Racial Inequity and Toxic Urban Environments

Summary of: An assessment and explanation of environmental inequity in Baltimore. Boone, C. 2002.

Conventional environmental equity literature predicts that minority groups experience a higher exposure than the majority to unwanted land uses. Contrary to these expectations, Toxics Release Inventory (TRI) sites are found primarily in White census tracts. Studies demonstrating correlations of inequity patterns, however, do not identify the processes that create inequity patterns. This requires an understanding of not only the processes that make poor or minority communities a target of polluting industries, but why industries do not locate in certain regions of the city. Geographers have understood that instead of “which came first” questions, it is important to understand zoning, race and other demographic factors, as well as the broad changes in residential and industrial geography, and the contribution of institutional factors to inequity patterns.

While the TRI inventory is limited in that it underreports toxic releases, and does not include all chemicals with negative impacts or acute releases of chemicals, most would agree that living close to a TRI site is a disamenity. This study found similar results considering all census tracts, examining census tracts individually, block groups. In each case Whites were more likely to live in proximity to TRI sites. Census tract or block group data is limited in that it will underestimate the risks associated TRI cites located on the borders. Williams (1999) argued that the neighborhood might be the best unit of analysis because it constitutes a community or cluster of people. When Boone (2002) analyzed the relationship between race and location within neighborhoods containing TRI sites, a greater number of blacks live in neighborhoods with TRI sites. This unit of analysis was coarse, and neighborhoods are ambiguously delineated. The results for the case of Baltimore vary depending on the unit of analysis, and if adjoining census tracts within a half mile or quarter mile are included the inequity patterns are not as strong. This highlights the importance of explaining these correlative patterns.

The accelerated industrial growth of Baltimore also accelerated the separation by class, race, and ethnicity, assisted by manufacturers that built industrial cities and ran paternalistic operations to recruit German, Welsh, and Irish workers. Blacks also worked for industries, but were given the lowest paying jobs, and industries sometimes accommodated Black workers, though usually under poor conditions. Additionally, blacks lived far from manufacturing centers, having to spend a long time making the trip to work. Blacks were kept out of white areas by restrictive covenants, the threat intimidation and violence, and lobbying from real estate boards, building inspectors, and property owner associations.

The present distribution of TRI sites is largely a function of the industrial sites in the 1930s. The Zoning Board deemed the south and southeastern parts of the city to be suitable for industry, because the smoke would be carried away from majority of the population of Baltimore. This zoning pattern has shaped the TRI sites of the present, concentrating TRI sites in White areas. Thus the policies that sought to keep Blacks away from the more privileged White areas, has created a legacy of racial segregation and greater risk from TRI sites for Whites than Blacks.