Environmental Racism – The Silent Killer

 By Sunay, The New 3Rs Class of 2021

Poisoned tap water in Flint, Michigan, toxic waste dumps in the Lower Rio Grande Valley and the South Bronx in NYC known as Asthma Alley from Fresh Direct toxic truck emissions. What do these things have in common?  All are examples of environmental racism, a form of systemic racism where communities of color are disproportionately forced to grapple with health hazards through policies and practices that force them to live close to sources of toxic waste such as sewage works, mines, landfills, power stations, and major roads. As a result, these communities suffer greater rates of health problems.

Environmental racism can take many forms, from workplaces with unsound health regulations for hourly workers to the placement of unsafe power stations close to predominantly non-white communities. It can mean citizens drinking contaminated groundwater or being schooled in decaying buildings with asbestos problems.

Many of these problems face low-income communities as a whole, but race often plays a larger part in one’s proximity to pollution. A study in 2007 found “race to be more important than socioeconomic status in predicting the location of the nation’s commercial hazardous waste facilities”. The study proved that Black children were five times more likely to have lead poisoning from proximity to waste than White children.  Even Black Americans making $50-60,000 a year were more likely to live in polluted areas than their White counterparts that lived on public assistance. 

The case of Flint, Michigan, is a prime example of environmental racism. In 2014, to save money, the city changed its water source to the Flint river, but failed to treat the new supply adequately, exposing the city’s 100,000 majority-Black inhabitants to dangerous levels of lead and other contaminants such as E.coli. Between 6,000 and 12,000 children drank tap water containing high levels of lead, a neurotoxin.  Twelve citizens eventually died from Legionnaire’s Disease. The residents had been complaining for 18 months of foul smelling, discolored water, hair loss, headaches, and skin rashes.  Their complaints were dismissed until the community forced the city to reconnect to the original water supply and admit their wrongdoing. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission concluded that the slow official reaction was a “result of systemic racism”.

Yet, it is not only Black populations that suffer from the consequences of environmental racism. Indigenous populations often suffer from environmental racism as well. In the US, Native American communities continue to be exposed to large amounts of nuclear and other hazardous waste, as corporations take advantage of weaker ecological laws on Native land. For example, decades of uranium mining on the land of the Navajo tribe have caused longstanding problems in the community. From 1951 until 1971, the US Public Health Service performed a massive human medical experiment on 4,000 Navajo uranium miners, allowing them to work without informing them of the effects of radiation. The effects were predictable: elevated levels of lung cancer and other diseases from breathing in radon.

The 2016-17 protests against the Dakota Access Pipeline were another example where the tribes challenged the system and lost. The 1,172 mile oil pipeline was considered a threat to the Standing Rock Indian Reservation’s water supply, as well as sites of historic importance and culturally sensitive burial grounds. Consequently, the tribes began protesting and pushing back against the company. Though unsuccessful, the protests caught the public’s eye, drawing national attention and even support from influential politicians like Bernie Sanders.

Environmental racism occurs because low income Black and Indigenous communities lack the resources to raise awareness or fight a costly legal battle, which are often available to wealthier White communities.  So, what is being done? The environmental justice movement works to raise the voices of vulnerable populations through academic studies, media pressure campaigns, and public activism. Grassroots movements also use social media, along with civil disobedience and marches, to make their views heard. Environmental racism is part of the broader picture of systemic racism, which must be fought to bring about a fairer society.

I am one of the co-chairs of The New 3Rs Youth Philanthropy Giving Circle.  We want to fund Black-led community organizations fighting environmental racism. Contact us at compassion@thenew3rs.org.