Residential segregation is the primary driver of American food deserts

Evidence

In a 2015 study of healthful food availability in Topeka, Kansas, researchers at Kansas State University found that even low-income white neighborhoods were twice as likely to have a food store as Black ones. “Food deserts and food insecurity,” they concluded, “are perhaps the most important deleterious consequence of residential segregation in the United States.” The scarcity of healthful food options in Black neighborhoods is offset by the abundance of bad ones. Recent nutritional surveys by the National Center for Health Statistics found that among children, adolescents, and adults, Black people consume a higher percentage of their daily calories from fast food than do Hispanic and white people. — Nikole Hannah-Jones et al., The 1619 Project, 311

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: White flight, redlining, and factory relocation created Detroit’s brownfield-laden food desert — Rebecca A. Martusewicz, Jeff Edmundson, and John Lupinacci, EcoJustice Education: Toward Diverse,…, 1477; Green consumer choice is a class privilege unavailable in food deserts — Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom,…, 717