Redlining, Fair Housing, and Environmental Justice
As stated by Majora Carter, environmental justice is the idea that no community should be exposed to more environmental burdens and less environmental benefits than any other. Environmental racism is the result of years of systemic racism in the U.S., including historical housing discrimination laws like redlining. Despite the EPA’s acknowledgment of environmental racism, the recent actions of the U.S. federal government have grown the disparities between whites and Blacks’ exposure to the dangerous effects of climate change, like air pollution and extreme heat. President Trump’s abolishment of the Affirmatively Furthering Fair Housing rule is an example of this. To understand environmental racism and why it exists, we will start by understanding the history of redlining in urban areas. The Fair Housing Act (Title VIII of the Civil Rights Act of 1968) defines redlining as “the practice of denying a creditworthy applicant a loan for housing in a certain neighborhood even though the...