'Becoming a waste land where nothing can survive': resisting state-corporate environmental crime in a 'forgotten' place

Environmental justice advocates have made visible the practice of disproportionately siting hazardous waste facilities in low-income communities of color throughout the USA. Typically, state-corporate actors decide where to place these environmentally undesirable projects, with an eye toward the bottom line rather than the health and safety of particular community members. Through an analysis of secondary data and archival materials, ranging from public hearings to court documents and newspaper accounts, a case study of state-corporate environmental crime and how one rural, historically African American town in Arizona organized to resist the siting of a fourth landfill in their community is explored. Theoretical concepts advanced by Ruth Wilson Gilmore, such as 'forgotten places', are put into conversation with the literature on state-corporate crime. An examination of the relationship between environmental inequality, state-corporate crime, and people's capacity for resistance is presented.