Confronting Environmental Racism: Voices from the Grassroots

Rating:
Summary: I'm glad there's a book out there on this topic!
Review: Too often it's assumed that all environmentalists are white, class-privileged neo-hippies and that people of color are too busy with "real" issues. This book shows that activists of color are extremely dedicated to fighting pollutants in their community. This book stresses that a disproportionate number of communities of color have been targeted for toxic wastes sites, etc.; so it is not environmental classism, but specifically environmental racism. This book does a good job in showing how Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos are equally engaged in fighting this tragedy. This book may be too simplistic for longtime activists. For non-scientists like myself, many of the chemical compounds mentioned and stuff like that went right over my head (figuratively, of course). Still, this helped me learn more on the topic and is a good starter book. I think this book can help bring progressives across color lines together.

Rating:
Summary: I'm glad there's a book out there on this topic!
Review: Too often it's assumed that all environmentalists are white, class-privileged neo-hippies and that people of color are too busy with "real" issues. This book shows that activists of color are extremely dedicated to fighting pollutants in their community. This book stresses that a disproportionate number of communities of color have been targeted for toxic wastes sites, etc.; so it is not environmental classism, but specifically environmental racism. This book does a good job in showing how Blacks, Native Americans, and Latinos are equally engaged in fighting this tragedy. This book may be too simplistic for longtime activists. For non-scientists like myself, many of the chemical compounds mentioned and stuff like that went right over my head (figuratively, of course). Still, this helped me learn more on the topic and is a good starter book. I think this book can help bring progressives across color lines together.