Enrique Gili is a freelance writer covering Lifestyles of Health and Sustainability (Though about one-third of U.S. residents are nonwhite, more than half of the people living near hazardous waste facilities were Latino, African American or Asian American.
The cause is simple, said Robert Bullard, a sociologist at Clark Atlanta University in Georgia and lead author of the study, which updates a landmark report from two decades ago. "The most potent predictor of where these facilities are sited is not how much income you have; it's race.... You don't have many of these facilities in West Los Angeles, and you don't have many minorities in West Los Angeles either.... You've got both in Vernon and surrounding neighborhoods." ( LA Times)
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Comments
That is an interesting conclusion and I'm not going to say it's wrong, but I think it's over exaggerated. I'm assuming hazardous waste facilities bring down property value, and with cheaper property value comes people with lower income. I don't have any hard numbers, but wouldn't a difference in income levels for minorities account for some of this. I know some people in this world are racist ass hats, but I have a hard envisioning someone saying "Let's build our waste facility next to those minorities, that will teach them". Anyway, what the hell do I know, I'm white so my perspective could be completely off, just thought I'd throw in my 2 cents.
Posted by: Whatever | April 12, 2007 04:46 PM