African American Communities Case Study
Environmental disasters are often pushed into regions with a higher rate of marginalized groups; relating to class, gender, and race. The dangerous environmental issues that these groups face hinder their process in the fight for equality, oppressing them and hurting the environment even more. Areas with a higher black population are forced into poverty for various reasons that African American communities with environmental problems are forced into poverty and forced into having more health problems as a result. The town of Convent, Louisiana had an 83.7% African American population, with a rate of 2,277 lbs. of air pollution produced per person annually, compared to the rest of the United States which has an average of 7 lbs per capita ... Show more content on Helpwriting.net ...The chemical plants were being placed in Convent because they already had a high rate of pollution– the general consensus between the corporations and the government being that it makes more sense to put them into a town that already has astronomical rates of pollution than putting them in one that doesn't have issues with it. Convent was known for being a town that had a rate of higher poverty (CITE SOME SHIT), which made it easier to build the chemical plants there. Media and general public tend to care less about health and environmental issues when a town lives in poverty, so it was harder for the townsfolk to gain awareness for the corporations they were fighting against. This is still evident in places such as Flint, Michigan, where the residents are being forced to drink water that has highly elevated levels of iron and lead. Media attention was high for a while, but soon Flint faded out of the spotlight, being left with lead and iron poisoned water. In the city of Flint, 40% of the population lives below the poverty line, and has a majority black population. (CITE CNN ARTICLE). This contrasts with the town of Love Canal where the activists were only left off of the front page news
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