'Environmental Racism' Is Making The Rounds Again— No, Seriously. And It Needs To Stop

Ashley Shelton, writing for “NewsOne- Coalition for Equity & Justice,” (No, I’m not linking to it on principle,) has taken the recent fires, the unfolding saltwater intrusion, and yes even the close brushes Louisiana has had with hurricanes this year to once more trot out the tried and true fusion of indentitarian racial politics and climate change alarmism we’ve heard referred to as alternatively “environmental racism,” or its rhetorical cousin “unequal relief efforts..”

Here’s a little excerpt,

“Our experiences and those of too many Black Louisianans paint a stark picture of environmental racism and politicians failing to invest in and protect us. But our experiences also demonstrate the resilience of Black communities in the Gulf Coast.”

And another, “Climate action must be intersectional. Without Black voices and needs in the discussion, our lives, health, and homes will continue to be attacked by systemically racist policies and profit-hungry industry at the cost of lives. As made crystal clear in my home state of Louisiana, climate action without equity is racism. Listen, understand, and include Black voices.”

When are we going to stop giving the governments, local, parish, state and federal such an easy excuse to clothe corruption, waste, graft and incompetence in?

By tossing up our proverbial hands and blaming racism and climate change, we distract from and avoid facing serious societal flaws in infrastructural, industrial, and municipal planning, disaster response, and readiness.

Racism has an ugly history in our nation, but it’s mostly that these days: history.

But by dragging it back from the depths that we considered it consigned to as recently as the nineties and early 2000s we’re giving cover to fools, hapless and feckless bureaucrats, and dishonest politicians who profit and laugh while we fight each other.

They keep undeserved, cushy jobs for decades and continue to fail upward, impossible to fire or censure while we blame each other for their failings based on the colors of our skin, the sins or the suffering of our ancestors, our tax brackets, and our political opinions. They incite fear of climate change, and racial hatred to blind us and divide us. Because, the worst nightmare of all of these “authorities,” or more as the bible called them “principalities,” is that we as a people stand up United and rip them down from their ill-gotten places of power and demand better. Demanding what we deserve: a technologically and infrastructural advanced, free America of men and women of all creeds and colors who live in prosperity and peace together and face our problems, past and future together.

In 1994 Kent Jeffreys, Senior Fellow, National Center for Policy Analysis, Dallas, Texas. writing for St. John's Journal of Legal Commentary wrote,

“Those who argue that environmental racism is a serious problem in America, and their numbers are growing, are correct in at least one of their assertions: distinctions based upon race are pervasive in American society. Racism exists. Environmental problems exist. These facts, however, do not reveal whether or not environmental racism has occurred in any given instance.”

He added notably, “Much of the confusion arises from the fact that most, if not all, disparate environmental impact can be traced to the legacy of prior discrimination in housing, employment, and education. Thus, even the proponents of environmental racism as a new cause of action under civil rights laws are forced to include many nonecological items within the scope of their complaint.”

Definitively he observed: “Taking a global view, the environmental problems which confront the vast majority of people on this planet are not recent (nor even human) in origin. Microbial contamination of water and food remain the primary environmental risks faced by human beings. Yet in America, with isolated exceptions, even poor members of minority groups find most of these worries to be greatly reduced, if not eliminated. The environmental issues most often debated in Congress are largely irrelevant to the average person: global climate change, ozone depletion, acid rain, endangered species, and so on.”

“The animal species dominating inner cities across America-pigeons, rats and roaches-are hardly endangered. Much has been said of potentially harmful levels of lead in the bloodstream of inner-city minorities. Yet the primary risk of "lead poisoning" in urban areas comes from the mouth of a gun rather than a water faucet or a paint can. Murder is the leading cause of death among young male African Americans. While over 400 people were murdered in Washington, D.C. last year, not a single person died because of groundwater contamination from a hazardous waste site. Environmental issues should be placed in perspective.”

In short terms, there are many, very, very human problems that need to be dealt with urgently for all Louisianans and all Americans such as surging crime, economic calamities, joblessness, and inflation and the poverty they create which cyclically creates more crime and so on… In other words, we have REAL problems, that are being swept aside for political convenience. Because its easier to redirect our fear to the climate boogeyman and our hatred at each other, lest we recall what we should actually fear and turn our wrath on those actually to blame: our own government.

The assertion that our 2023 woes are based on so-called ‘Environmental racism’ is base division at its worst. I beg you don’t fall for it. Don’t cave to climate alarmist fear and the drummed-up racism of the past.

Critical Race Theory, LocalMatthew HollowayLocal, Louisiana