The lead industry blamed child victims and parents rather than its own product

Evidence

In casting black and Hispanic parents as uneducable, Bowditch tapped into a perception of people of color as too unintelligent to keep themselves and their children healthy and safe. He indicts black and Hispanic intelligence, not his firm’s aggressive marketing and duplicitous defense of toxic wares. — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 325 (#exemplifies, via linked claim)

Industry personnel attributed harmful effects, which could not be dismissed, to personal deficiencies of the victims or to other causative factors operating in the environment. Bad genes, personal vulnerabilities, and unhealthful lifestyles were invoked as the causes of health problems. — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1824 (#expands, via linked claim)

Categorization

• XREF: connects to: Industry-funded scientists denied lead risks that mainly harmed poor children; Industry deflected blame for poisoning onto the intelligence of minority parents — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 325; Industries deflect blame for harm onto victims’ personal deficiencies — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement: How People Do Harm…, 1824 (+6 more)

Broader Connections

• Industry deflected blame for poisoning onto the intelligence of minority parents #exemplifies (0.95) — Harriet A. Washington, A Terrible Thing to Waste, 325
• Industries deflect blame for harm onto victims’ personal deficiencies #expands (0.92) — Albert Bandura, Moral Disengagement, 1824