View article

Despite research showing that public beliefs about the distribution of resources in society is a crucial factor in the reproduction of inequality, we do not know what Americans believe about environmental inequality or what factors structure those beliefs. Results of a novel national survey (n = 1000) show that Americans poorly understand environmental inequality, often view inequalities as fair, and are only marginally supportive of a range of key policy tools. Regression analyses reveal that the dominant factor explaining Americans’ views of environmental inequality is what I term color-blind environmental racism. Color-blind environmental racism refers to a specific manifestation of color-blind racial ideology, wherein belief in a post-racial society obfuscates and justifies environmental racism and reduces support for policy solutions. Given the pervasiveness of color-blind environmental racism in the American …