Carolyn Finney

Carolyn Finney's work functions at the axis of critical race theory and environment studies, examining the relationship between black Americans and the natural environment, and how this relationship has been shaped and codified by racism, violence, class difference, and white privilege. This book raises some very important questions on how our culture views that relationship and also addresses the fears black Americans associate with the environment and the advances that black Americans have contributed to environmental causes. The book focuses on a number of different topics to demonstrate the problematic and tenuous bond between race and environment: slave labor, the association between wilderness and lynching, lack of diversity in visitors to and employees of national parks, racist depictions of black people related to tropes of "wildness," and the racial underpinnings of government and media reactions to Hurricane Katrina. All the arguments this text makes are valid and, even more, crucial. However, the book seems slightly unfocused and spread too thin. In an effort to paint a comprehensive picture and tackle all possible avenues related to this mostly unexplored intersection the book lacks an argumentative and theoretical depth. Hopefully, this is only the beginning and Finney continues to contribute more scholarship regarding these issues, as it is badly needed.… (plus d'informations)