Systemic Pollution: The Disproportionate Impact of Environmental Hazards on Black Communities' Health
Ty’Mir Bass
City of Medicine
Research Question: How do residential segregation and structural racism contribute to pollution and other environmental hazards harming the health of black communities?
Thesis Statement: Residential segregation and structural racism affect black health by imposing policies leading to polluted environmental conditions based on location.
Findings
This research revealed that implementing policies affected by Jim Crow laws negatively impacted the environment in these areas.
These policies and practices included exclusionary zoning, redlining, and land use restrictions used to exploit where black Americans were permitted to reside.
Consequently, these policies enabled the construction of pollution-producing facilities near black communities, adversely impacting their health.
In my research, Black Americans who are displaced are found to be in areas where they are vulnerable and lack overall resources Prevailing, the pollution I examined more was air pollution and how facilities displace carcinogens and over 50 other chemicals in the air causing cancer and severe health effects.
Case study: Cancer Alley
St. Charles Parish nicknamed Cancer Alley due to high cancer rates and death is a “corridor” of petrochemical plants, plastic plants, and oil refineries stationed 85 miles along the Mississippi in Louisiana, which manufactures 1/6 of the domestic products of chemicals, petroleum, and coal plants. Because of this, you can see higher rates of cancer in Louisiana, especially St.
Charles Parish, a town in this corridor.