via Wikipedia
Researchers at The University of Minnesota and the University of Washington tested the amount of fine particulate matter (PM2.5) coursing in the air through Black neighborhoods compared to white ones.
The difference was staggering. Guess what was to blame…?
The location of many Black neighborhoods (often alongside shipping routes, near industrial smokestacks, and meat plants) means we are exposed to this toxic pollutant WAY MORE than our consumption habits are responsible for creating.
This lack of quality air puts us at greater risk for illnesses, such as lung cancer and strokes, that kill more people annually than car accidents and homicide combined!
Meanwhile, white neighborhoods are having a completely different experience.
They’re able to consume and push demand for products whose manufacturing causes much of the pollution, yet benefit from residential segregation and political power that wards off many of the fatal consequences.
Worse still, zoning laws, emissions, and land use regulations all play a role in concentrating polluted air over our neighborhoods instead.
This is an urgent environmental justice issue. Black people should not be forced to bear the burden of a problem they had no significant role in creating.
It’s time for our political leaders to pass laws that protect our right to breathe clean air in the places we are often - thanks to income inequality and decades-long segregation - forced to settle.