Breaking Down Environmental Racism– Why It Exists and is Prevailing in NYC

Do you remember hearing about Flint, Michigan in 2015? About the widespread lead contamination of the drinking water supply that occurred when city officials decided it was a good money-saving idea to switch the city’s drinking water supply to the Flint River? Yeah, that’s just one example of environmental racism. Pediatrician Mona Hanna-Attisha, who was an initial founder of the cause, said, “The Flint water crisis is one of the most emblematic examples of environmental racism, and lead contamination is a long-standing example of what environmental racism means and how it works”

But for those of us who are still a little confused, what exactly does “environmental racism” even mean? When you hear someone talk about environmental racism, what they’re talking about is the disproportionate burden of environmental hazards placed on communities of color. The burden stems from the systemic oppression created from policies and governmental practices that allow or push low-income communities of color closer to polluting facilities (like power plants, plastics factories, trash incinerators, and oil refineries) or major infrastructures like highways. Communities that suffer from wealth inequality tend not to have the resources to deal with, fight, or catch these infrastructural issues– such as the case with the Flint water crisis. 

When these communities then are forced to live through and in the proximity of heavy pollution, they are also more likely to have greater rates of serious health problems. Such as cancers, lung conditions, heart attacks, asthma, lower birth weights, and issues with high blood pressure. These are life-long consequences (that can span for generations) affecting people of color at a far higher rate than White/higher-wealth communities. Health issues amongst communities of color are especially prevalent and problematic as these individuals have a disproportionate level of access to health care and also have a higher probability of being ignored by medical professionals.

There was even a 2018 study conducted by a group of EPA scientists uncovered that on average, people of color faced a 28% higher health burden than the general population because of their proximity to the aforementioned polluting facilities. Black Americans, especially, deal with a 54% greater health burden. Which, of course, was exacerbated during the COVID-19 pandemic when these communities were hit hardest because of their preexisting conditions. 

And that’s just in America. If we look at the bigger picture, we’d also see the way environmental racism affects developing countries who are left to deal with the waste of developed ones. Such as Ghana who often has to deal with the U.S.’s e-waste, leading to an increased amount of health issues. 

Now that you’ve got a feel for the big picture of what environmental racism is, let’s talk about some close-to-home issues and how it affects our community directly. Specifically, we’re going to talk about the pollution of the Hudson River by General Electric, and the National Grid Pipeline issue in Bushwick, Brooklyn NYC. 

You definitely already know where the Hudson River is, and you probably know that you shouldn’t be eating any fish that you catch from it or even go for a Sunday morning swim. It’s easy to blame the entire NY state and city for turning an oasis river that once offered fresh oysters for locals, to this brown river that is more frequently than not featured on a Law & Order episode for body-hiding reasons. So going into the environmental racism thought process we’ve developed here, one of the main reasons that the Hudson River is the way that it is is because of General Electric. To summarize the issue for you, EPA banned polychlorinated biphenyls (PCBs) in 1977, which until that point had been used as fire preventatives and insulators for electrical devices. And yes, General Electric dumped about 1.3 million pounds of PCBs into the river from their two manufacturing plants. All these PCBs were deposited into the river bottom, and in 1984 (after a number of health issues caused to local communities), EPA designated the Hudson River as one of the most contaminated hazardous waste sites. And the communities near those two manufacturing plants were lower-income communities.

Traveling further downstream, we go to Bushwick, Brooklyn. Bushwick has a demographic made up of 56.3% Hispanic-identifying individuals and 15.3% Black-identifying individuals. Bushwick’s subway stations and adjacent neighborhoods have been having a potential lead problem (much like Jackson Heights, Queens in 2017). It all started when a local Bushwick resident collected paint that had fallen to the ground within a local train station– all of which came back with dangerously high levels of lead. Besides the issue being prevalent in these neighborhoods, there’s the additional note that there shouldn’t be any lead paint in 2022. When the Jackson Heights concern occurred, the city of New York passed a 2018 bill that mandated testing of all MTA above-ground stations for lead. This is where it gets tricky and you really begin to see the abundance of environmental racism– when the bill was passed, it stated that the paint would be stripped. “Stripped” does not equal a safe removal of paint but rather allows for small pieces, dust, and chunks of paint to make their way into the neighborhood, affecting the locals. And just like the Hudson River and Flint, Michigan, these locals don’t always have the resources to fix these environmental burdens. 

“Lead is not just solid; it doesn’t just lie on the ground. [If] a car goes over it, it becomes dust, it becomes inhalable,” said David Rosner, Ph.D., co-director of the Center for the History and Ethics of Public Health at Columbia University’s Mailman School of Public Health (Bushwick Daily, 2022). 

Lead Paint Chips in Bushwick. Collected by Polizzi, photo by Kyle Andrew Smith, via Bushwick Daily.

So, where does this leave us? Well for starters, it’s important to acknowledge that the way we think about policies and regulations is flawed. Just think back to the tobacco industry (where they originally said cigarettes caused no health issues), or the sugar industry (when they said that sugar intake did not factor into obesity), the fast food industry (which before the 2000s didn’t have the negative connotations it does today), or finally Flint Michigan (where locals had been so SURE that their water supply was safe because, of course there would be rules in place for such a thing, wouldn’t there be?). This is one of the major catchall for environmental racism, no one wants to think that bad things are happening. But it is, and we can all do something about it. 

The most impactful thing we can do, especially from a point of privilege, is not be a bystander. Environmental racism is defined by a disproportionate burden of environmental hazards on a community– it’s important to balance that scale. Vote, organize, hold your local elected officials accountable, demand environmental protections and fight against climate change too. It’s all interconnected, and just because you are not actively seeing it, does not mean it doesn’t affect you. 

Do better. Do more. Protect the future.