Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2005 Mar;83(3):971-1007.
doi: 10.1353/sof.2005.0026.

The Unintended Significance of Race: Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit

Liam Downey  1
Affiliations
Free PMC article

The Unintended Significance of Race: Environmental Racial Inequality in Detroit

Liam Downey. Soc Forces. 2005 Mar.
Free PMC article

Abstract

This article addresses shortcomings in the literature on environmental inequality by (a) setting forth and testing four models of environmental inequality and (b) explicitly linking environmental inequality research to spatial mismatch theory and to the debate on the declining significance of race. The explanatory models ask whether the distribution of blacks and whites around environmental hazards is the result of black/white income inequality, racist siting practices, or residential segregation. The models are tested using manufacturing facility and census data from the Detroit metropolitan area. It turns out that the distribution of blacks and whites around this region's polluting manufacturing facilities is largely the product of residential segregation which, paradoxically, has reduced black proximity to manufacturing facility pollution.

PubMed Disclaimer

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Tract-Level Changes in Facility Presence and the Location of Black Neighborhoods, 1970–1980
Figure 2
Figure 2
Tract-Level Changes in Facility Presence and the Location of Black Neighborhoods, 1980–1990
Figure 3
Figure 3
Black Settlement Patterns and Regional Manufacturing: Detroit Metropolitan Area, 1990
See this image and copyright information in PMC

Similar articles

See all similar articles

Cited by

See all "Cited by" articles

References

    1. Anderton Douglas L, Anderson Andy B, Oakes John Michael, Fraser Michael R. Environmental Equity: The Demographics of Dumping. Demography. 1994a;31:229–48. - PubMed
    1. Anderton Douglas L, Anderson Andy B, Rossi Peter H, Oakes John Michael, Fraser Michael R, Weber Eleanor W, Calabrese Edward J. Hazardous Waste Facilities: ‘Environmental Equity’ Issues in Metropolitan Areas. Evaluation Review. 1994b;18:123–40.
    1. Been Vicki. Locally Undesirable Land Uses in Minority Neighborhoods: Disproportionate Siting or Market Dynamics? The Yale Law Journal. 1994;103:1383–1422.
    1. Bowen William. An Analytic Review of Environmental Justice Research: What Do We Really Know. Environmental Management. 2002;29:3–15. - PubMed
    1. Bowen William M, Salling Mark J, Haynes Kingsley E, Cyran Ellen J. Toward Environmental Justice: Spatial Equity in Ohio and Cleveland. Annals of the Association of American Geographers. 1995;85:641–63.