Dumping In Dixie

By Robert Bullard,

Book cover of Dumping In Dixie: Race, Class, And Environmental Quality

Book description

To be poor, working-class, or a person of colour in the United States often means bearing a disproportionate share of the country's environmental problems. Starting with the premise that all Americans have a basic right to live in a healthy environment, Dumping in Dixie chronicles the efforts of five African…

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Why read it?

2 authors picked Dumping In Dixie as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

This is it. The book that launched the environmental justice movement.

Scientists today frequently talk about environmental racism, about the way that harmful substances in our environments are not distributed randomly but instead disproportionately on communities of color, which in turn takes an enormous toll on the health of people living in those communities.

It was this book that forcefully made the case for seeing this phenomenon through the lens of civil rights. It exposed the widespread and systemic nature of environmental racism and made the case for responding to it with all the concepts, collective action, and policy strategies…

From James' list on the environment and health.

Robert Bullard’s book opened many eyes and minds to the stark realities of environmental injustice and environmental racism.

Originally published at the dawn of the new millennium, Dumping in Dixie remains fresh and relevant today.

This book helped give birth to an environmentalism that does not partition the world into sacred groves for the rich and sacrifice zones for the poor, but instead fights for clean air and water in the places where people live, work, and play. 

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