Category: Blog 3

Whether or not people are brave enough to face it, climate change will become an issue we have to respond to eventually. Along with climate change itself, we will also be forced to address the inequality that will come in terms of those who are affected by it. Both articles from Versobooks and The New Republic highlight one important thing: “it’s a race to the bottom.” While climate change is something that will be viewed as a catastrophe to the majority of the population, to businesses, it will become simply another venture. The New Republic’s article “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” gives us an existing example of how this happened with Superstorm Sandy. The article details how a significant number of lower-income residents were forced out of their homes because they couldn’t afford to repair their homes. These vacant residences were subjected to predatory businesses, and some took the bait because they had no other choice.  But it has always been this way; lower-income and minority citizens are always guinea pigs for the federal government. As demonstrated by Capitalocene, “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.” With this statement, we are forced to accept an uncomfortable truth, one that would be vehemently rejected by some: race is absolutely important in determining how your community is treated. Intentional policy in the 80s was intentionally designed to put toxic waste facilities near non-white neighborhoods, an action that is also a metaphor in itself. Until we learn how to stop valuing businesses and profit over the livelihoods of our citizens, we can only expect these problems to become ever more exacerbated as climate change worsens.

 

The increasing severity of global warming makes human society more and more unstable, the temperature rises, and climate disasters have made people’s ordinary life an unprecedented impact. In both articles, it is stated that the flooding has forced most people to evacuate from some coastal areas, and they are forced to sell their houses because they are unwilling to bear the economic damage after the disaster. In addition to the individual who can afford it, most of them think that this is something that will happen sooner or later. Even though the government has promulgated a series of solutions and disaster insurance, etc., there are still people who are unwilling to take this high risk. Clearly, both articles focus on one salient point, the incomparable importance of race to housing. The article “New Yorks Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove mentions “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. Homeowners in areas affected by Sandy were foreclosed upon at twice the rate of those in similar neighborhoods elsewhere in the U.S., according to an Urban Institute study published in April. And the rate was higher in areas where a majority of residents were nonwhite.” In this case, the choice of black families has become particularly difficult, and the government’s policies have not been able to help them, and they have also become victims of profit. Another article makes a similar claim: “the erosion of rights, the politics of nonraciality beneath which, as David Theo Goldberg has argued, lurk more sinister shadows of the racial everyday and persistent institutional and structural racisms — and racial capitalism. Global warming and its consequences for the peoples of the South is a political question and must be understood outside of the limits of “climate change” and in the context of the inequalities produced by racial capital.” They are well aware that this is a historic political issue, but no one wants to change it, especially from the aftermath of climate change, where we can see a lot of disputes of interests, and many of these black communities are neglected and underdeveloped , and the government just let them take care of themselves. Obviously, these are some of the darkest conditions of this age.

Whether we like it or not, Race does and will continue to determine what your community will look like. Even the blind eye could see how this all unfolds and how the black community is being treated with their way of living. With the city not helping to fund or help in any way, it makes it seem that they have to “pick up the slack” since that’s the only way it seems to be. So the main point I would like to make is that black neighborhoods are just not being taken care of and both articles support that claim. To start off in the “Racial Capitalocene” article, they mention how many decisions made was actually racially motivated which could explain some made by the Reagan administration. “In the 1980s, the Reagan administration’s practice of cutting the budgets of federal environmental agencies had aggravated racist decisions. The report demonstrated that “three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites”. Once again, those communities are not being taken care of and are seen as just some other. In “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants”,  this article talks a lot about how climate change originally forced people out of their homes and how even if it wasn’t necessarily their fault they still had to find a way. With their lack of resources, the wealthy saw this as a money grab which made a lot of the residents in New York but specifically Canarsie eventually move out. “Even before Sandy, though, it wasn’t easy to keep a home in these neighborhoods. Targeted intensely by subprime lenders during the housing bubble, they have consistently had some of the highest foreclosure rates in the city. But after Sandy, it became even harder”. Now these two articles are not directly related but both addressed that the Black community is not being taken care of.

After reading Racial Capitalocene by Francoise Vergès and New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants by Sophie Kasakove, I learned that minorities tend to live in poorer conditions with various risks due to financial concerns. “Three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites”(Vergès). and “people of color make up the majority of those living in host neighborhoods within 3 km of the nation’s hazardous waste facilities”(Vergès). Living near waste sites could lead to health concerns since the neighborhoods in these areas are likely to be polluted due to the accumulation of wastes over time. Meanwhile in Canarsie, the neighborhood is unsafe due to the predictable floods that could occur at any time. Despite this, minorities were left with no choice but to live here since the rent in New York City is so expensive and they can not afford to live in normal neighborhoods. “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”(Kasakove). 

Instead of helping residents with their financial difficulties, FEMA increased the prices of flood insurances in order to “pull itself out of $20 billion debt”(Kasakove). The real estate was also taking advantage of this situation by offering cash to buy homeowners of Canarsie. Residents that sold their properties were forced to “move south, while others returned to the Caribbean islands they’d emigrated from”(Kasakove) because “[With] the house you sell here, you can’t afford anything anywhere”(Kasakove). This shows businesses only care about profits instead of helping the struggling minorities. Another example would be the genetically engineered trees in Racial Capitalocene which the company presents itself as a “leading global provider of conventional and next generation plantation trees”(Vergès) that cares about the environment. In reality, the company uses eucalyptus for profit in paper industries that “contribute to the depletion of water, desertification of soils, and loss of biodiversity”(Vergès).

One of the most prevailing issues currently circulating the globe is climate change. As scientists and analysts predict that the world may end in a matter of years, some people have already felt the effects of global warming right at the front of their doorsteps. Yet, during these troublesome times, the government has neglected to specifically help, and instead, further jeopardize the housing situation of low-income ethnic minorities. 

Understandably, citizens look towards the government for aid and security, however; those who are of low income and an ethnic minority race are met with racial disparity instead. Looking specifically at coastal New York City, the occurrence of floods and hurricanes isn’t new for its residents. However, the issue arose from the rise of housing and insurance prices due to the raging climate. As discussed by Sophie Kasakove in her article, “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants,” an area such as Canarsie, which is a predominantly black neighborhood in Brooklyn, have been described as constantly being on the back end of climate strife’s. Since the government programs that were supposedly intended to assist its residents with recovery costs were “notoriously inadequate” (Kasakove), the residents were eventually forced to leave with limited options to relocate elsewhere. Not only were the government policies of little to no help, but the situation of the majority-black residents was also exploited by real-estate businesses to be made a profit off of. Outside of coastal regions, racially motivated governmental neglect continues to persist in the form of toxic waste sites. As stated in Francoise Vergès’ article,  “Racial Capitalocene,” in a 1987 publication of Toxic Waste and Race of the United States, it was revealed that “race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States” (Vergès). Instead of being protected by the government, Black and Hispanic communities were “intentionally” made a target for the disposal of dangerous toxic wastes, which were described as byproducts of colonialism contributing to the “Man” (Vergès) influenced global warming. Racially motivated agendas such as this have unfortunately always existed in history. Within the sphere of climate change, especially, the impact the government has on the quality of life for ethnic minority communities should not be overlooked as it has and will set the precedent for the future.

Your race primarily determines the conditions in the community you live in. Often black communities lack city and federal funding. Consequently, they are either forced to pick up the government’s slack or be driven out of their neighborhood. The article “New Yorks Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove mentions how many black people in Canarsie and other flood-prone communities in New York are being forced out due to housing affordability. Following Hurricane Sandy, Flood insurance rates have skyrocketed, making it harder for homeowners to keep up with these payments. Lack of funding has also played a role in delaying the restorations of the damages brought by Hurricane Sandy. Many homeowners have given up or moved out, leaving these homes for developers to restore. She mentions, “The flight of working-class homeowners from these neighborhoods has accelerated gentrification, as deep-pocketed investors and developers were best equipped to take on the financial risk after the storm.” The actions of many developers have also made it worse for those who choose to stay in Canarsie as it becomes more gentrified and rent continues to increase. Likewise, In the article “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Verges, she 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 … the Reagan administration’s practice of cutting the budgets of federal environmental agencies had aggravated racist decisions.” This quote reveals how toxic waste facilities are more common in black communities bringing attention to the disparities minorities face. The shared theme in both articles is, Black and Hispanic communities are mistreated due to a substantial lack of funding from the government. This funding from the federal government is essential as it prevents many developers and big companies from taking advantage of minorities when they’re looking for assistance.

Through both articles, (“New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” and “Racial Capatilocne”) there seems to be an underlying problem with the way race effects the way of living for people more specifically people of color. In the first article, an area called Canarsie in New York has had “62 percent of the population identified as black ” and it has been difficult for them to keep homes since they were “targeted by subprime lenders” which then led to a large increase of foreclosure in the area. This has been doing nothing but affecting their lives. In the article “Racial Capatilocne” there was a publication in 1987 of “Toxic Waste and Race in the United States” that mentions how “race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic facilities were sited in the United States”. This shows how racial equality was not of much importance to the government and affects the lives of these people. Its also stated in the report that ” three out of every five Black and Hispanic Americans lived in communities with uncontrolled toxic waste sites” so not only do these people of the community live through these harsh conditions, but they have no say in where these toxic waste sites should be located since that can only be controlled by the government. Although both articles “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” and “Racial Capatilocne” aren’t really discussing the same topic, they both have similar opinions discussing the inequality of particular races living in the environment and the harsh conditions they have to endure.

 

 

 

After reading both of the articles, I realized that race matters depending on where you live. It’s unfortunate to say, but it’s true. I noticed that the “New York’s invisible Climate Immigrants” article, it spoke more about how these companies are buying people out of their houses, causing them to move out. Additionally, it speaks about affordability.  At one point she talks about how in a certain area, black families are the majority and own the most homes in an area in Brooklyn. These people are the most affected by it because they are the ones from who these companies are buying their houses. She says “Targeted intensely by subprime lenders during the housing bubble, they have consistently had some of the highest foreclosure rates in the city.”  That’s where I see a little similarity with the other article, “Racial Capitalocene.” While it’s not exactly about the same topic, the point of similarity is when it talks about how black communities and neighborhoods deal with having to live near toxic wastes. In both these articles, black communities are the target. “It showed that race was the single most important factor in determining where toxic waste facilities were sited in the United States.” The main idea for both of these articles is that race affects how you are treated. (In the context of living situations)

Living in certain areas and being a certain race can determine how well your quality of life will be. While reading “Racial Capitalocene” by Francoise Vergès, and “New York’s Invisible Climate Migrants” by Sophie Kasakove, I realized how race affects housing. In Francoise’s piece, she discusses how race is linked to global warming and climate change. Francoise talks about how there is a lot of toxic waste dumped in lower class communities, consisting of mainly blacks and hispanics. She argues that global warming is affecting these specific races much more than it is other races. In her article she 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.” Although this is extremely unfair, this is how it’s always been, and the author is bringing attention to it.

Similarly, Sophie Kasakove argues in her text that housing is harder to obtain for black families. Sophie discussed the different prices of houses in different areas, but came back to elaborate that it’s not easy for black people to keep their houses, as rent keeps increasing in those areas. She talked specifically about Canarsie and how this area is made up of mostly black people. Although it was full of life at one point, over the years it has become less populated and more foreclosures occurred. In her article she states,”Even before Sandy, though, it wasn’t easy to keep a home in these neighborhoods. Targeted intensely by subprime lenders during the housing bubble, they have consistently had some of the highest foreclosure rates in the city. But after Sandy, it became even harder; the government programs designed to help people with recovery costs have been notoriously inadequate.” This shows how the government doesn’t care to assist the already suffering people of Canarsie and other neighborhoods, but more about driving them away.

These articles both contain a similar theme — finding and maintaining a place to live as a black person in a black neighborhood can be extremely difficult. Many of these black neighborhoods are neglected and underdeveloped, leaving the residents to take care of it themselves. Although the first article focused more on climate change, and the second article discussed pricing, both articles explained how black neighborhoods aren’t being taken care of like they should be. Living in New York, we’re able to see the way certain areas are extremely different than other areas, despite being handled by the same government.