Environmental Racism Research Paper

A Life of Broken Promises:

Environmental Racism in America

My fascination to learn more about the environment began my freshman year of high school. When I decided to take a Marine Science and A.P. Environmental class, I discovered different types of relationships between humans and effects of the environment. I first learned about environmental racism from exploring different environmental policies across the nation based on demographics, specifically areas based on income in upper/middle to low class communities. A few years after graduating high school, the country was hit with the Flint Water crisis in Flint, Michigan, a prominently African American, low income based neighborhood. Frustrated with the lack of precaution in Flint,

The white residents who live far above the poverty line pay taxes to see improvement in the community they reside in. The rules and regulations in a city with prominently wealthy, white individuals will usually abide and uphold its environmental standards. In contrast, these upper white class citizens do not experience nearly the same pain and suffering endured by low-income African American families, such as the circumstances in Flint. The brutal reality of subjecting minorities to environmental racism becomes the attributes of the accumulation of profit and power for the wealthy in our own

The impact of high levels of lead in public water sources is an ongoing crisis by the works of the environmental organizations who oversee specific laws and regulations for public water supply. I have put myself in the shoes of those families affected by the Flint crisis, and only feel heartbreak. The severe consequence of lead poising is something no human being should have to experience. Analyzing environmental racism in Flint opened my eyes to the cruel world we live in, where the health of the general population no longer matters when you are not an upper/middle class white citizen. I truly hope that by bringing this form of racism into light, people may see what occurs in predominantly black neighborhoods, like Flint. It saddens me to think when America is supposed to be the melting pot of the world, it is a place where white privilege seems to stand above others. With the potential to establish clear regulations to be enforceable, every person must take part in the process of obeying regulations and being Bogart