Environmental Justice Evaluations Among Black Students Open Access

Abstract

In the United States, the vast inequality in how environmental harms are distributed across various populations is represented as environmental injustice or environmental racism. Building on the substantial research into general justice evaluations, here I examine how racial identity and experiences with discrimination, as individual-level factors, influence evaluations of environmental justice within the context of the Black community. One hundred and forty-one college students from a predominantly White university and a historically Black college in the southeast completed a survey with items measuring racial identity, experiences with discrimination, and perceptions of environmental justice, as well as environmental identity and demographic characteristics. Data were analyzed using ordinary least squares regression models. Emerging patterns suggest that racial identity, especially Black identity, affects environmental justice evaluations. Previous experiences with discrimination, however, did not have any significant effects. Consistent with previous research, environmental identity had the most significant effect on environmental justice evaluations. Future research should further investigate the role of contextual-level factors, such as the college racial composition or neighborhood racial composition, on environmental justice evaluations.

Table of Contents

Table of Contents
1. Introduction... 1
2. Identity, Experiences, and Environmental Justice Evaluations... 4

2.1 Environmental and Racial Identities...4
2.2 Previous Experiences with Discrimination...7

3. Methods...9

3.1 Procedures and Sample...9
3.2 Measures...11

i. Independent Variables...11
ii. Dependent Variables...13
iii. Controls...14

4. Results...15

4.1 Effects of Racial Identity...16
4.2 Effects of Control Variables...17

5. Discussion...17

5.1 Assessment of Empirical Patterns...18
5.2 Limitations and Directions for Future Research...19

Appendix: Tables, Figures, Graphs...22

TABLE 1: Correlation Matrix with Means (and Standard Deviations) on Diagonal...22
TABLE 2: Unstandardized Regression Coefficients for the Effects of Racial Identity and Experiences with Discrimination on Environmental Justice Evaluations...23
APPENDIX 1: Variable Coding...24

References...26

About this Honors Thesis

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School	Emory College
Department	Sociology
Degree	BA
Submission	Honors Thesis
Language	English
Research Field	Sociology, General Sociology, Ethnic and Racial Studies
Keyword	Justice Identity HBCU English Environment PWI Race
Committee Chair / Thesis Advisor	Hegtvedt, Karen A, Emory University
Committee Members	Johnson, Cathryn, Emory University Gaertner Jr., Frank, Emory University Pak, Marjorie, Emory University

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