John Eligon: For civil rights advocates, the health crisis in Flint smacks of what has become known as environmental racism. Coined in the 1980s, the term refers to the disproportionate exposure of blacks to polluted air, water and soil. It is considered the result of poverty and segregation that has relegated many blacks and other racial minorities to some of the most industrialized or dilapidated environments.
Many of those advocates assert that environmental racism is a major reason black people in Louisiana’s factory-laden “Cancer Alley” contract the disease at higher rates, or why the most polluted ZIP code in Michigan is in a southwest pocket of Detroit that is 84 percent black.
Many also say that environmental racism left blacks confined to the most flood prone parts of New Orleans, and that the government was slow to respond to the agonies immediately after Hurricane Katrina. President George W. Bush staunchly rejected that assertion.
Environmental decisions are often related to political power. In some cities, garbage incinerators have been built in African-American neighborhoods that do not have the political clout to block them. In Michigan, where blacks are 14 percent of the population and the state government is dominated by Republicans, Flint has little political power.
