The uproar over Bernie Sanders’ maladroit use of the word “ghetto” in the Democratic Debate in Flint, Mich., naturally demands the rebuttal that not all African-Americans live in poverty and racial isolation. At the same time, however, it must be acknowledged that African-Americans do live disproportionately in poverty and racial isolation, relative to white Americans. And this poverty and racial isolation correlates with how they’re treated.
(Yes, I say “they.” I am not African-American. African-American readers are invited to supplement this diary with their own personal knowledge and experience of these issues.)
Whether the dots have been explicitly connected or not, the water crisis in Flint was allowed to happen because the residents of Flint had been “nobodied” in a variety of ways. They’re disproportionately poor. They’re disproportionately black. They’re disproportionately unemployed. They’re disproportionately Democratic in a state whose power structure, at the time, was controlled by Republicans of a distinctly callous and punitive bent. All these traits created an environment in which the Powers That Be felt not only permitted not only to disregard the well-being of “Flintstones” but to gratuitously abuse them (that it also gave them the opportunity to abuse Detroit, which shares all the same traits, was undoubtedly a bonus).
Industry creates waste. The waste must be disposed of somewhere. The less distance the waste must be transported, the more convenient and less expensive for the producer of that waste. Best is to dispose of that waste where nobody lives—but almost as good is to dispose of that waste where nobody of consequence lives.
Wikipedia: Environmental Racism
Environmental racism is placement of low-income or minority communities in proximity of environmentally hazardous or degraded environments, such as toxic waste, pollution and urban decay. . . .
In 1979, Robert D. Bullard, a sociologist at Texas Southern University, completed a report describing the futile attempt of an affluent African-American community in Houston, Texas to block the siting of a hazardous waste landfill in their community. This paper provided evidence that race, not just income status, was a probable factor in this local "uninvited" land-use decision. In 1977, Sidney Howe, Director of the Human Environment Center, suggested that people positioned in the poor socioeconomic level of their respective communities were exposed to more pollution than others, and that those creating the most pollution live in the least polluted places. He used the term environmental justice to describe the corrective measures needed to address this disparity.[5] . . .
Forms of environmental racism include but are not limited to greater probability of exposure to environmental hazards; uneven negative impacts of environmental procedures; uneven negative impacts of environmental policies; intentional targeting and zoning of toxic facilities in minority communities; segregation of minority workers in hazardous jobs; minority communities with little access to or insufficient maintenance of environmental amenities, for example, parks; and disproportionate access to environmental services such as garbage removal.[5]
The Flint water crisis is an example of environmental injustice. The loss of the city’s property tax base combined with inadequate infrastructure maintenance meant that the city’s plumbing was already in poor condition. Lead pipes had not been replaced by copper. The primary local source of fresh water, the Flint River, was too polluted for the city’s antiquated water treatment plant to handle. Residents were exposed to toxins—first unknowingly, then knowingly—but the state did not deem them important enough to help. Even now, as the city’s water is known to be undrinkable, residents are still charged for it.
This scenario is only possible because Flintstones’ poverty, ethnicity and isolation allowed and emboldened the state to treat them as nobodies, without any rights that the state was bound to respect.
Flint is not the only place where this is happening.
Another U.S. City Finds Lead in Its Drinking Water
In a Jan. 29 news conference, Jim Craig, director of Mississippi’s Department of Health, said that the water samples in Jackson were taken in June 2015 and elevated lead levels were discovered the following month but weren’t reported to the city until January 2016. Craig said that the department was following Environmental Protection Agency guidelines requiring a six-month monitoring period after lead levels have been shown to be above the federal action level.
Low-Income, Black, And Latino Americans Face Highest Risk Of Chemical Spills
The people who face the greatest threat from potential toxic chemical disasters are disproportionately low-income, black, or Latino, according to a study released Thursday by three environmental groups.
Compared to the national average, the 134 million people who live closest to U.S. chemical facilities are 75 percent more likely to be black, 60 percent more likely to be Latino, and 50 percent more likely to be poor, the study showed. The demographics of these areas — called “fenceline zones” — show a troubling “pattern of ‘environmental racism,'” among chemical and petroleum companies, the report said.
Chicago’s Petcoke Woes Are Far From Over
Jan Rodolfo went on a tour of the Southeast Side of Chicago last week. When she got home, it took some time to wash off the residue of the trip. "I don't remember touching much of anything," says Rodolfo, the Midwest director of National Nurses United, a nationwide public-health advocacy group. "But I came home with petcoke under my fingernails that I had to work to scrub off."
That didn't bother her nearly as much, though, as what she saw on that tour: piles of petcoke in the middle of a residential neighborhood, right next to a youth baseball field, close to schools, and looming over backyards where children play. "I saw kids with petcoke dust on their faces," says Rodolfo, describing the Dickensian scene. "It doesn't rub off. You have to scrub it off."
Petcoke is a byproduct of tar sands oil production—the industry that the Keystone XL pipeline project was intended to abet. Contamination of the water table by toxic waste products is a byproduct of the fracking industry. Keystone XL and fracking are not just bad from a climate change standpoint. They create waste products that directly and disproportionately harm isolated populations of ethnic minorities and the poor.
No, being African-American is not synonymous with living in the “ghetto.” But because of past and present housing and employment discrimination, it does correlate to a well-recognized and well-understood degree with greater poverty and greater isolation. Poverty and isolation make a population vulnerable to environmental abuse and official neglect. There is absolutely no question that pollution from extractive industries is a monumental racial issue, one that Michigan voters should bear in mind when they go to the polls.