America's Environmental Racism

America has had a long history of environmental racism and don’t expect anything to change for the better with Trump and his unqualified thugs in power. We even had an organization called Champions of Change for Climate Equity that addressed the problem of polluting companies being housed in poor minority neighborhoods across America. Last year Trump and his new Environmental Protection choice Scott Pruitt encouraged more manufacturing to find a home in minority areas.  Meanwhile, the Office of Environmental Justice was trying to be a safety net for communities of color, low income communities and indigenous populations.

Many of these communities are marginalized or completely forgotten. The Office of Environmental Justice provides advocacy, education and grants. While it is there to provide protection to all Americans, polluters are on the lookout for a certain demographic. Poor neighborhoods or minority neighborhoods. There exists oil refineries next to black neighborhoods. The companies have been allowed to re-classify poison so that they can put the toxins into our water.   Industrial farms are in low income neighborhoods because they bring low income jobs as well. They build landfills instead of parks in the communities. It all started when white trash spewed all over Plymouth Rock and they oppressed the American Indians.

If you look at Flint Michigan you see children that have been impacted by the lead in their water supply. They have a hard time to learn and if they can’t learn they can’t get a good job. The vicious cycle never ends.  There are over 1,000 other communities that have even higher levels of lead in their water across the United States. There are actually 3,810 neighborhoods with lead double that of Flint.   What is Trump and his thug doing? Nothing. In fact they are making it worse. Pruitt has begun to dismantle former president Barack Obama’s environmental legacy.

When Pruitt went to a Senate Environmental Protection Agency Confirmation, he admitted that he didn’t know much about Environmental Justice. He got the job anyway. Why do we even have a Senate Environment & Public Works Committee   in the Dirksen Office Building if we are not doing anything to change the disaster going on in poor and minority communities?    After his confirmation, good people who have been in the business of protecting our environment resigned.   They pleaded with Pruitt and tried to remind him that he has a once in a lifetime opportunity to bring people together to ensure that communities have safe places to live and to ensure that vulnerable communities that have been struggling for clean water can survive for them and their families.

Pruitt promised polluters that the EPA will value their profits over American lives.