Strawboss Chicago Mayor in Talks w/Feds Over Forced City Reforms in Environmental Racism Probe. Pollution, Storage and Waste from Factories and Plants in Latino/Black Areas Impacting Residents Health
ELECTING BLACK ROLEBOTS IS BLACK POWER? WHERE EXACTLY HAVE THE BLACKS BEEN EMPOWERED? ACCORDING TO SOPHIE RASOF:
Environmental racism is a term used to describe the disproportionate exposure to toxic and hazardous waste in low-income minority communities due to the inequality of environmental policymaking and laws (Pellow 2000 and Brulle and Pellow 2006). Environmental racism is an extension of the systematic racism that minority groups have faced in the United States throughout history. Specifically, Latinx and African Americans are at a systematic disadvantage, unable to access appropriate resources, and are put at a higher risk for health and economic disparity. In Chicago, factories and industrial manufacturing production plants are placed in predominately Hispanic and Black communities. Air, water, and ground pollution from these production facilities impede on the health of the overall community both directly or indirectly. The collective exposure to these pollutions is at much higher rate than the surrounding white-affluent neighborhoods. Improper storage of hazardous waste, illegal dumping, and lack of education and protection for the workers all contribute to unjust and unequal environmental protection. This is a human health crisis causing higher rates of asthma, cancer, respiratory illness, lead poisoning, and cardiovascular disease seen at exponentially higher rates in these communities (Brulle and Pellow 2006). The accessibility to healthcare is limited in low-income minority and immigrant communities. This, in combination with unsafe living conditions, leads to suffering of specific populations. Chicago’s segregated neighborhoods allow for specific minority communities to be targeted and ultimately exploited. [MORE]
From [HERE] Mayor Lori Lightfoot’s administration is negotiating with President Joe Biden’s housing officials over potential city reforms after federal investigators accused Chicago of environmental racist zoning and land-use practices.
The U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development has held off on making an official declaration of next steps in an almost two-year civil rights investigation. The agency could force the city to make significant and permanent changes to its planning processes or risk losing millions in federal dollars.
After Lightfoot just months ago appeared to be bracing for a fight, HUD said Thursday that the two sides are now in discussions.
“The department seeks to obtain voluntary resolution of matters throughout the course of an investigation and has paused enforcement processes to advance negotiations,” HUD said in a written statement. [MORE]