“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.
Spring 2022
