TOWARD A CRITICAL ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE STUDIES: Black Lives Matter as an Environmental Justice Challenge
Open accessAbstract
In this paper I expand upon the recent use of the term “Critical Environmental Justice Studies.” This concept is meant to capture new developments in Environmental Justice (EJ) Studies that question assumptions and gaps in earlier work in the field. Because this direction in scholarship is still in its formative stages, I take this opportunity to offer some guidance on what Critical Environmental Justice (CEJ) Studies might look like and what it could mean for theorizing the relationship between race (along with multiple additional social categories) and the environment. I do so by (1) adopting a multi-disciplinary approach that draws on several bodies of literature, including critical race theory, political ecology, ecofeminist theory, and anarchist theory, and (2) focusing on the case of Black Lives Matter and the problem of state violence.
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Integrity signals
Registry
Cites
Statistics
Claims the paper makes
The claims and statistics of this paper haven’t been checked yet.
Run the check — free, no account needed. It reads the open-access text and checks the sources it cites.
Claims other papers make about this one
Each is checked against this paper’s own text: does it say what the citing paper says it does?
In the United States, systemic racism may influence the ways people view wildlife with darker or lighter pelages.
“In the United States, where systemic racism abounds, the perception of people with darker versus lighter skin may also influence the ways in which people view wildlife with darker or lighter pelages (Hunter, 2007;Pellow, 2016;Keith & Monroe, 2016).”
From Of Rarity and Symbolism: Understanding Human Perceptions of Charismatic Color Morphs (2024) · cites this paper as Pellow, 2016
The section on the racial discourse of animality (page unavailable) links racism to ways people speak about and value humans and nonhuman animals. The section on race and difference also describes racism as embedded in U.S. institutions. Neither passage addresses whether human skin-color perceptions influence views of wildlife with darker or lighter pelages. (LLM, conf=0.86)
Experimental — accuracy not yet measured
Self-check
Percentages, sums and reported differences re-computed from the paper’s own numbers.
The self-check needs the paper’s full text.
Cites
King, M. (1963) · Princeton Readings in Political Thought · doi:10.2307/j.ctt9qh63b.26 · Cited by 610
Pellow, D. N. (2007) · The MIT Press eBooks · doi:10.7551/mitpress/7479.001.0001 · Cited by 437 · see citing works
Self-citationA CRITICAL REVIEW OF THE METHODOLOGY OF ENVIRONMENTAL RACISM RESEARCH*
Pulido, L. (1996) · Antipode · doi:10.1111/j.1467-8330.1996.tb00519.x · Cited by 337 · see citing works
Battered Women's Reports of Their Partners' and Their Children's Cruelty to Animals
Ascione, F. R. (1997) · Journal of Emotional Abuse · doi:10.1300/j135v01n01_06 · Cited by 266 · see citing works
Climate Justice and Inequality
Harlan, S. L., Pellow, D. N., Roberts, J. T., Bell, S. E., Holt, W. G., & Nagel, J. (2015) · Oxford University Press eBooks · doi:10.1093/acprof:oso/9780199356102.003.0005 · Cited by 212 · see citing works
Self-citationThe Frontier Army and the Destruction of the Buffalo: 1865-1883
Smits, D. D. (1994) · Western Historical Quarterly · doi:10.2307/971110 · Cited by 118 · see citing works
Adamson, J. (2011) · Environmental Justice · doi:10.1089/env.2010.0035 · Cited by 39 · see citing works
Bailey, C. (2004) · Hypatia · doi:10.1111/j.1527-2001.2004.tb01288.x · Cited by 11 · see citing works
Herod, A. (2010) · doi:10.4324/9780203641095
Spaces of Environmental Justice—Frameworks for Critical Engagement
Holifield, R., Porter, M., & Walker, G. (2010) · Spaces of Environmental Justice · doi:10.1002/9781444322767.ch
Black-Brown Solidarity: Racial Politics in the New Gulf South
Márquez, J. D. (2014) · doi:10.7560/753877
Against Ecological Sovereignty
Smith, M. (2011) · Against Ecological Sovereignty · doi:10.5749/minnesota/9780816670284.003.0007
Boundaries and Border Wars: DES, Technology, and Environmental Justice
Sze, J. (2006) · American Quarterly · doi:10.1353/aq.2006.0070
Beyond Distribution and Proximity: Exploring the Multiple Spatialities of Environmental Justice
Walker, G. (2010) · Spaces of Environmental Justice · doi:10.1002/9781444322767.ch1
Flagged first, then by citations
Research works printed but not linked: 27
- Adams , Carol J . ( 2010 ). The Sexual Politics of Meat: A Feminist-vegetarian Critical Theory . London : Bloomsbury Academic .
- Agyeman , Julian , Peter Cole , Randy Haluza-DeLay , and Pat O'Riley (Eds). ( 2010 ). Speaking for Ourselves: Environmental Justice in Canada . Seattle, WA : University of Washington Press .
- Bell , Shannon Elizabeth ( 2013 ). Our Roots Run Deep as Ironweed: Appalachian Women and the Fight for Environmental Justice . Champaign, IL : University of Illinois Press .
- Bennett , Jane ( 2009 ). Vibrant Matter: A Political Ecology of Things . Durham, NC : Duke University Press .
- Buckingham , Susan and Rakibe Kulcur ( 2010 ). Gendered Geographies of Environmental Justice . In Ryan Holifield , Michael Porter , and Gordon Walker (Eds.), Spaces of Environmental Justice , pp. 70 -94 . New York : Wiley-Blackwell .
- Bullard , Robert D . ( 2000 ). Dumping in Dixie: Race, Class, and Environmental Quality . Boulder, CO : Westview Press .
- Cacho , Lisa ( 2012 ). Social Death: Racialized Rightlessness and the Criminalization of the Unprotected . New York : New York University Press .
- Cole , Luke and Sheila Foster ( 2000 ). From the Ground Up: Environmental Racism and the Rise of the Environmental Justice Movement . New York : New York University Press .
- Collins , Patricia Hill ( 2008 ). Black Feminist Thought . New York : Routledge .
- Dahl , Robert ( 2005 ). Who Governs? Democracy and Power in an American City . New Haven, CT : Yale University Press .
- Domhoff , G. William ( 2013 ). Who Rules America? The Triumph of the Corporate Rich . New York : McGraw-Hill Education
- Downey , Liam ( 2015 ). Inequality, Democracy and the Environment . New York : New York University Press .
- Gaard , Greta ( 2004 ). Toward a Queer Ecofeminism . In Rachel Stein (Ed.), New Perspectives on Environmental Justice , pp. 21 -44 . New Brunswick, NJ : Rutgers University Press .
- Gilmore , Ruth Wilson ( 2007 ). Golden Gulag: Prisons, Surplus, Crisis, and Opposition in Globalizing California . Berkeley, CA : University of California Press .
- Goldberg , David Theo ( 2002 ). The Racial State . Oxford, UK : Blackwell Publishers .
- Hong , Grace Kyungwon Hong ( 2006 ). Ruptures of American Capital: Women of Color Feminism and the Culture of Immigrant Labor . Minneapolis, MN : University of Minnesota Press .
- Kang , Jerry ( 2005 ). Trojan Horses of Race . Harvard Law Review , 118 : 1489 -1593 .
- Mills , Charles ( 2001 ). Black Trash . In Laura Westra and Bill E. Lawson (Eds.), Faces of Environ- mental Racism , pp. 73 -93 .
- Morris , Aldon ( 1984 ). Origins of the Civil Rights Movement . New York : Free Press .
- Parsons , Talcott ( 1954 ). Essays in Sociological Theory . New York : The Free Press .
- Pellow , David N. and Robert J. Brulle (Eds.) ( 2005 ). Power, Justice, and the Environment . Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press .
- Ringquist , E. J . ( 2005 ). Assessing Evidence of Environmental Inequities . Journal of Policy Analysis and Management , 24 ( 2 ): 223 -247 .
- Roberts , J. Timmons and Bradley Parks ( 2006 ). A Climate of Injustice . Cambridge, MA : The MIT Press .
- Scott , James ( 2010 ). The Art of Not Being Governed . New Haven, CT : Yale University Press .
- Smith , Andrea ( 2005 ). Conquest: Sexual Violence and American Indian Genocide . Boston, MA : South End Press .
- Sze , Julie ( 2016 ). Scale . In Joni Adamson , William Gleason , and David N. Pellow (Eds.), Keywords for Environmental Studies , pp. 178 -180 . New York : New York University Press .
- U.S. Socioeconomic and Racial Differences in Health: Patterns and Explanations . Annual Review of Sociology , 21 : 349 -86.
Cited by
Sorted by citations
Residential housing segregation and urban tree canopy in 37 US Cities
Locke, D. H., Hall, B., Grove, J. M., Pickett, S. T. A., Ogden, L. A., Aoki, C., Boone, C. G., & O’Neil-Dunne, J. P. M. (2021) · npj Urban Sustainability · doi:10.1038/s42949-021-00022-0 · Cited by 338 · see citing works
Anguelovski, I., Brand, A. L., Connolly, J. J. T., Corbera, E., Kotsila, P., Steil, J., Garcia-Lamarca, M., Triguero-Mas, M., Cole, H., Baró, F., et al. (2020) · Annals of the American Association of Geographers · doi:10.1080/24694452.2020.1740579 · Cited by 309 · see citing works
Zaks, Z. (2024) · Disability & Society · doi:10.1080/09687599.2023.2255926 · Cited by 147 · see citing works
Shokry, G., Anguelovski, I., Connolly, J. J. T., Maroko, A., & Pearsall, H. (2022) · Housing Policy Debate · doi:10.1080/10511482.2021.1944269 · Cited by 89 · see citing works
Of Rarity and Symbolism: Understanding Human Perceptions of Charismatic Color Morphs
Williams, T. D., Kreling, S. E. S., Stanton, L. A., Wilkinson, C. E., Estien, C. O., Schell, C. J., & Carlen, E. J. (2024) · Human Ecology · doi:10.1007/s10745-024-00492-7 · Cited by 10 · see citing works
- Authors
- Pellow, D. N.
- Affiliations
- University of California, Santa Barbara (US)
- Corresponding author
- Pellow, David N.
- ORCID
- Pellow, David N.
- Venue
- Du Bois Review: Social Science Research on Race
- Publisher
- Cambridge University Press (CUP)
- Published
- 2016
- Volume
- 13
- Issue
- 2
- Pages
- 221-236
- ISSN
- 1742-058X (ISSN-L)
- 1742-0598
- OpenAlex
- W2779190168
- Cited by
- 343
- References
- 15
- Citations by year
- 2026: 57 · 2025: 39 · 2024: 39 · 2023: 58 · 2022: 39 · 2021: 39 · 2020: 25 · 2019: 23 · 2018: 19 · 2017: 3 · 2016: 2
- FWCI
- 44.80
- Type
- journal article
- Language
- en
- Open access
- bronze
- doi.org
- Locations
- Du Bois Review Social Science Research on Race (publishedVersion)
- eScholarship (California Digital Library) (submittedVersion)
- Topics
- Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Environmental Justice and Health Disparities
- Social Sciences › Arts and Humanities › Literature and Literary Theory › Ecocriticism and Environmental Literature
- Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Social Sciences and Humanities
- Keywords
- environmental justice, critical race theory, political ecology, ecofeminism, anarchist theory, Black Lives Matter, state violence, intersectionality
About these checks
Registry, retraction, Cites and statistics results are computed, not judged, with one exception: a printed reference that no index lists is read once by a model before it counts as a citation error. Claims are extracted by a model and kept only when their quote appears verbatim in the text; each cited source is then checked, with a model’s help, for whether it says what the claim relies on. Those verdicts can be wrong — read the claim’s quote and the cited source before relying on one.
Statistics and arithmetic are recomputed, not judged.
Confidence bands are shown only for fields calibrated on our annotated test set. None is calibrated yet, so no band is shown.
What counts as a claim ›How we measure confidence ›How we check this ›
Are you an author, or do you see a problem with this page? Request a review
