Environmental Racism: Uranium Mining in Navajo
Assignment Instructions
1. For this assignment, you will do additional research on one of the two examples of environmental racism discussed in this module:
Native American tribes (read the American Indian Tribes and Environmental Racism – Making Connections, Chapter 20, section 20.3 for more background.)
Downriver Detroit (review Toxic Town: Michigan's Most Polluted Zip Code [Time 11:00; closed captions available from Amara])
Do an internet search and locate additional data on your selected topic. Be sure to use reliable sources for your data. That means no blogs, no Wikipedia, no Facebook posts, etc. Stick to reputable news sources (Washington Post, The New York Times, CNN, or peer reviewed journal articles.) If you are not sure, contact your instructor.
2. Once all of your data and information is collected, you will develop an essay describing your data findings. This essay should include:
Any specifics you were able to uncover regarding your selected topic.
Which groups in society were most affected by environmental racism?
Where any major corporations involved?
Has any legal action been initiated by either the community, the local authorities, the state or federal government?
Apply one of our three (3) core sociological theories to analyze and explain this occurrence of environmental racism (Functionalism, Conflict theory or Symbolic Interaction)
Your essay should be a minimum of 275 words. It must be formatted according to MLA or APA style formatting, which means in-text citations for all of your sources.
Please save your assignment as a Word document (.docx) and attach it in the assignment submission area by the listed due date.
Uranium Mining in Navajo and Environmental Injustice
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Uranium Mining in Navajo and Environmental Injustice
The long-term mining of uranium on the Navajo land of a Native American tribe illustrates the adverse effects of environmental racism on humans and nature. Through these efforts, there has also been a fight for justice with regard to health impacts and pollution (McGregor et al., 2020). The natives have suffered for decades due to land degradation and exposure to radioactive agents due to mining, which has resulted in a high incidence of cancers and kidney issues. Pollution has gone beyond residential places and public domains, making daily life worse for people. The environmental injustices have hit the Navajos hard, considering that they are attached to a particular area; thus, they have been affected by the health