Environmental Justice Practice Exam

Recognition justice asks us to acknowledge and honor marginalized communities’ experiences and voices when decisions determine where investments and resources go. Redlining is the clearest example of this: it involves labeling neighborhoods with higher proportions of racial minorities as undesirable for mortgage lending and investment. That labeling isn’t just about risk assessment; it actively denies access to capital, services, and opportunities, producing disinvestment, deteriorating housing and infrastructure, and greater exposure to pollution and environmental harms. The harm is not only economic but political and social, as communities are stripped of power to shape their surroundings. Addressing this through recognition justice means recognizing the harms, involving residents in planning and decision-making, and ensuring equitable investment and protections regardless of race or neighborhood name. While gentrification, zoning, and privatization can affect neighborhoods in important ways, they do not center the explicit practice of deeming a community’s neighborhood as a bad investment purely based on racial composition in the same way redlining does.