environmental racism
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Eau de Bull, Again: Good Ole Boys Have ‘No Concerns About Anything Inappropriate’ in Environmental-Racism Case
Last year I wrote about an environmental-racism conspiracy in which a corrupt black congressman implicated Jeffrey Wood, the man now overseeing the Justice Department’s Environment and Natural Resources Division, or ENRD. I’m back to report that this story has aged like wine: It’s gotten more complex, mightily more interesting and warrants an incredulous second taste…
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Chicago Tribune Report Finds Black and Low-Income Residents Pay the Most for Water
In America, being poor is expensive. Being poor and black is even more costly. A recent, must-read Chicago Tribune investigation illuminates precisely how by taking a look at one of the most basic human needs: water. The Tribune analyzed how much different communities across the Chicago region were paying for water pumped from Lake Michigan…
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Race and Class Are the Biggest Issues Around Hurricane Harvey and We Need to Start Talking About Them
Our national conversation on Hurricane Harvey should be much like those about Charlottesville, Va., or Flint, Mich. But as the Houston area braces for much more flooding, that won’t happen until receding floodwaters reveal the dangerously gaping holes of disparity between white haves and black have-nots. Right now the nation just sees flooding and burly,…
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Shame on You Jeff Bezos! Amazon Data Center Threatens a Century-Old Black Va. Neighborhood
More than a few outraged citizens turned out this weekend to protest the fact that behemoth company Amazon.com, via its lackey Dominion Virginia, is attempting to seize 50 acres of land belonging to a mostly elderly African-American Northern Virginia community that dates back to slavery. The move would pave over residents’ homes and build power…
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US Army’s Toxic Smoke Billows Over Black Town
Every Day, Hazardous Waste Is Burned in Open Air Jim Vance, Longtime D.C. Anchor, Dies at 75 O.J. ‘Not Looking to Be Involved With the Media’ Rights, Media Groups to Help Citizens Record Police Writer Alarmed by A&E’s Live Version of ‘Cops’ Artist Shows That News Is a Matter of Perspective Spicer Should Have Expected…
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Eau de Bull: A Cologne of Arsenic and Environmental Racism for Acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood
The Justice Department’s Environmental and Natural Resources Division is responsible for enforcing compliance with federal environmental laws. So to find that the fingerprints of coal lobbyist-turned-ENRD acting Assistant Attorney General Jeffrey Wood are on an environmental-racism scandal is, actually, pretty par for the course with the Trump administration. In 2011, the Environmental Protection Agency found…
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Earth Day 2017: Ex-Environmental Justice Chief for EPA on Using Your Power to Save the Planet
Long before Mustafa Santiago Ali helped establish one of our nation’s most esteemed federal programs, he was a child raised in a Baptist and Pentecostal church. He was born in a family passionate about social justice and civil rights, and his faith laid the foundation for a life of giving back. “It’s really important that…
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Earth Day 2017: 3 Environmental-Justice Groups That Are Putting Up a Good Fight in Trump’s America
In the United States, race is the dominant factor when it comes to living in a toxic environment because black, brown and poor people are more likely to live in polluted communities with contaminated water, dirty air and toxic waste. Seeing that our 45th president is indifferent to climate change and thinks that shutting down…
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#StopSabal: Fight to Halt Natural Gas Pipeline in Minority Communities Could Be Next #NoDAPL
The battle to stop the Dakota Access Pipeline at the Standing Rock Sioux Reservation in North Dakota garnered major headlines last year as protesters gathered to stop the oil pipeline from endangering the water source of sacred tribal land. But in Florida, Georgia and Alabama, there is something happening that’s eerily similar to DAPL. It’s…
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Flint, Mich., Water-System Lead Levels Are Now Below Federal Limit, Officials Say
The water crisis in Flint, Mich., is far from over, but the Associated Press reports that the city’s water system no longer has levels of lead that grossly exceed the federal limit. Michigan state environmental officials are calling this good news for the city, whose residents are still dealing with the fallout from officials’ negligence.…