Racism drives environmental inequality

The lack of understanding that racism is causing environmental inequality undermines efforts to fix those disparities, even when the data show that race is the biggest predictor of exposure to environmental hazards, says Sacoby Wilson, an environmental-health scientist at the University of Maryland in College Park.

To gain more public support for policies that address the role of racism in environmental inequality, environmental-justice research needs to be better integrated into school curriculums and the media so people become more aware of the issues, says Sarah Grineski, a sociologist at the University of Utah in Salt Lake City.

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