Environmental racism refers to the idea that environmental destruction has a varying impact on individuals with regards to race. According to a research done by the U.S. Congress’s General Accounting Office, in eight distinctive states, ¨75% of the hazardous waste landfill sites were in low-income communities of color.¨(1) This is caused by the fact that communities of higher income tends to live away from environmentally dangerous areas of the city, and those who live in poverty tend to live in places that are more exposed to different kinds of pollutions, including but not limited to air, land, water pollution etc.

Due to this fact, I decided to look at the income of communities of colour and to compare how they might be disproportionately impacted by the environmental racism. ¨In 2019, median household income for Black households was $45,438 compared to $56,113 for Hispanic households, $76,057 for non-Hispanic White households, and $98,174 for Asian households.¨ Black households are 19% more likely to live in places with hazardous waste landfill (56,113 – 45,438)/56113 = 19% than hispanic households. (formula for percentage change)Environmental racism explains to us the urgency to take care of our environment as a means to fight against racism.

Bibliography:

(1) https://www.sustained.kitchen/latest/2020/6/6/fast-facts-on-environmental-racism

(2) https://www.census.gov/library/stories/2020/09/poverty-rates-for-blacks-and-hispanics-reached-historic-lows-in-2019.html