The origins of environmental justice—and why it’s finally getting the attention it deserves Decades of research show that Black and brown communities are on the front lines of environmental harms. Can those longstanding injustices be remedied? ByAlejandra Borunda Email Sociologist Robert Bullard has spent four decades making the case that environmental harms have disproportionately affected communities of color across the United States. So when one of President Joe Biden’s first moves after inauguration was to sign an executive order that pledged to “advance environmental justice” in his efforts to address the climate crisis, Bullard was ecstatic. “Now, environmental and racial justice is the centerpiece, not a footnote,” says the professor of urban planning and environmental policy at Texas Southern University.