"It's In the Air": Redefining the Environment as a New Metaphor for Old Social Justice Struggles

Recently, minority activists have formed a new grassroots movement, known as environmental justice, to address toxic waste in their neighborhoods. By comparing and contrasting two environmental justice groups, this paper explores how adapting environmental discourse to traditional struggles for social justice affected grassroots minority activism. As they came to view their air, water, and soil as another aspect of life subject to institutional discrimination, the activists described in this paper constructed ambiguous environmental narratives that served as contexts for multiple organizing strategies. These strategies were not limited to ecological concerns, but included the social justice issues that each group had historically prioritized. In addition, the ambiguity of the environmental narratives activists created facilitated alliances with new organizational partners. Although the specific needs, goals, and outcomes of each case differed, both examples illustrate how