Greening The Ghetto Summary

Canada and the United States have both played a role in creating unjust environmental conditions for people of color. As educators, we must teach our students to become active citizens and become critically aware of their surroundings such as their living environment.

In the Ted Talk video “Greening the Ghetto” Majora Carter talks about her fight for environmental justice in the South Bronx New York, which relates to environmental racism. What is Environmental Racism? “Terms such as environmental racism and environmental justice are used to express the interconnectedness of environmental health, socio-economic conditions and racialized discrimination (OSCE, 2011). This concept originates from the early 1980’s when community concerns about toxic

What is interesting is that a national report found racial demographics were the number one predictor of where hazardous waste facilities were located across the United States (OSCE, 2011). In the U.S. non-white communities are disproportionately exposed to environmental risks and they do not have a voice in the development and implementation of environmental laws and regulations (OSCE, 2011). In the Ted Talk video “Greening the Ghetto” Majora Carter wants people to realize that race and class do play a role in where waste sites are placed, but also where nice parks and trees are. Environmental racism is not just a problem in the United States, but exists in Canada as well. For instance, Nova Scotia’s Africville a community of African slaves until the industrial boom, which led to Africville becoming a new dumping site for waste (OSCE, 2011). Eventually after being used as a dumping ground Africville was declared a slum and the community was knocked down. In Canadian society today First Nation communities continue to