Opinion: If CA cares about “environmental racism,” we have to examine freeway pollution

Pol leaders push generalized environmental mandates (see the Bay Area's ban on natural gas water heaters), but many ignore how rich liberal white enclaves are polluting specific minority communities—and have been for decades. AfroLA's analysis below of SoCal and how local freeway infrastructure, which disproportionately hurts non-white residents, needs to level up.

Regardless of income, places with more residents of color have more vehicular air pollution than places with more white residents. In essence, drivers are externalizing the costs of driving onto the communities they drive through, and residents of color are bearing more of the environmental and health burdens. This unequal relationship is no surprise; in fact, it’s by design.

“I think one thing that’s important to keep in mind is the history of freeway building in Los Angeles, how the freeway revolts worked here, which communities were able to block the freeways and which communities weren’t and how that matches almost perfectly the air pollution and racial composition patterns we still see today,” said Boeing.

Generations of racist urban planning divided L.A.’s Black and Latine neighborhoods and prevented movement of the same communities out of areas near major roadways and other polluting infrastructure. For years now, residents have paid the price with their health....

This article originally appeared in AfroLA. Read the whole thing here.

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