Inequality In Laura Pulido's Rethinking Environmental Racism

About one in nine people on earth do not have enough food to lead a healthy active life; at the same time, about 1 in 4 calories intended for consumption, equivalent to 1/3 of all food produced, is never actually eaten. ("Hunger") ("Food") In another words, we are able to feed everybody on the planet, but instead we are producing and wasting more food than the world needs. The production and consumption of food is a political problem because it is an issue of public affairs for the entire world; and more specifically, as inequality in the distribution of food, environmental racism, and the lack of government, corporation, and community support exist, it is a problem of justice. This paper aims to expel the belief of food inaccessibility being a “natural” outcome of Capitalism, that …show more content…
Environmental racism is placement of low-income or minority communities in closer proximity of harmful or degraded environments, such as toxic waste, pollution and urban decay, than wealthier communities. Laura Pulido, in her article, focuses on the white privilege in Southern California, as she defines it as her attempt to “name a social system that works to the benefit of whites.” Pulido explains that racist systems go unrecognized when negative outcomes are seen simply as evidence of individual choices or even deficiencies or supposedly “neutral” market logic, and therefore she prefers to use white privilege in defining unjust and unfair urban planning, in causing the people of color