Free the Land: Black Histories of Environmental Racism

Black history is inextricable from the study and discussion of environmental racism and environmental justice in the United States. Environmental racism is defined as "any policy, practice or directive that differentially affects or disadvantages individuals, groups or communities based on race." This course expands and illuminates this definition through examinations of space and spacemaking where Black and indigenous people reside-from Africa to the Caribbean and United States. We will interrogate instances of environmental injustice as expressed through toxic waste, land theft, conservation colonialism, and the slow violence of biological extermination and social erasure. We will also examine environmental justice as a social movement in which local communities, activists, online networks, and at times government actors resist environmental injustice to create cleaner, more sustainable environments for all. Throughout the semester, we will read scholarly texts, engage primary sources, analyze popular and independent media, and study testimony and self-published materials from Black activists across the globe.
Course Attributes: EN S; BU BA; AS SSC; AS SC; FA SSC; AR SSC

Free the Land: Black Histories of Environmental Racism

AMERICAN CULTURE STUDIES 2881

Section 01