Correlational studies cannot by themselves establish that environmental racism siting is causal

Evidence

As with most statistical research, studies that chart the disproportionate distribution of waste facilities simply establish correlations, not causation. Some commentators therefore question whether the maldistribution of environmental hazards is appropriately attributed to racism or other injustice or to a more benign explanation. Among the alternative explanations offered to explain the racial disparities are (1) that the social status or lifestyle choices of certain racial and ethnic groups result in maldistribution and (2) that maldistribution is a result of the operation of the “free market.” … By accepting the existing social structure and practices as the “baseline” for causal analysis, these explanations tend to obscure the injustice of current distributions and dangerously suggest that the inequitable outcomes are a natural and inevitable feature of social and economic life. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 308

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Empirical distributional studies only scratch the surface of environmental racism’s causes — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 292; National studies already show enough racial disparity in toxic siting to demand causal investigation; Distributional studies alone cannot explain the processes producing environmental racism. (+3 more)

Broader Connections

• Religiosity-prejudice links are correlational, not established as causal #exemplifies (0.90) — Annetta Snell and Miron Zuckerman and Bonnie M. Le, Does Religious Priming Induce Greater…, 25