Tennessee Environmental Racism Blog Post
Mothers & Others For Clean Air deeply believes that access to clean air is an inherent human right. We acknowledge that communities of color often suffer from an unequal burden of toxic pollution. We offer the following resource to advance education and dialogue about Environmental Racism within the state of Tennessee. This is not a comprehensive list of issues, leaders, or organizations within Tennessee. Rather, this post highlights a few issues and resources, and thus encourages continued awareness and involvement with issues of environmental racism in Tennessee. We welcome anyone to share additional resources or thoughts with us.
What does Environmental Racism Look Like in Tennessee?
Asthma in Memphis: In 2016, 12,000 school children in the Memphis area (Shelby County) had asthma. For years, the city was called the asthma capital of the country. The asthma problem in Memphis persists not only because of the warm/humid climate, but also because of the built environment. Around 36,000 housing structures in Memphis have structural issues which contribute to pests, leaking water, and mold[i]. Due to historical and pervasive systematic racism in the housing market, people of color have been systematically kept out of safer and wealthier neighborhoods. Therefore many of these unsafe housing conditions fall on the shoulders of the Black community[ii].
Dickson Petrochemical Dump: Dickson County covers more than 490 square miles. However, the only waste facilities in the area are grouped right next to a primarily Black community. Attention was drawn to this area when both the parents of Sheila Holt passed away from cancers and she learned that most of her neighbors had at least one household member suffering from cancer. Upon diving further into the issues, Ms. Holt discovered records stating that her family’s drinking water well had been contaminated with Trichloroethylene (TCE), an industrial solvent, at levels way over what the EPA considers “safe.” Despite the levels of the contaminant being understood for well over 20 years, the company nor the state or federal regulators has made any effort to clean the wells.
What is Tennessee’s Government Doing About Environmental Racism?
Tennessee’s Department of Health has a webpage dedicated to environmental justice housed under their health equity subsection. The page offers definitions of environmental justice, Summarizes the Civil Rights act and Title VI and elaborates on how environmental justice affects communities.
BIPOC Scientists, Academics, Lawyers, and Researchers Working on Environmental or Health Racism
There are many scientists, academics and researchers working to change the course of environmental and health racism in the state of Tennessee. The professionals highlighted below are all people of color. We offer their names as a gateway for individual or organizational research. We recognize that there are many incredible researchers whose names are not on this list. We welcome anyone to share additional names with us.
Dr. David A. Padgett: Director of the Geographic Information Sciences
Laboratory in Tennessee State University Nashville; Geographic Information Systems and Environmental Justice
[i] United States Census Bureau. (2011). 2011 Housing Profile: United States. www.census.gov/housing/ahs/methodology
[ii] Charlier, T. (2016). Childhood asthma plagues Memphis. Commercial Appeal. https://www.commercialappeal.com/story/news/2016/10/16/childhood-asthma-plagues-memphis/91347934
