Understanding Sustainability and How It Impacts People of Color

Abstract

By definition, sustainability means meeting personal needs without jeopardizing the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. In that context, sustainability calls for the Earth's environmental systems to be balanced while ensuring that natural resources are consumed at a rate that they are naturally replenished. Researches on sustainability and environmental racism expound on the overall impacts on blacks by showing that this group is more highly affected by pollution than the white population. Scholars note that the main issue with environmental racism is that most American citizens hold onto the belief that everybody is subject to equal opportunities. Such an approach is detrimental since the concept of environmental injustice is treated as a personal choice and not a matter of racial discrimination. The lack of a clear understanding of environmental racism undermines all efforts to fix the problem, which entails focusing on race as a notable predictor of an individual's exposure to environmental hazards.