Unitary Frames, Diverse Realities: Environmental Justice Activism and the Politics of Race in Environmental Decision Making

• In Event: 536 - Regular Session. Environmental Sociology 3

Abstract

This paper links environmental justice scholarship to broader social science discussions of race and power through an exploration of activist experiences of racial framing. My analysis is drawn from the efforts of California environmental justice activists to increase the participation of people of color in state environmental decision-making processes. I review activist critiques of the lack of inclusion of people of color in environmental decision-making, and document the slow growth of the number of people of color in environmental decision-making bodies over time. To date, the decisions made by these slightly more racially diverse state entities, with the input of environmental justice advocates, have not necessarily resulted in outcomes more favorable to environmental justice advocates. I explore how these experiences complicate scholarly treatment of “low-income communities of color” that often overstates people of color’s common experiences and agreement on environmental justice issues. These overgeneralizations are linked to scholars’ lack of attention to race as socially constructed, and racialized groups as internally diverse. Instead, I show how low-income communities of color experience internal political divisions like all other groups, and that efforts to promote more people of color in environmental decision-make spaces are only a partial solution to achieving environmental justice priorities.

Author

• Tracy Perkins, Howard University