Demographic change over time does not exonerate facility siting from racism

Evidence

Let us assume that the current physical distribution of hazardous waste facilities could be attributed to the location of older facilities in neighborhoods that subsequently became populated by poor people of color—that “market dynamics” produced the racially disparate outcomes found in some communities. Even accepting that the siting process is not responsible for all racially disparate outcomes in environmental hazard distribution and that instead the demographics of a given community with a waste facility have changed over time, it is not easy to dismiss the notion that racism or injustice produced the results. If existing racially discriminatory processes in the housing market, for example, contribute to the distribution of environmental hazards, or of people of color, then it is entirely appropriate to call such outcomes unjust, and even racist. — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 336 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

The institutional arrangements of contemporary American society are far more complex than in the past. Patterns of distribution of resources, power, and privilege are no longer allocated on the basis of laws, or explicit government and corporate institutional policies and actions, that privilege whites over people of color. Nor are the attitudes and actions of individuals towards people of color as explicitly stated as they used to be. Moreover, with the crude infrastructure of racism gone, and with the ubiquitous evidence of success by significant sections of communities of color, the prevailing discourse of equality and inequality has a “persuasiveness” that is resilient (Goldberg, 1990a:309). In this context a simple concept of racism no longer works. — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1907 (#corroborates, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Facility siting itself can cause the segregation courts blame on demographics; Racism operates as a changing process rather than a fixed project; Market-dynamics siting outcomes remain racist once housing discrimination is factored in — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up: Environmental…, 336 (+1 more)

Related

• Market-dynamics siting outcomes remain racist once housing discrimination is factored in (similarity 0.86)
• Market-dynamics explanations for siting disparities lack conclusive empirical support (similarity 0.86)
• National studies already show enough racial disparity in toxic siting to demand causal investigation (similarity 0.84)
• Post-siting market dynamics cannot explain current disproportionate siting patterns (similarity 0.83)
• Distributional studies alone cannot explain the processes producing environmental racism. (similarity 0.83)
• Environmental racism is a symptom of broader ongoing racial discrimination (similarity 0.82)
• Correlational studies cannot by themselves establish that environmental racism siting is causal (similarity 0.81)
• Segregated space silently perpetuates stratification even with no active racists (similarity 0.81)
• Changing the geographic unit of analysis can make racial siting disparities statistically vanish (similarity 0.81)
• Facility siting itself can cause the segregation courts blame on demographics (similarity 0.80)
• Contradictory siting studies differed mainly over geographic unit and comparison scope (similarity 0.79)
• Toxic waste siting disparities trace to different eras for Black versus Latino neighborhoods (similarity 0.79)
• Environmental injustice persists without racist intent because bias is structurally embedded (similarity 0.79)

Broader Connections

• Market-dynamics siting outcomes remain racist once housing discrimination is factored in #corroborates (0.85) — Luke W. Cole and Sheila R. Foster, From the Ground Up, 336
• Racism operates as a changing process rather than a fixed project #qualifies (0.80)
• Contemporary racial inequality persists without explicit racist laws or intentions #corroborates (0.72) — David Theo Goldberg, John Solomos, A Companion to Racial and Ethnic Studies, 1907