Clean and White: A History of Environmental Racism in the United States

by Carl Zimring

Clean and White offers a history of environmental racism in the United States focusing on constructions of race and hygiene

When Joe Biden attempted to compliment Barack Obama by calling him “clean and articulate,” he unwittingly tapped into one of the most destructive racial stereotypes in American history. This book tells the history of the corrosive idea that whites are clean and those who are not white are dirty. From the age of Thomas Jefferson to the Memphis Public Workers strike of 1968 through the present day, ideas about race and waste have shaped where people have lived, where people have worked, and how American society’s wastes have been managed.

In the wake of the civil war, as the nation encountered emancipation, mass immigration, and the growth of an urbanized society, Americans began to conflate the ideas of race and waste. Certain immigrant groups took on waste management labor, such as Jews and scrap metal recycling, fostering connections between the socially marginalized and refuse. Ethnic “purity” was tied to pure cleanliness, and hygiene became a central aspect of white identity.

Carl A. Zimring here draws on historical evidence from statesmen, scholars, sanitarians, novelists, activists, advertisements, and the United States Census of Population to reveal changing constructions of environmental racism. The material consequences of these attitudes endured and expanded through the twentieth century, shaping waste management systems and environmental inequalities that endure into the twenty-first century. Today, the bigoted idea that non-whites are “dirty” remains deeply ingrained in the national psyche, continuing to shape social and environmental inequalities in the age of Obama.

Genres: Nonfiction, History, Environment, Race, Social Justice, Politics, Anti Racist

288 pages, Paperback

First published December 11, 2015

Reviews

[Claire]

As I read through Carl Zimring's Clean and White, it took me several chapters to figure out what exactly his book is about. The story eventually reveals that Zimring is interested in how racial roles became associated and disassociated with environmental conditions in cities, specifically waste management. This made the chapter on Thomas Jefferson at the beginning quite confusing - was this Zimring's attempt to trace the origins of dirtiness being conflated with race? If so the first half or even first 3/4 of the book offered nothing particularly enlightening that hasn't been argued or explained by other authors before. Further, the information did not generate an in-depth discussion of the links between dirtiness and race. It felt as if Zimring was only scratching the surface. Only during the last chapters and the sanitation strike does the book seem to take a more refreshing turn, and Zimring's work begs for another book written about race and what he labels the Environmental Justice movement of the 1970s-1980s. Too much of the argument here is implicit and too much of the history is summation of what has come before. While an interesting topic, Clean and White fails to deliver on its promise.

[Tressie · Rating 4 out of 5]

Sharply written. This book works on several levels. It is a good, tight summation of the formation of racialization in the U.S. (and, by extension, the global racial hierarchy). It also provides a really interesting cultural history of waste management, beginning with how race and class become conflated with ideas of clean and dirty. How we control dirt, or "misplaced matter", is partly due to how we have imbued these ideas with peoples, histories, and race. Nice interpretation of environmental racism.

[Zoe Varner-Gutierrez · Rating 2 out of 5]

How can one even think to write a book about environmental racism in the US and not mention some of the worst affected communities: Hawaii, Alaska, Puerto Rico, Guam, Northern Mariana Islands, American Samoa or even Indigenous communities in the US after the 18th century? This book missed, it was more about the history of trash disposal with a section on redlining. So disappointing.

[Becca · Rating 4 out of 5]

I don't know if I read this for fun or if i read it for class but I had a good time

[Grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

A lot of insightful (and troubling) content, but I felt like the title was broader than the scope of the book, some of the analysis was reaching, and the conclusion was shallower than I would have hoped for.

[EricheBooks · Rating 2 out of 5]

DNF lost me at the diatribe/homage to child trafficker Thomas Jefferson’s opinions on race. He did not “carry on a relationship” with a 14 year old who could not consent for several reasons. Other people have done this topic more justice.

[Serge · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fascinating book that weaves insights from anthropology such as Purity and a Danger by Mary Douglas with in depth historical analysis of antebellum sentiment and its modern counterpart in the sanitarian movement. The book is not about environmental justice in the terms typically bandied by progressives. It is an intellectual and social history that links the Greek notion of miasma to racial prejudices tied to fear of miscegenation and the pollution of the race. I discussed the first two sections of the book with one of our student clubs and there is interest in pairing a reading of this book to a class outing to see Parasite. Pollution as the stench of the poor captures our contemporary prejudices. The best parts of the book are the nuanced examination of the writings of Thomas Jefferson and the analysis of the sanitation strike in Memphis that precipitated Dr. King’s fateful visit to the city.

[AJ · Rating 2 out of 5]

The book's subject matter is fascinating and certainly worth reading about; however, I am not sure if the author did it much justice here. The first half of the boring is quite boring and dry, and I am not sure why Thomas Jefferson was given so much air time here (compared to the rest of the history as it relates to environmental racism). The author also left out a lot of other racial groups that were also a part of the history of environmental racism. Even if the author did not want to focus primarily on other racial groups, it at least warranted a chapter in the book. The title of the book made it seem as if the topic area covered would be much broader than it truly was. The chapters were a bit disjointed, and while the latter half of the book picked up the pace and felt much more engaging, I found the book to be an okay read. Glad I read it but really would not recommend this one if someone is interested in the topic.

[Amy Block · Rating 3 out of 5]

The topic of this book is incredibly important, but I was a bit underwhelmed by the book itself. For what should be such an enraging and shocking topic (that environmental injustice is real and rampant), I didn’t find myself feeling much fire in my belly while reading this. It’s possible that I’m jaded on the topic because I’m an earth scientist who is passionate about DEI issues, and I already realized a lot of these environmental injustices are going on? I guess I just expected this book to be a bit less of a historical investigation of racism (though that’s an important topic) and waste removal (though that was fascinating, and I learned a lot about the creation of the waste industry in America), and instead more of an in-depth analysis of modern-day and historical examples/case-studies of injustice that would make your skin crawl. The book started to pick up steam the last few chapters, I thought, as we moved toward the modern day.

All that said, the book taught me a lot about the history of association between race and cleanliness. And when I really think about it, I hadn’t previously made the connection that “most toxic waste dumps are in black neighborhoods because we have a CENTURIES-long history of associating BIPOC individuals with dirt and waste.” I knew we put dumps in marginalized neighborhoods because we as a society don’t value BIPOC lives as much (and BIPOC neighborhoods don’t take in the taxes like white neighborhoods do), but I never went so far as to examine that America has historically actually correlated race and uncleanliness. For that perspective, this book was worth the read.

[Louisa · Rating 4 out of 5]

The first part of the book, dealing with Jefferson to the Civil War, reads more like an overview of general American history with a few notes on dirt thrown in than an environmental history. By the time we hit Part Two, though, Zimring is on a roll. I was fascinated by sewage and sanitation -not my usual topics of interest. A great introduction to environmental racism, as well.

[Edward Gray · Rating 5 out of 5]

A great book that add color to environmental racism . There is racism that exists in America that is based on beliefs of inferiority of people of color.

[Karen · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book is dry. It is historical. However, it points out and weaves together how this country has denigrated Black people and immigrants as “unclean”. It points out how people associate white with clean/pure and anyone else as unclean. There is a moral/character implication. If you want to understand how BIPOC communities are under resourced and frequently at risk at having unclean drinking water, toxic waste, and chemicals plants near their neighborhoods then you should read it.

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

In this nonfictional text, Zimring strongly captures the history of racism and how it has come to affect America today.

Through my reading, I discovered the origin of racist actions and phrases and how they continue today as micro-aggressions. Zimring provided a thought-provoking call to action that will surely leave readers wondering what they can do to avoid rewriting this tragic history.

[Sam L · Rating 3 out of 5]

Definitely not what I’d call a “fun read” - had to mentally push through it and felt like I was back in school - but SO full of knowledge and insight. Definitely worth it, just be prepared for a textbook feel

[Betsy Peterson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Great insights on the intersection of history of race and waste in the country. A little repetitive but would highly recommend for those unfamiliar with this topic/issue.

[Beetle The Bard]

I don't rate non-fiction, simply because I do not know how.
It was informative and well written.

[Maggie Moore · Rating 2 out of 5]

Meh. Spoke in circles. Idolized Thomas Jefferson, a racist rapist. Good information but not much I hadn’t heard before. I would recommend something else to someone interested in this topic.

[Carolyn Fagan · Rating 3 out of 5]

There was so much potential for this topic, but this didn't live up to it for me. Covered the early history of Thomas Jefferson and his era in much detail, but then left more current topics barely touched. That being said I did get some interesting information from my reading.

[Bethany · Rating 4 out of 5]

Informative. Weaves the theme of white America's obsession with cleanliness (next to godliness) with racism and changes in who works with and bares the harms of working with waste over history.

[Nate E · Rating 4 out of 5]

This work tackles how waste & the concept of "dirty" has been linked to racism. Prescient, well written, and researched.

[Gracious Wyatt Draher · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was frustrating to read. I felt it wasn’t making the profound important points that it really thought it was, and in many ways it missed the mark. I felt frustrated and incredulous while I read

[Pamela · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book reads like a history textbook, but that kind of thing doesn't bother me. I know that doesn't jive with many people. While some of the thoughts seemed scattered, overall, I enjoyed this book and learned a lot from it.

[Julie · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an accessible work of non-fiction about the history of modern sanitation and waste management in the US. At the same time it talks about how ideas cleanliness and white identity overlapped and how minorities have historically performed the dirty jobs that make modern levels of hygiene possible.

Bottom line: This is an interesting book about how race, economics and sanitation are intertwined in America.