There's Something In The Water: Environmental Racism in Indigenous & Black Communities

by Ingrid R. G. Waldron

Overview

In “There’s Something In The Water”, Ingrid R. G. Waldron examines the legacy of environmental racism and its health impacts in Indigenous and Black communities in Canada, using Nova Scotia as a case study, and the grassroots resistance activities by Indigenous and Black communities against the pollution and poisoning of their communities.
Using settler colonialism as the overarching theory, Waldron unpacks how environmental racism operates as a mechanism of erasure enabled by the intersecting dynamics of white supremacy, power, state-sanctioned racial violence, neoliberalism and racial capitalism in white settler societies. By and large, the environmental justice narrative in Nova Scotia fails to make race explicit, obscuring it within discussions on class, and this type of strategic inadvertence mutes the specificity of Mi’kmaq and African Nova Scotian experiences with racism and environmental hazards in Nova Scotia. By redefining the parameters of critique around the environmental justice narrative and movement in Nova Scotia and Canada, Waldron opens a space for a more critical dialogue on how environmental racism manifests itself within this intersectional context.
Waldron also illustrates the ways in which the effects of environmental racism are compounded by other forms of oppression to further dehumanize and harm communities already dealing with pre-existing vulnerabilities, such as long-standing social and economic inequality. Finally, Waldron documents the long history of struggle, resistance, and mobilizing in Indigenous and Black communities to address environmental racism.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781773630571
Publisher:	Fernwood Publishing
Publication date:	04/02/2018
Pages:	184
Sales rank:	455,731
Product dimensions:	5.80(w) x 8.90(h) x 0.40(d)

About the Author

Ingrid R. G. Waldron is an associate professor in the Faculty of Health at Dalhousie University and the Director of the Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities & Community Health Project (The ENRICH Project).

Table of Contents

Acknowledgements ix

Preface

A Rising Tide Lifts All Boats?: Strategic Inadvertence and Other Shortcomings of the Environmental Justice Lens in Nova Scotia 1

Building on the Four Pillars of the Critical Environmental Justice

Studies Framework 7

Setting the Stage 12

Chapter Overview 17

1 Environmental Noxiousness, Racial Inequities, and Community Health Project: Blurring the Boundaries between Community and the Ivory Tower 21

"In Whose Backyard? Exploring Toxic Legacies in Mi'kmaw and African Nova Scotian Communities": Regional Meetings and Final Convergence Workshop 25

The Case of Pictou Landing First Nation 27

The Environmental Racism Prevention Act 29

2015: A Banner Year 31

The Way Forward: Connecting Science with Community Knowledge and the Law 33

2 A History of Violence: Indigenous and Black Conquest, Dispossession, and Genocide in Settler-Colonial Nations 37

Racial Capitalism: Addressing Environmental Racisms Profit Motive 44

Epistemologies of Ignorance 49

3 Rethinking Waste: Mapping Racial Geographies of Violence on the Colonial Landscape 53

In Your Place: Spatialities of Containment and Exclusion in Indigenous and Black Communities 56

Spatial Violence and Genocidal "Slow Death" 58

4 Not in My Backyard: The Politics of Race, Place, and Waste in Nova Scotia 66

Procedural and Distributive Justice 68

Environmental Racism in Indigenous Communities 71

Sydney 74

Pictou Landing First Nation 75

Sipekne'katik Band of the Mi'kmaw First Nation 76

Eskasoni First Nation, Millbrook First Nation, and Acadia First Nation 78

Indigenous Communities in Other Provinces 78

Elsipogtog First Nation 78

First Nations in British Columbia 80

Kashechewan First Nation 81

Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation, Mikisew Cree First Nation, and the Metis Nation 81

Aamjiwnaang First Nation 82

Asubpeeschoseewagong Netum Anishinabek/Grassy Narrows First Nation 83

Environmental Racism in African Nova Scotian Communities 84

Africville 84

Lincolnville 85

The Prestons 87

Shelburne, Cherry Brook, Lake Loon, Truro, and Lucasville 87

5 Sacrificial Lives: How Environmental Racism Gets Under the Skin 89

Environmental Violence: Framing the Complex Web of Inequalities 92

Environmental Health Inequities 100

Psychological stress 103

Cancer 104

Child and Maternal Health 106

6 Narratives of Resistance, Mobilizing, and Activism: The Fight against Environmental Racism in Nova Scotia 108

Mi'kmaw and African Nova Scotian Communities on the Fronthnes 112

Idle No More 112

Pictou Landing First Nation: Boat Harbour 113

Sipekne'katik First Nation and Millbrook First Nation: Alton Natural Gas Storage Project 114

Indigenous Communities across Canada: Energy East Pipeline 116

Africville Genealogy Society: Africville 116

Lincolnville Reserve Land Voice Council: The Second-generation Landfill 118

The Prestons and East Lake: The East Lake Landfill 120

Lucasville Community Association: Memento Farm 122

Truro: Flooding and the Dump 124

South End Environmental Injustice Society: The Morvan Road Landfill 125

Conclusion: The Road Up Ahead 128

A Multi-Pronged Strategy for Addressing Environmental Racism 131

Centring Race in an Environmental Justice Framework 132

Environmental Policy: Addressing Structural and Environmental Determinants of Health 133

Building Coalitions and Solidarities for Environmental Justice Organizing 136

FinalWords 139

Appendices 141

References 144

Index 163