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A young, black, professional, Spelman College and UNC Law grad, and new mommy who practices law in the Chicago suburbs.

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The Rise of Environmental Racism

April 3rd, 2007 • Related • Filed Under

Young Black Professional Guide to Environmental Racism

“If you are a black American you are 79 percent more likely than a white American to live in a neighborhood where industrial pollution is suspected of posing a grave health danger.”

According to a new report from the Environmental Justice Resource Center at Clark Atlanta University, environmental racism is getting worse, not better, in the U.S. despite two decades of advocacy and policy improvements. The report, which serves as an update to a landmark 1987 study uncovering the proximity of minority groups to hazardous waste sites across the country, found that an even larger number of Hispanics/Latinos and African-Americans live within two miles of one of more than 400 such facilities in the U.S.

Analysts assumed the situation was improving. After all, hundreds of non-profit and community groups lobbied on behalf of eliminating such environmental racism in the intervening two decades, and a special environmental justice office was created at the U.S. Environmental Protection Agency.

Reading this report reminded me of a course I took during law school called Race, Residence, and Municipal Exculsion. We studied a widespread but underrecognized problem: the historic exclusion of African-American, Latino and other minority communities from the municipal boundaries of southern towns. Residents of these excluded neighborhoods typically do not receive city water, sewer, paved roads, streetlights and/or other municipal services. One student created a powerful documentary after filming interviews of small town residents in North Carolina who were forced to cook and clean with dingy water.

The aftermath of Hurricane Katrina left New Orleans faced with the critical issues of environmental injustice and environmental racism when race played itself out in a poisonous way. Somehow, the French Quarter and the rich uptown area and the Central Business District were spared the brunt of the storm. The areas that were completely washed out were the lower 9th Ward, a community of poor working class, mostly African-American homeowners, and the New Orleans East area, composed of mostly African-American educated professionals and business owners. Both areas have a history of political engagement and high voter turn-out. In his latest book, Come Hell or High Water: Katrina and the Color of Disaster, author Michael Eric Dyson asks, “Does the Bush administration care about black people? Did an overstretched National Guard, with much of its valuable resources fighting wars overseas, contribute to the disaster?” Many activists, scholars and survivors have contributed to the topic of environmental racism in Louisiana. What’s your opinion on the issue?

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    KMIT (just practicing for August), I am so glad you posted on this. I don't know if you read the Bobby Kennedy Jr interview in Oprah a few months ago but it was ridiculously informative on this issue. I am still floored and can't believe the many ways being economically disadvantaged is a death sentence in this country.
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    Yes, unfortunately, this has been going on for years and you would think that with all the social justice orgs that fight over grants and claim to have black folks best interest at heart, that some things just wouldn’t exist. Another problem is the lead in drinking water in poor neighborhoods. It’s a known fact that lead is in paint and dust but most don’t think about the fact that the tap water they drink from and bathe in daily could have high levels of lead in it. Check your stuff!! Pregnant women and children age 6 and under are most at risk according to the Lead-Free Drinking Water Act. There’s a huge problem going on in our Nations Capitol, DC, and it’s a battle that many think is foolish and without merit. In 2004 the story broke in the Washington Post about high levels of lead in DC drinking water. In 2007 there is still a problem, Wow. We need to EDUCATE OURSELVES EVEN MORE on environmental issues and spread the word throughout our communities; especially to those that are less fortunate than others. We must protect them! Empowerment is key! We have to GET MORE INVOLVED in the legislative process and learn more about what’s going on behind the four walls of congress and our local municipalities. Today marks the 37th year anniversary of Martin Luther King’s death and sometimes it seems like things are getting worse. Marvin Gay sang about pollution in his song “Mercy Mercy Me” (The Ecology), check it out! I know we all wonder what they would be doing and saying if they were still alive. We must FIGHT HARDER to shine the light on issues that are important and crucial to the black community and bring life threatening issues to the forefront. We must GET RADICAL about awareness within our communities. We’ve got to CONTINUE to have DIALOGUE like this and postings and blogs and anything else that will “GET THE WORD OUT” …. I salute those that came before us, they fought the good fight. I salute YBP and others that focus on these and other issues. Thank you. I am humbly grateful. We young folk have to take the baton and run like we’ve never run before. “Therefore we also, since we are surrounded by so great a cloud of witnesses, let us lay aside every weight, and the sin which so easily ensnares us, and let us run with endurance the race that is set before us,…". Peace & Blessings to you all.
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