What is in a name? Language, framing and environmental justice activism in California's Central Valley

Abstract

According to the environmental justice (EJ) literature, one important factor in the movement's success is the development of a frame linking inequality to the disproportionate presence of environmental toxins in low-income communities of colour. This article highlights the resonance of this frame among grassroots activists and professional advocates in California's Central Valley. However, through interviews and focus groups with activists and advocates in six Central Valley communities, we found that only the latter identified their work as EJ. Grassroots activists instead identified their work as about health, community development and environmentalism. Moreover, some were unfamiliar with EJ as a concept while others denied its applicability to their work. Theoretically, our findings suggest that frame resonance needs to be delinked conceptually from movement identification; it is possible for a movement's analysis of social problems and solutions to resonate among those who do not identify with the movement itself. Pragmatically speaking, this can prevent some grassroots activists who are directly affected by environmental racism from accessing the resources and networks that the EJ movement has painstakingly built, and suggests that movement leaders may need to increase their outreach to community groups.

Keywords:

• environmental justice
• framing
• social movements
• equity
• Central Valley

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the faculty and students affiliated to UC Davis's Environmental Justice Project, especially Jonathan London and Raoul Lievanos. Our sincere gratitude goes to those Central Valley community members and organisers who shared their stories and struggles with us. We hope our writing can help to make your work more fruitful.

Notes

1. The only relevant struggle we identified among Asians in the Central Valley was omitted because it is already the subject of an extensive, community-based research project led by an the EJP-affiliated faculty member.

2. Buffalo Soldiers was a name given to the 9th and 10th US cavalry by the Native Americans against whom they fought. Bob Marley's 1980 song recast their struggle as a symbol of black resistance (Bogues 2003).