Environmental Racism

I’m also in the same Environmental History class as Ryan. Going along with what she said about environmental history and racism. Before that class I never tied the two together, even when we started reading about it, I did not realize how the two were interconnected. The part I found the most interesting was looking at African Americans and the environment. First it talked about slaves having to work the land for their owners. Then it went into land ownership. Forest reservations came about, that reduced the amount of land that people could live on and work. The land that was still available was given to the white groups of people. Also in the West land was given to whites for free, yet in the south ex-slaves were expected to purchase land, with money they did not have. Also Indians were seen as dirty and polluting the natural environment. Blacks were also seen as dirty and evil. They were seen as polluting the cities and making them places of pollution and disease.

#23