Peer-reviewed article

Where we live, learn and play: Environmental racism and early childhood development in review

Allison Ford · 1 Jan 2024

Abstract

• There is very little research on the effects of environmental racism on early childhood development. • The concept of environmental racism emerged from the environmental justice movement, which originated as communities of color protested unequal siting of hazardous waste facilities. • Environmental racism is structural, intersectional, multiscalar. • Environmental justice is centered on the principle of indispensability, which here applies to the indispensability of young children of color. • Environmental racism includes exposure to environmental pollutants, which are especially harmful to young children given the specific properties of their developmental phase. • Environmental racism also includes the effects of climate change, which acts as a macro-stressor and is predicted to exacerbate existing racial inequalities that effect children during the early years. • Environmental racism has physical, cognitive, emotional, and other effects on children of color; these vary based on specific environmental conditions and other intersecting categories of differences, especially social class. • Communities of color have shown resilience in advocating for environmental justice on behalf of themselves and their children for the right to develop in nontoxic places. • Future research on environmental racism and early childhood development should build on environmental justice movement traditions and take direction from affected communities and leaders working in the field. What are the effects of environmental racism on early childhood development? This paper argues that this is a largely unanswered question that reflects more than a research gap, but a research vacuum. This paper reviews the available literature on the intersection of environmental racism and early childhood from a sociological perspective. I rely on Iruka et al.’s (2022) Racism + Resilience + Resistance Integrative Study of Childhood Ecosystem (R 3 ISE) framework and the framework of critical environmental justice (Pellow, 2016; 2018) to summarize what is known about how environmental racism contributes to disparities in health, learning, and well-being through the early years of childhood development, as well as to point out gaps in our knowledge. Scholars have identified strong indicators that many converging environmental hazards affect young children, and that exposure to these hazards is strongly associated with race and racism. An emerging body of literature also links environmental racism to global climate change and global ecological degradation. This paper will provide a theoretical overview of environmental racism as it pertains to young children and consider in relation to early childhood and race: 1) disproportionate exposure to environmental pollutants and their effects; and 2) vulnerability to effects of climate change. It concludes with a discussion of implications, and suggestions for paths forward and future research.