Category: Blog 3

“Racial Capitalocene” and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” both share the core premise of how race influences where hazardous waste facilities are located, which I found to be true. Racial capitalocene revealed that race was the single most important factor in determining where hazardous waste sites were situated in the US, and that the deliberate placement of these facilities in neighborhoods of color was the result of municipal, state, and federal land-use policy. “Environmental racism became a battleground.” This was a problem in many cities or regions where black people were the majority. People of color are forced to suffer and breath harmful pollutants from surrounding companies. Because of a lack of respect for people of color and a disregard for their health and personal life, the government allows industries that emit hazardous waste into the air, endangering minorities and people of color. The article New York’s Invisible Climate covers a similar subject of housing and living arrangements inequity. “It was difficult to keep a house in these areas even before Sandy.” Low-income households were the ones that suffered the most after Hurricane Sandy in New York City in 2012.Back in the day, places like Rockaway Beach in Queens were considered low-income communities and were mostly populated by people of color. Today, we see how that has changed as large corporations drive those who couldn’t afford to stay in their houses after the hurricane out and gentrify the areas, making them more costly. Although these two pieces cover two separate topics, they both convey the same message of inequity in terms of living conditions for people of color.

While reading the “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Verges, and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, one thing that I noticed is that race plays a huge role on what environmental dangers they face. Even though these excerpts share different stories, they explain similar troubles that families of low income can face. For example,  in “Racial Capitalocene” it is mentioned how “race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in in communities of color was the intentional result result of local, state, and federal land use policies. This shows how these minority groups have no other choice than to deal with this because in order to get away from these places they would need money which is sometimes a trouble for them. It is also shown that the government has no intentions to help the people of lower class because they will always be victims of radicalized environmental politics.  In addition, the the excerpt “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” it is mentioned how “a lot of people didn’t have the resources to rebuild. some homes eventually went foreclosure, and other were sold.” Because of natural disasters, people are being forced to leave their homes without any option of looking back simply because they can’t afford to fix things on their own. People who were actually able to fix their homes and prevent them from being ruined by floods took over the neighborhood. Both of these articles have shown that minority groups are unable to afford better living conditions.

In both articles, “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Verges and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove share a common theme, in which race plays a huge role on environmental racism and it is mainly targeted on communities of color. As mentioned by the author in “Racial Capitolocene”, “A report was made in which showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in communities of color was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land-use policies.” Here this illustrates how unethical these facilities are placed across the U.S and most of these facilities primarily located near communities with more people of color. Another example would be a quote from the “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” article, which discusses about the effects of natural disasters, like hurricane Sandy, on middle-class families and specifically black families. These families weren’t able to afford to stay in their homes and with the lack of support from the government they were forced to leave their homes. In the text it says, “After Sandy, it became even harder; the government programs designed to help people with recovery costs have been notoriously inadequate. Many people dropped out of Build It Back, New York City’s largest post-Sandy assistance program, because of delays, paperwork issues, and shoddy construction work.” During this time the assistance program backfired on aiding the community in such a effective and efficient way. A lot of communities were affected by the results of Hurricane Sandy however the communities that were filled with people of color were being effected because they were not able to resolve their problems quicker.

While reading the articles “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, It made me realize how race and income level plays a huge role in where you are located geographically. Based on where you are living you are vulnerable to the disasters global warming can cause. Racial Capitalocene stated “It (Toxic Waste and Race in the United States, a report by the Commission for Racial Justice of the United Church of Christ) showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States” Placing these waste facilities in areas that are populated by low income minorities proves that the government thinks of these communities as trash. Throughout the article it states that these climatic changes that were caused by the government have affected black communities the most. From stripping gold, oil, land and other scares resources from other countries through colonialism to slavery, where human beings “were forced to share its social product” meaning themselves. In New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants, Sophie Kasakove expressed how the working, low income residents were kicked out from their homes following hurricane sandy. Programs specifically designed to help victims of the hurricane, were extremely slow and till this day most of those people are still waiting. Because the neighborhood is made up of the working class, they could not afford to live anywhere else because of how high rent has gotten.Those who did leave also left an impact on Jamaica Bay. “The flight of working class homeowners from these neighborhoods accelerated gentrification”. The community did not have the economic status to rebuild their homes and programs did not help them either, this goes to show the government does not care about the minority communities, when it allows capitalism to flourish.

When I read the articles “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, I noticed that they both mention that different races will have different living environments and that low-income races are more vulnerable to climate change or other external factors that make their living environments worse. In Françoise Vergès’ article “Racial Capitalocene,” published in 1987, “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States,” it is stated that “race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States” and that “three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites.” This shows that the feelings of black and Hispanic Americans are not taken seriously by the government and that they live in a poor environment where their physical health may suffer as a result. Furthermore, in “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” Sophie Kasakove says, “many of those who stayed after Sandy were forced from their homes anyway. In the years following the storm, homeowners in areas affected by Sandy were foreclosed upon at twice the rate of those in similar neighborhoods elsewhere in the U.S. ” It demonstrates that many low-income residents were forced out of their homes due to climate change, but the government did not help them overcome this problem. Overall, race determines the living environment in which one lives. Low-income people have to live in a bad environment because they do not have the funds to improve their lives, and the government chooses to neglect the needs of low-income people.

After reading both articles, Racial Capitalocene by Francoise Vergès and New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants by Sophie Kasakove, it made me realize that race has everything to do with the community and environment that someone lives in. Minorities tend to live in communities with worse conditions because of financial problems. 

In the article, “Racial Capitalocene,” by Francoise Vergès, it states, “It showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in communities of color was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land-use policies.” This shows that toxic waste facilities are used as another tool for fueling systemic racism and inequality bc it is undesirable to have a toxic waste facility in your neighborhood for obvious reasons which means the burden falls on POC communities local, state, and federal land-use policies directly police POC communities by building toxic waste facilities in their neighborhoods this systemic inequality is also seen in food deserts and quality of grocery stores available to POC communities as well as unequal access to quality education

The article, “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” Sophie Kasakove, states, “In the Rockaways, in Queens, and Brooklyn’s Canarsie, the median asking rent is $1,837 and $2,000, respectively, compared with an overall median of $2,199 in Queens and $2,500 in Brooklyn, according to StreetEasy. They are some of the only places where homeownership is attainable for middle-class families, particularly for black families: In 2017, in Canarsie and neighboring Flatlands, 62 percent of the population identified as black and the homeownership rate was 57 percent, the highest of any neighborhood in Brooklyn.” This shows POC residents are typically forced into unsafe, unfavorable neighborhoods bc the rent is lower and therefore more accessible even though it is more dangerous.

Both of these articles continue to show ways of how minorities are forced into bad living environments and communities because they can not afford anything better since it is way out of the price range.

 

Reading the two articles, it can be concluded that capitalistic practices marginalize already marginalized people of color, especialy the Black community. The article “Racial Capitaloscene” by Francoise Vergès, shows that the climate change movement and the notion of “anthropocene” doesn’t take into account the huge impact of colonialism and capitalism leading to the unsafe environments inhibited by largely Black and Hispanic communities; instead, generalizing the notion and erasing the racist tendencies to explain and promote the movement. The article “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, on the other hand, explains that the impacts of the environmental disaster caused by Hurricane Sandy put the largely Black community living in Canarise at risk for moving, selling their homes, or being forclosed on, not because of the detriment of the hurricane, but because of flood insurance costs and gentrification. Therefore, it can be deduced that the capitalistic world we live in preys off of marginalized groups, especially African-Americans, under disguise.

     It’s stated in “Racial Capitalicene,” that “Sociologist Jason Moore has suggested the notion of a Capitalocene which brings back capitalism ‘as a world-ecology, joining the accumulation of capital, the pursuit of power, and the co-production of nature in dialectical unity.'” Because capitalism benefits from cheap land and resources, factories and chemical plants tend to be placed near housing projects and low-income areas, neglecting and harming already marginalized communities and exploiting the people and the areas in which they live. Similarly, in “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” it is stated that “Years after Sandy, those who leave the city are unlikely to blame it on climate change. They might instead cite flood insurance costs, gentrification, or lack of affordable housing.” Although government assistance programs were put in place due to the disaster, the proved to be inadequate, while people were forced out of home because of rising insurance costs, foreclosures in Canarise also rose drastically, and the rates of foreclosures were even higher in non-white areas. Again, since Capitalism benefits from preying off of cheaper land and resources, Sandy making it difficult for people to stay in the neighborhood also made it easy for developers to cash in on the area, gentrifying it, and raising the cost of living. This is also making it even harder for people to stay and continue living in Canarise, all while what is causing this trend is capitalism, and not solely the hurricane.

     In closing, we can interpret these articles to come to the conclusion that capitalistic tendencies exploit marginalized groups while hiding behind shadows.

“New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” and “Racial Capitolocence” both have different viewpoints on environmental racism. “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” made the reader more aware of how the Climate Change affected the Canarsie Community. “Racial Capitolocence” on the other hand is a more opinionated piece where a variety of authors have different perspectives of the impact race plays on climate change. After reading both articles it is prevalent that low income and race plays hand in hand to the injustice of climate change in your community.

Hurricane Sandy forced the people of Canarsie, a Caribbean neighborhood in Brooklyn to leave their homes, some even moving back to their home countries. Harold Jones, a resident in of the Canarsie neighborhood believes “a lot of people don’t have the resources to rebuild” resulting in companies wanting to “buy homes for cash” in the community. The Government programs designed to help the community were considered “inadequate” which forced people who did not want to move to move anyway.

“Racial Capitolocence” article goes on to add how business’ prey on flood ridden communities. The article describes Climate Change as “a project for colonial powers” and a “unintentional consequence of industrialization. As a result of this many communities will continue to suffer financially for years to come

 

While reading “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès, and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakoves’ articles, I realized how governments take advantage of the poor communities/minorities to develop what they want those areas to be. In other words, the government is trying to make rich people happier so that they can receive more money from them by using those resources from the poor communities. 

“Growing up in a communist, anticolonial, and feminist family, I learned early that the environment had been shaped by slavery and colonialism — a reading of space that gave meaning to where cities were built, where poor people lived, and how the large sugarcane fields, rivers, mountains, volcanos, and beaches had been inscribed in the colonial and postcolonial economy” (Francoise Vergès). Slavery and colonialism are the foundation of the environment, so people are hard working will develop the area that they live in and create value out of it. Unfortunately, the government just doesn’t care about what they did, they only see the money opportunity or how much money they can make from these areas. Since the minority live there, the living condition definitely is low and probably everything just costs a low price. They just started building those chemical factories and just released the harmful gasses. Then the minorities’ health was inaccessible. Just like what the article said: “Some of his old neighbors are leaving, and they’re being replaced by those who can afford to take on the risk of living in a flood-prone area” (Sophie Kasakove). The minority houses were taken by the rich people, or house agency. Just because they see the money opportunity from it. No matter what consequences that minorities will face later on. It is not just about the race, it is about who does government is trying to get close to and satisfied their needs.

In the articles, “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, there was a sense of discussion when it came to race playing a big factor when it comes to environments. Both articles established the idea that the environments that people live in are influenced heavily by their race and it can serve as a detriment.

In the article, “Racial Capitalocene,” by Francoise Vergès, it states, “It showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States and that the siting of these facilities in communities of color was the intentional result of local, state, and federal land-use policies…The report demonstrated that “three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites.” Many minority people are surrounded by toxic waste sites that are not controlled and it goes to show the lack of the amount of care that corporations and the government have for the people. The fact that many minorities live in areas with toxic waste sites establishes the idea that there is not much concern being put for their lives and well-being and it displays how race influences the environments that people live in.

The article, “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” Sophie Kasakove,  states, “In the Rockaways, in Queens, and Brooklyn’s Canarsie, the median asking rent is $1,837 and $2,000, respectively, compared with an overall median of $2,199 in Queens and $2,500 in Brooklyn…In 2017, in Canarsie and neighboring Flatlands, 62 percent of the population identified as black and the homeownership rate was 57 percent, the highest of any neighborhood in Brooklyn.” The areas within New York that are more available to people of the middle class are the same areas that do not have good public transportation and they have to deal with climate change. Many minorities are within those areas and they have to put up with the circumstances that they have within their environments. Kasakove states, “Many who applied for assistance from the Federal Emergency Management Agency are still waiting today. And flood insurance rates have increased in some neighborhoods by as much as 18 percent per year…” The people within the areas that suffered from climate change have to deal with agencies not giving the money to recover from the climate change and they also have to pay higher flood insurance rates within those areas. Many minorities are from those areas and they cannot afford living in other areas in the city due to the high prices and they have to deal with the climate change in their environments. Race is an influence for the environments that people live in.