Progress report
Geographies of race and
ethnicity II: Environmental
racism, racial capitalism and
state-sanctioned violence
Progress in Human Geography
2017, Vol. 41(4) 524–533
ª The Author(s) 2016
Reprints and permission:
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DOI: 10.1177/0309132516646495
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Laura Pulido
University of Southern California, USA
Abstract
In this report I argue that environmental racism is constituent of racial capitalism. While the environmental
justice movement has been a success on many levels, there is compelling evidence that it has not succeeded in
actually improving the environments of vulnerable communities. One reason for this is because we are not
conceptualizing the problem correctly. I build my argument by first emphasizing the centrality of the production of social difference in creating value. Second, I review how the devaluation of nonwhite bodies has
been incorporated into economic processes and advocate for extending such frameworks to include pollution. And lastly, I turn to the state. If, in fact, environmental racism is constituent of racial capitalism, then
this suggests that activists and researchers should view the state as a site of contestation, rather than as an ally
or neutral force.
Keywords
environmental racism, racial capitalism, state violence
I Introduction
We need to rethink environmental racism. The
environmental justice (EJ) movement arose in
the early 1980s and over the last 35 years activists have succeeded at blocking both new projects and the expansion of existing ones.
However, it is questionable if the environments
of vulnerable communities have actually
improved through EJ. There is compelling evidence that environmental disparities between
white and nonwhite communities, what I call
the environmental racism gap, have not diminished and that the situation may have worsened
(Bullard et al., 2007). EJ scholars have hinted
at why the movement has failed to achieve
substantive results, including industry capture
of the state (Faber, 2008; Lievanos, 2012; Holifield, 2007); state co-optation of EJ activists
(Harrison, 2015); and a less oppositional EJ
movement (Carter, 2014; Benford, 2005). Yet,
I argue a fundamental problem characterizing
both EJ activism and research is the failure to
theorize environmental racism as a constituent
element of racial capitalism. Numerous problems stem from not conceptualizing the problem
accurately, including not giving sufficient
weight to the ballast of past racial violence, and
Corresponding author:
Laura Pulido, University of Southern California, Los
Angeles, CA, USA.
Email: lpulid@gmail.com
Pulido
assuming the state to be a neutral force, when, in
fact, it is actively sanctioning and/or producing
racial violence in the form of death and
degraded bodies and environments.
My goal in this essay is to reposition environmental racism so that it is recognized as fundamental to contemporary racial capitalism.
Although the environmental justice movement
is global, I focus on the US. Besides originating
in that country, it is in the US that EJ has most
fully articulated a racial framework and relied
heavily on the state. Hopefully other researchers
will apply and modify this framework to other
parts of the world as appropriate. Developing a
more radical analysis of EJ places it in closer
conversation with political ecology (Holifield,
2015; Heynen, 2015), the environmentalism
of the poor (Nixon, 2011), and other radical
streams emanating from the Global South. In
addition, I hope to further acquaint geographers
with research on racial capitalism coming from
critical ethnic studies scholars, such as Jodi
Melamed, Lisa Cacho, and John Marquez, as
well as geography’s own Ruth Wilson Gilmore.
Although I focus on environmental racism,
I believe other parts of the social formation
share structural parallels that might benefit from
a similar analysis.
In order to build my argument I first briefly
demonstrate the limited gains of the EJ movement. I then consider how racial capitalism produces environmental racism by elaborating on
three points. First, I emphasize the centrality of
the production of social difference in creating
value. Second, I review how the devaluation of
nonwhite bodies has been incorporated into economic processes and advocate for extending
such frameworks to include pollution. And
lastly, I turn to the state. If environmental
racism is indeed a function of racial capitalism,
then the state immediately becomes problematic
in new ways. This is crucial because in the
US most activists and researchers are steeped
in a liberal politics in which they work with the
state. Instead, the state must become a site of
525
opposition, as it sanctions racial violence. In
order to move forward both as a movement and
scholarly field, we must rethink environmental
justice.
II The environmental racism gap
While nobody has compared the difference in
environmental quality between white and nonwhite communities, numerous researchers have
assessed the efficacy of state-based EJ initiatives. Key to understanding EJ efficacy is what
I call the ‘environmental racism gap’. Recent
scholarship has called attention to ‘environmental privilege’, which seeks to problematize the
environmental quality enjoyed by more privileged populations (Park and Pellow, 2011). In
contrast, the environmental racism gap highlights the persistent inequality between white
and nonwhite communities. This gap, which is
manifest in practices, regulations, and outcomes, requires discerning between universal
and EJ regulations. Universal regulations seek
to improve the environment across the board,
such as the Clean Air Act. Despite neoliberal
deregulation (Faber, 2008), there has been some
progress over the last 40 years. For example,
researchers have documented significantly
increased lung function in youth as air pollution
has declined (Gauderman et al., 2015). In contrast, EJ initiatives are intended to protect vulnerable populations and address the problem of
differential exposure, especially concentrations
(Noonan, 2015). This requires different tools,
often called environmental justice.
Below, I present some of the key avenues in
which EJ activists have sought relief from the
state (see Pulido et al., 2016, for a fuller discussion). Studies typically are narrowly focused in
order to produce a rigorous and detailed analysis. Though such an approach is the norm and
entirely appropriate, seen individually it
obscures larger patterns. Seen collectively,
however, it is difficult to escape the conclusion
of failure.
526
The first arena in which activists have
appealed to the state is through lawsuits. To date,
eight EJ lawsuits have been filed based on the
Equal Protection clause of the 14th amendment
to the US Constitution. All have failed. The primary problem is the inability to prove discriminatory intent – a requirement of a 2001 Supreme
Court decision (Alexander v Sandoval), which
contracted the definition of discrimination. A
second register is Title VI Complaints. Under
the Civil Rights Act, public agencies receiving
federal funds are prohibited from discriminating. As of January 2014, activists had filed 298
Title VI complaints with the EPA, yet only one
has been upheld – a success rate of 0.3% (see
also Deloitte Consulting, 2011; Mank, 2008;
Gordon and Harley, 2005).1 A third and distinct
sphere of state engagement is Executive
Order 12898. This order, issued by President
Clinton in 1994, requires all federal agencies
to consider the EJ implications of their activities. A 2003 Civil Rights Commission evaluation of the implementation of EO 12898 by
the EPA, Housing and Urban Development,
and the Departments of Transportation and
Interior found that all four agencies had failed
to fully incorporate EJ into their activities (see
also Gross and Stretesky, 2015; Guana, 2015;
Noonan, 2015).
A fourth site for the reproduction of environmental racism is regulatory enforcement.
Though definitive assessments cannot yet be
made, there is strong evidence to suggest discriminatory enforcement along racial lines, especially in Latina/o communities (Konisky, 2009;
Konisky and Reenock, 2013; Lynch et al., 2004;
Mennis, 2005).2 Finally, EJ initiatives have
been developed in over 30 states (Targ, 2005).
These offer a microcosm into the consistent
refusal and/or inability to reduce the environmental racism gap. This was apparent, for
example, in California’s Global Warming Solutions Act (AB 32), in which it was knowingly
decided to continue allowing pollution concentrations’ in vulnerable communities as part of a
Progress in Human Geography 41(4)
larger effort to reduce global warming (London
et al., 2008, 2013; Lievanos, 2012).
III Environmental racism and racial
capitalism
Failure on such a scale cannot be resolved by
tinkering with policy. While geographers typically attribute such dynamics to neoliberalism
(Faber, 2008; Holifield, 2007), this is only part
of the story. For instance, what is the connection
between court decisions that contract the definition of discrimination and neoliberalism? Pellow (2007) is one of the few to combine political
economy and race in his analysis of transnational pollution, although Heynen (2015) has
made some important moves in this direction.
I build on Pellow’s work as well as research
from critical ethnic studies to argue that environmental racism is part of racial capitalism.
Ethnic Studies scholars have long grappled
with the relationship between racism and capitalism (Barrera, 1979; Marable, 1983; Almaguer, 1994). Cedric Robinson coined the term
racial capitalism in Black Marxism: The Making
of the Black Radical Tradition. First published
in 1983, he argued that racism was a structuring
logic of capitalism. His work did not initially
circulate beyond a small circle of scholars
(e.g. Kelley, 1990; Gilmore, 2007), but the rise
of critical ethnic studies (Márquez and Rana,
2015) has introduced a new generation to it.
While this is new to some (Bonds and Inwood,
forthcoming; Driscoll Derickson, 2014; Ruiz,
2015), there is, in fact, older geographic scholarship that sees capitalism as deeply racial
(Wilson, 1992; Blaut, 1993; Woods, 1998; Gilmore, 2002). Thus, the ideas are not necessarily
new. What is new is the term, the intellectual
moment, and the political urgency. The time is
ripe for a deep engagement with racial
capitalism.
A focus on racial capitalism requires greater
attention to the essential processes that shaped
the modern world, such as colonization, primitive
Pulido
accumulation, slavery, and imperialism. As
McKittrick notes, ‘the geographic management
of blackness, race, and racial difference (and
thus nonblackness) hinges on a longstanding
but unacknowledged plantation past’ (2011:
953). By insisting that we are still living with
the legacy of these processes, racial capitalism
requires that we place contemporary forms of
racial inequality in a materialist, ideological
and historical framework.
Dominant historical narratives of racism
locate its origins in European colonization.
Robinson (2000) challenges this notion by documenting its prior roots in Europe. This is key,
because although he and others, such as Melamed (2015: 77), insist that, ‘capitalism is racial
capitalism’, this historicization suggests that
racism predates capitalism and therefore can
be used by diverse economic systems, including
colonization and slavery. Indeed, to treat colonization, for example, as solely an economic
process is not to fully grasp its human impact,
logic, or legacy (Said, 1979; Blaut, 1993;
Fanon, 1965; Galeano, 1973; Blackhawk,
2008). We can never overlook the fact that
racial ideology (along with guns) enabled colonization. Though conquest and domination were
not always the sole motives, the elaborate ideology that constructed indigenous people as less
than fully human was entirely necessary for the
colonial project. Indeed, Smith (2012) has suggested the genocide is the core logic driving
colonization. In the case of the US and other
settler societies, colonization led to massive
land theft, which was not only a form of primitive accumulation, but also became the basis of
those countries’ national territories at the cost of
native nations (Hixson, 2013).
Earlier debates sought to reconcile racism
and capitalism (Wilson, 1992; Barrera, 1979;
Almaguer, 1994), but critical ethnic studies and
its precursors insist that race cannot always be
contained by capitalism (Omi and Winant,
1986; HoSang et al., 2012; Roediger, 2008;
Lipsitz, 2006). Though racism has been and is
527
deployed to facilitate maximum accumulation,
racism can also exceed the desires of various
fractions of capital. Consider the overt racism
of the contemporary US Republican Party,
which is arguably counter to the desires of much
of multicultural corporate America (Melamed,
2011). Given the variability of racism to capitalism, I consider the production of difference
and value as the most fundamental point of connection. Accordingly, this should be the starting
point for EJ analyses.
1 Producing difference and value
The centrality of value to capitalist production
is well-known. But there are multiple ways of
conceptualizing value, and by extension, differential value. Differential value refers to the production of recognized differences that result in
distinct kinds of values. These differences in
value become critical in the accumulation of
surplus – both profits and power (Cacho,
2011; see also Gilmore, 2002). Just as uneven
space is essential to the unfolding of capitalism
(Harvey, 2001), human difference is essential to
the production of differential value.
Relationality is key to the production of differential value (Cacho, 2012: 13). For example,
whiteness derives its meanings and value from
various forms of nonwhiteness, which Cacho
and Barrett call a kind of negativity. Negativity
is important because it ‘forms the ground of
possibilities for value’ (Barrett in Cacho,
2012: 13). While this is familiar terrain for critical human geographers (Anderson, 1987;
Kobayashi and Peake, 1994), it is rarely
reflected in empirical geographic work. Instead,
most of us examine racial outcomes without
considering racial production. Analyzing racial
production is not merely a theoretical exercise
however. Rather, it informs how a problem is
conceptualized, and thus shapes political strategy. Indeed, focusing on a particular racial/ethnic group, rather than racial capitalism, per se,
may lead to improved conditions for some,
528
while overlooking capitalism’s incessant need
to actively produce difference somewhere.
Capital can only be capital when it is accumulating, and it can only accumulate by producing and
moving through relations of severe inequality
among human groups – capitalists with the means
of production/workers without the means of subsistence, creditors/debtors, conquerors of land
made property/the dispossessed and removed.
These antinomies of accumulation require loss,
disposability, and the unequal differentiation of
human value, and racism enshrines the inequalities that capitalism requires. (Melamed, 2015:
77)
By theorizing the racialized production of differential value, racial capitalism illuminates not
only the inevitability of environmental injustice, but the structural challenges facing
activists.
2 Operationalizing nonwhite devaluation
Theories of racial capitalism highlight how
racial difference is produced and how that relative valuation gets operationalized. This means
not only how ideas and practices of devaluation
circulate, but how they become institutionalized, and the implications for the racially subordinate and dominant. There are many ways
racism can be harnessed by economic processes.
I will mention two that are widelyacknowledged as manifestations of racial capitalism: land and labor.
Land is thoroughly saturated with racism.
There are at least two primary land processes
to consider: appropriation and access. Appropriation refers to the diverse ways that land was
taken from native people, as previously mentioned. Once land was severed from native peoples and commodified, the question of access
arose, which is deeply racialized. Numerous
laws and practices reserved land ownership for
whites. Indeed some groups, such as Asians,
actually lost land they once owned (Ruiz,
2015; Curry, 1921).
Progress in Human Geography 41(4)
Differential value is also produced and
extracted via racialized labor systems – black
chattel slavery being one of the most profound
examples. Smith (2012) asserts that slavery is
one of the key logics of white supremacy: the
ability to commodify human beings. Understanding slavery’s history and ballast enables
us to appreciate the extent to which devalued
black bodies, to paraphrase Ta-Nehisi Coates,
have financed both whiteness and the American
Dream (2015: 132), and I would add global
white supremacy (da Silva, 2007). Recent
research reveals the economic contributions of
slavery to the US economy and infrastructure,
as well as the extreme violence necessary to
maintain such a system (Baptist, 2014; Johnson,
2013; Wilder, 2013; for a critique, see Hudson,
2016). Upon slavery’s conclusion, numerous
legal and de jure forms of labor discrimination
and exploitation limited the life chances of nonwhite workers while boosting the opportunities
and status of white ones (Roediger, 1991). Dualwage systems, racially-exclusive labor unions,
racialized divisions of labor, share-cropping,
and related practices ensured a vulnerable supply of low-wage workers (Barrera, 1979; Saxton, 1995; Almaguer, 1994; Kelley, 1990;
Woods, 1998). Racialized economic policy has
amplified these effects, as seen in the 1935
National Labor Relations Act’s limited protections for occupations dominated by African
American, Mexican, and Asian workers. More
recently, Gilmore (2007) has shown how the
problem of surplus labor, which is disproportionately nonwhite, has been ‘solved’ by the rise of
the prison industrial complex.
Just as labor arrangements and economic and
social policy are constituitive of economic formations, so too are ecologies of resource extraction, processing, and disposal. Many EJ policies
and scholarship conceptualize both racism and
waste practices as externalities, rather than as
fundamental to the very fabric of racial capitalism. Yet if racism is continually creating differential value, it is only logical that capital (and
Pulido
other nondemocratic economic systems) would
incorporate this uneven geography of value into
its calculus. As Pellow has noted,
the production of social inequalities by race,
class, gender, and nation is not an aberration or
the result of market failures. Rather, it is evidence
of the normal, routine, functioning of capitalist
economies. Modern market economies are supposed to produce social inequalities and environmental inequalities. (2007: 17)
Industry and manufacturing require sinks –
places where pollution can be deposited. Sinks
typically are land, air, or water, but racially
devalued bodies can also function as ‘sinks’.
Taking this a step further, Moore (2015) has
argued that capitalism is a way of organizing
nature. Specifically, capitalism functions by
restructuring nature. And since humans are
nature, we must recognize that capitalism is
reproducing itself by restructuring humans on
a cellular level. This has nothing to do with
malicious intent (Pulido, 2000) and other liberal conceptions of racism. Rather, this is capital acting upon a larger differential valuation
(Pellow, 2007), or, in the recent case of leadcontaminated water in Flint, Michigan, the
neoliberal state, both of which are part of the
‘ecology of capitalism’ (Moore, 2015).
3 Environmental racism
as state-sanctioned racial violence
This brings us to the state. If environmental
racism is part of racial capitalism, then its regulation becomes the province of the state. Kurtz
(2009) has observed that the racial state has
been overlooked by EJ scholars. Fortunately,
researchers have begun analyzing state programs and practices, showing how the state
needs to be problematized (Holifield, 2007;
Harrison, 2015; Konisky, 2015). Earlier I presented literature indicating that the state has not
seriously sought to intervene in the environmental racism gap. Indeed, the state is deeply
529
invested in not solving the environmental
racism gap because it would be too costly and
disruptive to industry, the larger political system, and the state itself. Instead, the state has
developed numerous initiatives in which it goes
through the motions, or, ‘performs’ regulatory
activity, especially participation (London, Sze,
and Lievanos, 2008; Kohl, 2015), without producing meaningful change. The problem is not a
lack of knowledge or skill, but a lack of political
will that must be attributed to racial capitalism.
Environmental racism must be seen in the context of a long line of diverse forms of statesanctioned violence that facilitates racial
capitalism.
The fact that it is disproportionately people of
color who are bearing the burden of industrial
pollution enables industry to continue despite a
mounting death toll. Márquez calls this devaluation of people of color a ‘racial state of expendability’, which he describes as ‘[a] fundamental
and existential life devaluation, a perpetual susceptibility to obliteration with legal impunity’
(2013: 44). This concept illuminates how
racism underwrites industrial activity not only
through profits, but also through subsidized
goods and services for all. Legal impunity is
key, as it helps explains why there is no meaningful action to address the environmental
racism gap which, in turn, underscores the centrality of environmental racism to racial capitalism. As scholars are beginning to show – the
state refuses to implement meaningful initiatives in order to maintain racial capitalism.
Capital does not have to actually address environmental justice issues because it knows there
will be minor, if any, sanctions. Indeed,
bureaucrats seek to avoid the anger of conservatives by not enforcing the law (Kates, 2014).
The state is not about to dismantle this ‘ecological service’ that allows firms to remain competitive in the global marketplace. When we
put together these two facts – the devaluation
of people of color, plus capital acting with
legal impunity – environmental racism must
530
be understood as state-sanctioned racial
violence.
So what does this mean for EJ? There are
implications for both scholars and activists. In
terms of activism we need to change how we
view the state and our relationship to it. Far too
often the state is seen as an ally, or neutral force.
Indeed, even when people lose faith in the state,
they often still turn to it because there is no other
apparent alternative. Much of the EJ movement
has become too implicated in the state itself.
What is needed is to begin seeing the state as
an adversary that must be confronted in a manner similar to industry. This suggests a twopronged struggle, against both polluters and the
state, which will certainly not be easy.
For researchers, our task is not only to
develop a research agenda that recognizes the
degree to which environmental racism is a function of racial capitalism, but one that is also
linked to the needs of vulnerable communities.
Environmental racism will not be solved by a
research agenda that reaffirms the boundaries
and frameworks established by the Environmental Protection Agency. Indeed, we should
help expose the fraudulent nature of the state,
how it has sought to co-opt EJ communities, its
support of racial capitalism and its willingness
to forsake poisoned communities. Together, we
can generate new strategies to rebuild a movement that truly works towards environmental
justice.
Declaration of conflicting interests
The author(s) declared no potential conflicts of interest with respect to the research, authorship, and/or
publication of this article.
Funding
The author(s) received no financial support for the
research, authorship, and/or publication of this
article.
Notes
1. Calculated from the EPA website, ‘Complaints Filed
with EPA under Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of
Progress in Human Geography 41(4)
1964’. Available at: http://www2.epa.gov/ocr/complaints-filed-epa-under-title-vi-civil-rights-act-1964
(accessed 15 July 2015).
2. For contrasting views see Ringquist (1998); Atlas
(2001).
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Steven Vo
:
5:58pm
Before unit VII, I never realized how cruel and inhumane the border control
is. The readings and the video for unit VII talked about how they kept illegal
immigrants out of the states by ensuring they do not cross over "illegally".
I used to think that border control peacefully sent people back to their
homes but this is not the case. Border control and the people supporting
and funding it, treat the immigrants as criminals. They denied basic
resources such as water and food to the immigrants when they are detained
and waiting for deportation back to their homes. Besides the detainment
portion of border control, it is saddening to see the harsh journey people
have gone through to cross the border in the film 800 mile wall. They had
to travel through harsh climates with limited supply while avoiding border
control. For these people to take on this journey only to get deported back
to their home was cruel in my opinion. Especially when the reasoning
behind this was because they were immigrants and people had negative
stereotypes of them.
I remember somewhere in the film that someone mentioned that the
United States was a land of immigrants, which is true since our origins
I remember somewhere in the film that someone mentioned that the
United States was a land of immigrants, which is true since our origins
migrated from Britain to the new colonies. This relates back to our idea of
racism and space. The people in power want to maintain power and
resources to themselves and feel that they are superior while others are
inferior. They treat the others are people who have no rights or do not
deserve the same privileges that they do. This is evident in the case of the
immigrants who are simply trying to find a job to support their family. They
intend to do no harm and want to work in the unpopular jobs such as
working on the farm picking fruits or doing labor jobs. I can not
comprehend how the people in power has not created a program to hire
illegal immigrants so that they can work in the states and provide for their
families. This is again due to the inherent racism people hold to another
race.
Edited by Steven Vo on Dec 5 at 6pm
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