronoun. I’m currently a second year student
at PCC and a student leader at Sylvania Multicultural
Center. First word I want to thank you all
for your interest in my presentation. And
I hope everyone is doing well during this
chaotic time. Let’s wait no longer and dive
into the topic of today’s presentation.
Studies showed that race is the most significant
predictor of a person living near contaminated
air, water, and soil. Therefore, I would like
to give you brief information on Environmental
Racism.
First, I would like you to take a minute to
think of as many adjectives to describe personality
as possible.
I bet the adjective “clean” is not in
the list of the words that you just thought
of.
However, on the day Biden officially filed
the paperwork to launch his presidential campaign,
Biden “complimented” his fellow candidate
Barack Obama as: “I mean, you got the first
mainstream African-American who is articulate
and bright and clean and a nice-looking guy.
I mean, that's a storybook, man”. And of
course, I just made up what Obama thought
in his mind. There’s no way I could know.
Anyway, it’s not without cause that people
of color are related to ‘not clean’ or
dirty. There’s a history behind it. POC
were constantly linked to dirtiness, and therefore,
some people might think it’s normal if the
area that POC lives in is polluted or contaminated.
Next i'll show you a small piece of history
related to POC and how they were connected
to “not clean”.
Here is an advertisement around 1884.
This is a marketing campaign of a soap brand called
Ivory Soap. It targeted Indigenous people,
stating they’re dirty and, of course, “uncivilized”.
And that these soap will clean them and shed
light on them. And this is a poem made by
Uncle Sam:
I will be wise
And thus the Indians civilize:
Instead of guns, that kill a mile,
Tobacco, lead, and liquor vile,
Instead of serving out a meal,
Or sending Agents out to steal,
I’ll give, domestic art to teach,
A cake of Ivory Soap to each.
Before it flies the guilty stain,
The grease and dirt no more remain;
It will change their nature day by day,
And wash their darkest blots away.
They’ll turn their bows to fishing rods,
And bury hatchets under sods,
In wisdom and in worth increase,
And ever smoke the pipe of peace;
For ignorance can never cope
With such a foe as Ivory Soap.
And 
they even make it a series with following
details and results. This is what happened
after Native people received the soap and
“cleaned” themselves. Now they reclaimed:
We once were factious, fierce and wild,
To peaceful arts unreconciled;
Our blankets smeared grease and stains
From buffalo meats and settlers’ veins.
Through summer’s dust and heat content,
From moon to moon unwashed we went;
But Ivory Soap came like a ray
Of light across our darkened way.
And now we are civil, kind and good,
And keep the laws as people should,
We wear our line, lawn and lace,
As well as folks with paler face.
And now I take, wherever we go,
This cake of Ivory Soap to show
What civilized my squaw and me,
And made us clean and fair to see.
Until this day, this Ivory soap brand is still
available in the market
That was a long time ago. Sadly, we are not
doing much better in modern day. This is a
short video of how environmental justice acts
play out through the years.
Then what is environmental racism? To understand
environmental racism, we should first know
the concept of environmental justice. [...]. Here
we can see the difference between ‘equality’
and ‘equity’. ‘Equality’ basically
means fairness. Meaning that everyone is given
the exact same treatment, opportunity, resources
regardless of their background, history or
life situation. But as we see here, that is
not enough. Whereas, ‘equity’ means providing
people with opportunity, treatment according
to their needs and real conditions. In the
words of Paula Dressel, “the route to achieving
equity will not be accomplished through treating
everyone equally. It will be achieved by treating
everyone just according to their circumstances”.
Now dig deeper into the definition of environmental
racism, Benjamin Chavis,a prominent African-American
civil rights leader, notes that: “[...]”.
What happened that made environmental racism
an issue that needs to be attended to. Now,
I’ll show you some significant examples
In the video I showed you earlier, they gave
a quick glimpse of the water issue in Flint,
Michigan.
So I want to spend more time looking into
it.
(decades back -> 2014 -> 01/12/2015 -> flint
leaders decline the offer -> 01/21/2015 -> 1/7/2015
-> 3/23/2015 -> 1-/1/2-15 -> 2/17/2017)
Decades back: Although the whole issue was
made public around 2014, the underlying problems
had taken place years before, when African-American
migrants came to Flint to work at General
Motor plants. It had two neighborhoods where
black people could live, and very explicitly
they were denied access to other homes. Once
there were fair housing laws and school desegregation
laws that broke down the system, Flint's population
started to decline, as a lot of these white
middle-class and upper-class folks left. Now,
FLint has half of the population than it used
to. Hence, residents are expected to pay to
support a water system meant to serve twice
as many.
In April 2014, Flint officials decided to
switch the water supply system from Detroit
to Flint River, stating it was a cost-saving
move.
Jan 12 2015, Detroit offered to reconnect
Flint to its water system and waive the 4
million reconnect fee.
However the offer was declined by Flint officials
with claim that the increase in cost to use
Detroit’s water “would not be in the best
interest of the city or its water users”
Jan 21st 2015, the first city hall meeting
was held to address the water issue. Residents
brought their tap water to show state officials
as evidence. Despite the obvious indication,
officials maintained that the water is safe.
In spite of saying that lead level didn't
meet public treatment requirements, and that
water is safe, filtered water was provided
to government employees in Flint’s State
Office Building. However, all that was just
a good-sounding excuse because the action
level for lead is 15 part per billion in more
that 10% of the sample. Whereas the safe level
is zero percent. Virginia Tech found that
17% of the water samples from Flint are above
15ppb.
On March 23rd 2015, members of Flint city
council voted 7 to 1 to reconnect Flint to
Detroit water system. Officials dismissed
the vote and, once again, stated that there
is no difference between Flint’s water and
Detroit’s water despite the evidence to
the contrary. Virginia Tech researchers concluded
that water from Flint is 19 times more corrosive
than Detroit’s, and thus more apt to leach
lead from plumbings. Corrosion in water pipes
is the main cause of 
this crisis.
On October 1st, 2015, an emergency petition
was filed to seek assistance from the EPA.
Yet, there was no action from the EPA.
In 2017, a report by the Michigan Civil Rights
Commission asserted that “deeply embedded
institutional, systemic, and historical racism”
played a fundamental role in causing and maintaining
the water crisis in Flint.
Next is an example that I find especially
ironic. Several years back there was a phenomenon
known as giant rubber duck. The artwork was
created by a Netherland artist with the notion
that “the Rubber Duck knows no frontiers,
doesn't discriminate people and doesn't have
a political connotation”. The idea was great
but the reality is not so alike. The second
picture is a playground in a town in Louisiana
where the children have to play near a chemical
plant producing Polyvinyl Chloride - a main
component to make up rubber duck.
The association between race and polluted
areas is no coincidence. Studies found that
non-white communities had been treated unequally
through years. In 1992, staff writers from
the National Law Journal uncovered glaring
inequities in the way the federal EPA enforces
its laws. It was stated: [...]
Later on the National law Journal study supplements
the findings of earlier studies and reinforces
what many grassroots leaders have been saying
all along, saying: [...]
To this day, I’ve heard plenty of misconceptions
that because lower income is associated with
race and lower income is associated with inequitably
environmental treatment. Therefore, race and
environmental issues are associated. Though
this logic sounds plausible, it’s wrong.
In a multivariate analysis with the race and
socioeconomic variables separately grouped,
race continues to be a significant predictor
of community who are most affected by environmental
issues.
These all are “dark” to talk about. I
will not let you go with that negativity.
Yes, environmental racism is real and is still
happening. However, activists have also come
a long way to change the legislation. Next,
I’ll show you a brief environmental justice
timeline.
1990, EPA establishes Environmental Equity
Work-group with the mission to address the
allegation that 'racial minority and low-income
populations bear a higher environmental risk
burden than the general population.'
In 1991, the First National People of Color
Environmental Leadership Summit was held.
During the meeting 17 principles were adopted
as a comprehensive platform for a national
and international movement of all people.
In November 1992, Office of Environmental
Equity was Established. Now called: Office
of Environmental Justice (OEJ).
In 1993, National Environmental Justice Advisory
Council (NEJAC) Created with the mission to
hold public meetings on environmental justice
issues across the nation.
In 1999, the national black environmental
justice network convened an emergency meeting
against “toxic terror” in New Orleans.
In 2002, the second EJ summit was held in
Washington, DC
In 2011,EJ plan for 2014 was released acting
as a road map to assist EPA in integrating
environmental justice into all of the Agency's
programs, policies, and activities
In June 2015, EJSCREEN was released. It’s
a tool that helps users identify: Minority
and/or low-income populations, Potential environmental
quality issues, A combination of environmental
and demographic indicators that is greater
than usual, Other factors that may be of interest.
As a closing note, I want to leave you with
this quote, “the color of your skin or the
thickness of your wallet shouldn’t determine
your ability to breath clean air”
