Stanford University-winter ‘06
Tel. 725-9704 or 324-3454 Armin Rosencranz
(calls always welcome) Office hours: M &W 3-5 and by
EM: armin apptmt: Inner quad 100/102G
HumBio141, CSRE 141B
RACE, POVERTY AND ENVIRONMENT
Tues. 3:15 to 6 in 101K
Course Description
This course is about the disproportionate impacts on minority and low-income communities of facilities that pollute or contaminate the local environment. The goal of this service-learning course is to enable class members to make the connection between race/poverty and environmental conditions, and to bring both a theoretical and practical perspective to the topic of environmental justice. We will look at empirical evidence of environmental injustice and hear stories of those victimized by the disproportionate distribution of environmental harms. We will try to identify the causes of these conditions and the barriers to remediating them. We will explore how the courts, legislative bodies, executive agencies, public interest organizations, community groups and their lawyers have responded to the problem. By interacting and serving cumulatively 24-hour internships with Bay Area community groups, and by visiting relevant neighborhoods, we will try to become informed participants in this dialog and contribute to
knowledge on the subject.
Lawyers and scientists can make useful contributions, but community organizers make the critical decisions. A community may have been fighting environmental burdens for decades and decide to get legal help as a last straw. They may have neglected to get legal help while the polluter was going through the permitting process and seek help only after the permit has been granted. They may seek legal help after seeing an onslaught of unusual diseases or a high rate of illness or mortality after years of a hazardous waste facility’s operations. Scientists help lawyers and activists interpret scientific and health data.
Service-Learning Component
I have identified a number of Bay Area environmental justice (EJ) groups with some of which class members will interact and try to assist with research and advocacy, either at the groups’ sites or working online. They are Greenaction for Health and Environmental Justice (San Francisco); the Pacific Institute’s West Oakland Indicators Project; the Silicon Valley Toxics Coalition (with which I have worked in my other service-learning course, Globalization, Labor and Environment); West County Toxics Coalition (Richmond); Literacy for Environmental Justice (San Francisco); Redefining Progress (Oakland); EJ Coalition for Water (Oakland) Communities for a Better Environment (Oakland); Latino Issues Forum (San Francisco); Center for Race, Poverty and Environment (San Francisco); Ujima (E. Palo Alto); Youth United for Community Action (E. Palo Alto); Center for Environmental Health (Oakland); and Urban Habitat (Oakland). The class will take field trips to East Palo Alto, San Francisco and/or Oakland to visit the impacted neighborhoods and meet with community activists.
Whenever possible, class members will attend community group meetings, especially those that solicit input from the local community. I see your work benefiting the group by bringing in EJ perspectives and experiences from community mobilization efforts elsewhere in California and the United States, and by sharing insights from the growing EJ empirical literature. Each class member’s research product will have been “commissioned” by the group and will be a component of the member’s grade. These research products will be shared with the whole class. Group representatives will be invited to these presentations. Each class researcher (and group representative, if present) will respond to other class members’ questions. Developing specific tasks with concrete, manageable goals enables you to jump in right away and make the most of a short quarter. The projects are also expected to hone student skills in the gathering and dissemination of information, be it library research, interviewing, or audio/visual documentation.
At the end of the quarter, you will be expected to write a final report about the environmental justice issue you were addressing, the organization with whom you worked, what you did, what you learned, and the implications for the larger EJ movement. This report is not only a summary of your project but also a forum for personal reflection about the experience. You will present your service project to the class and interested community members during our last class. At that time you will give the community group your written report. I will be in contact with the community members and they will have input in determining your grade on the project
Environmental Justice
In the Bay Area, across the United States and across the globe, people of color are subjected to a disproportionately large number of health and environmental risks in their neighborhoods and on their jobs. African Americans, Latinos, Asians, Pacific Islanders, and Native Americans must contend with dirty air and drinking water—the byproducts of municipal landfills, incinerators, polluting industries, and hazardous waste facilities. Some examples:
three out of three toxic waste dumps in California are in predominantly Latino farm-worker communities
75% of the South’s worst toxic dumps are in black communities
penalties applied under hazardous waste laws at sites having the greatest white population are 500% higher than penalties at sites with the greatest minority population
under the Superfund cleanup program, abandoned hazardous waste sites in minority areas take 20% longer to be placed on the National Priority list than do those in white areas
three out of every five African Americans and Latino Americans live in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites
approximately half of all Pacific Islanders and Native Americans live in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites
44% of urban African American children are at risk from lead poisoning—four times the rate of white children.
The environmental justice movement draws together insights from both the civil rights and environmental movements to mobilize grassroots organizations in demanding a safe and healthy environment as a basic human right. This movement addresses and brings to the forefront of the debate the following questions:
(1) Why do some communities get “dumped on” while others escape?
(2) Why are environmental regulations vigorously enforced in some communities and not in others?
(3) Why are some workers protected from environmental threats to their health while others are still being poisoned?
(4) Who can afford services (e.g., legal, health care) to address these problems? In other words, the movement protests the existence of “environmental racism,” or the unequal protection against hazardous and toxic waste exposure and the systematic exclusion of people of color from environmental decisions affecting their communities.
While environmental racism focuses on the disproportionate impact of environmental hazards on people of color communities, environmental justice pertains to the amelioration of potentially life-threatening conditions and the improvement of quality of life. This goal of the environmental justice movement is not only to fight pollution but also to promote decent paying and safe jobs, quality schools and education; decent housing and adequate health care; democratic decision-making and personal empowerment; communities free from violence, drugs, and poverty; and respect for cultural diversity.
The goals of this course are:
To gain an understanding about Environmental Justice;
To foster critical thinking and research skills;
To collaborate with and serve the local community;
To gain an appreciation for the cultural values upheld by the EJ movement.
Course Format
The course will consist of lectures, readings and reading responses, in-class discussions, working meetings about service projects, and student presentations. Active participation by all class members is essential for the class to be a success. The course format is discussed in more detail below:
Reading Materials
1. Luke Cole and Sheila Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement, NYU press, 2000.
2. J. Timmons Roberts and Melissa M. Toffolon-Weiss, Chronicles from the Environmental Justice Frontline, Cambridge Univ. Press, 2001.
3. Coursework materials.
Reading Assignments - First four weeks:
1/17 - Cole, 1-79
1/24 - Cole, 80-165
1/31 - Roberts, chs. 1-3
2/7 - Roberts, chs. 4-7
2/14 - no reading; term paper due.
Journal: Reflections on the Reading
Each Tuesday, students will submit commentaries about the readings due that week. These commentaries should be at least two pages typed (double-spaced, 1” margins, 12 point font). These commentaries should succinctly summarize the readings (in one or two paragraphs), critically assess the merits and weaknesses of the argument, and describe your reaction and thoughts about the reading. The point of this assignment is for you to demonstrate that you have read, understood, and processed the reading.
Guest Speakers
One of the ways in which this class is different from the “typical” Stanford course is that it doesn’t follow the model of “instructor as expert.” The instructor is familiar with EJ issues, but the true experts are people in the community. A number of the class meetings will involve members of the local community visiting the class as guest lecturers. These individuals are a diverse group of activists, government and/or business professionals and community members.
Term Paper
In place of exams, you will turn in one 10 to 12 page paper on Valentine's Day about a U.S. environmental justice issue of your choice. You are expected to undertake library and internet research, and interview knowledgeable people on the particular topic. You'll also present your findings to the class.
Attendance and Participation
You are required to attend every class, peruse the reading ahead of time, actively participate in discussion, listen carefully to other class members, write thoughtful and informed weekly journal entries, and successfully complete the term paper, presentation on it and service-learning project.
Grade Calculation
Attendance and participation – 20%
Reading journal – 20%
Class presentation – 15%
Service-learning project – 20%
Term paper – 25%
|
 |
|
| |
|
 |
|
