Open camera or QR reader and scan code to access this article and other resources online. Housing, Environmental Justice, and the Case of the Stop Cop City Movement: A Structural Intersectional Approach to Housing Equity H. Shellae Versey INTRODUCTION A fundamental cause underpinning housing, envi- ronmental injustices, and health disparities is struc- tural racism. 1,2 Structural racism drives racialized health inequities. 2 This process is partially facilitated by pre- vious policies and legacy institutions, adapting over time to reproduce disparate housing conditions (e.g., social, economic, and environmental), a lack of safety (e.g., policing and surveillance), security, and belonging within one’s own community, especially for racially minoritized groups. At the same time, racism is intertwined with comple- mentary systems (e.g., racial capitalism, political econ- omy) 3 that require earning access to housing through capital accumulation and demonstrating worthiness (e.g., means-testing, gatekeeping, and respectability). 4 Because of this, where people live now—and have lived in the past—is not random; residential communities are influ- enced by laws and policies that form the basis of neighborhood disparities, ethnic enclaves, and segregated cities across the United States. Housing inequities are enduring, sustained by systems and tactics (e.g., forced evictions, eminent domain, land theft) that disenfranchise poorer people and people of color, primarily Black and Latine communities. 3 Since housing in this country is configured such that access to it is assumed to be a privilege rather than a right, dis- crimination and segregation remain staggeringly high, buoyed by global trends (e.g., austerity policies, global- ization, urbanization, gentrification). Housing is a necessary feature of environmental jus- tice (EJ). However, linkages between housing and the environment are broad and not well defined, in part due to research connecting the two evolving in somewhat distinct and separate literatures. In addition, barriers to housing (e.g., housing discrimination) are often framed as historical, rather than ongoing. This commentary proposes that an integrative EJ framework rooted in structural intersectionality can bring together and high- light seemingly disparate issues that disproportionately impact communities of color. Intersectionality theorists maintain that interlocking forces of domination and oppression shape the ways people experience the world. 5,6 Structural intersection- ality fundamentally engages with how multiple systems of oppression (e.g., racism, racialized capitalism, neo- liberal urbanism) vary and relate to one another at a macro-level, influencing lived experiences at the micro- level. In other words, a key tenet of structural Dr. H. Shellae Versey is an Associate Professor in the De- partment of Psychology, Fordham University, Bronx, New York, USA. 1 David Williams, Jourdyn A. Lawrence, and Brigette Davis. ‘‘Racism and Health: Evidence and Needed Research.’’ Annual Review of Public Health 40 (2019): 105–125. doi: 10.1146/ annurev-publhealth-040218-043750 2 Zinzi D. Bailey, Nancy Krieger, Madina Age´nor, Jasmine Graves, Natalia Linos, and Mary T. Bassett. ‘‘Structural Racism and Health Inequities in the USA: Evidence and Interventions.’’ The Lancet 389 (2017):1453–1463. doi: 10.1016/S0140- 6736(17)30569-X 3 Prentiss A. Dantzler. ‘‘The Urban Process Under Racial Capitalism: Race, Anti-Blackness, and Capital Accumulation.’’ Journal of Race, Ethnicity and the City 2 (2021): 113–134. doi: 10.1080/26884674.2021.1934201 4 H. Shellae Versey. ‘‘Disproportionate Risk at Both Ends: How Housing, Health, and Systems of Exposure Contribute to Survival Risk-Taking.’’ Perspectives in Biology and Medi- cine 65 (2022): 283–294. doi: 10.1353/pbm.2022.0024 5 Kimberle´ W. Crenshaw. ‘‘Mapping the Margins: Inter- sectionality, Identity Politics, and Violence Against Women of Color.’’ Stanford Law Review 46 (1991): 1241–1299. doi: 10 .2307/1229039 6 Combahee River Collective. ‘‘A Black Feminist Statement.’’ Women’s Studies Quarterly 42 (2014): 271–280. doi: 10.1353/ wsq.2014.0052 ENVIRONMENTAL JUSTICE Volume 16, Number 6, 2023 ª Mary Ann Liebert, Inc. DOI: 10.1089/env.2022.0035 1 Downloaded by Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers from www.liebertpub.com at 11/04/23. For personal use only. For Personal Use Only Not for Distribution/Posting