Alice Fleerackers Photo by John Loo / Flickr. Recently I was in San Francisco, a city known for its tech companies, steep hills, and fierce winds. Each day I’d run around the neighborhood and up through the park, ending with a spectacular view of the Golden Gate Bridge. Back in my AirBnB, I’d feel energized and refreshed, fingers tingling from …
Pennsylvania attorney general files 15 criminal charges against fracking company Cabot
Associated Press, June 22, 2020 A contractor for the Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. collects a water sample from a resident’s home in Dimock, Pa. on Feb. 13, 2012 (Photo: Associated Press) A court could finally determine if well water pollution in Susquehanna County, Pennsylvania’s, fracking Ground Zero is naturally occurring or the result of bad practices by Cabot Oil & Gas Corp. The …
Climate Change Tied to Risks for Moms and Kids: Pregnant women exposed to high temps or air pollution are more likely to have children who are premature, underweight or stillborn. African-American mothers and babies are harmed at a much higher rate than the population at large
“Doing nothing about air pollution, which so clearly has a greater impact on Black Americans, is racism in action.” Women exposed to high temperatures or air pollution are more likely to have premature, underweight or stillborn babies, a look at 32 million U.S. births found. The project looked at 57 studies published since 2007 that found a relationship between heat …
Economic response to COVID exacerbating inequality: 37% of black families and 33% of Latino families have zero or negative wealth, compared to just 15.5% of white families. Black American homeownership rate is 44%, compared to 70% for whites
Dominic Rushe in New York for The Guardian, 19 Jun 2020 Racial wealth inequality increased by more than $40,000 from 1983 to 2016, according to a previous IPS report, Ten Solutions to Bridge the Racial Wealth Divide. “In 1983, white median wealth was $110,160, while black wealth was $7,323, and Latino wealth was $4,289. By 2016, white median wealth had increased by …
The rate of black fatalities is 2.4 times that of whites with Covid-19. In states including Michigan, Kansas and Wisconsin and in Washington, D.C., that ratio jumps to five to seven black people dying of Covid-19 complications for every one white death
The New York Times’1619 Project featured essays detailing how the legacy of slavery impacted health and health care for African-Americans and explaining how, since the since the era of slavery, black people’s bodies have been labeled congenitally diseased and undeserving of access to lifesaving treatments. In a recent essay addressing Covid-19 specifically, Rashawn Ray underscored the legacy of redlining that pushed black people into poor, densely …
Predictable and Possible
By Shailly Gupta Barnes, Policy Director, Kairos Center and Policy Lead with the Poor People’s Campaign Kairos Center monthly Policy Briefings highlight analysis informed by the 140 million people who are poor and dispossessed in this country, and their struggles against systemic racism, poverty, ecological devastation, militarism and the war economy. They will also challenge the false narratives that uphold unjust economic …
48% of frontline workers remain ineligible for sick pay + 43 million Americans just lost their employee sponsored health insurance (adding to the 80 million already uninsured or underinsured?)
Excerpt from Chris Hedges, June 2020 Forty-eight percent of front line workers remain ineligible for sick pay, and some 43 million Americans have just lost their employee-sponsored health insurance. Food banks are already overrun with tens of thousands of desperate families. And in the midst of this crisis, what did our kleptocratic rulers do? They looted $4 trillion on a …
The powerful appeal of populism fills a void, says Fiona Hill. Populism provides a narrative for people who have lost their identities that were tied to meaningful work.
“When people lose that then they’re looking for something. There’s a feeling they’ve been robbed and deprived of a golden age, and they want that back and populist politics feeds upon that, and provides scapegoats for losing it.” –Fiona Hill See interview with Fiona Hill in The Guardian, June 12, 2020… Excerpts below. Liberal democracy hasn’t been delivering, in the …
Poverty Amidst Pandemic: A Moral Response to COVID-19
Campaign created byRev. Dr. William Barber, II and Rev. Dr. Liz Theoharis The COVID-19 pandemic has forced us into an unprecedented national emergency. This emergency, however, results from a deeper and much longer-term crisis – that of poverty and inequality and of a society that ignores the needs of 140 million people who are poor or a $400 emergency away …
National Black Environmental Justice Network
June 10, 2020, Contact Mary Williams, Email: maryw@dscej.org Phone 1-504-650-0587 NBEJN COVID-19 Statement and NBEJN, Police, Pollution and Systemic Racism Statement June 10-, 2020— In light of the COVID-19 pandemic and its disproportionate impact on the Black community, the National Black Environmental Justice Network (NBEJN) has reignited its commitment to improving the lives of Black people and addressing the systemic racism …