CPA News Releases, Advisories, and Editorials

Washington, DC —Environmental cleanup is an effective job creation strategy that has the power to combat not only environmental abuse, but racism and poverty as well. This is a key component to come out of a recent Center for Policy Alternatives (CPA) conference in Houston, “Using Environmental Programs to Create Sustainable Communities,” and a CPA report entitledToxic Wastes and Race Revisited.

“People of color are 47 percent more likely than whites to live near a commercial hazardous waste facility,” notes Darold Johnson, Director of CPA’s Community Policy and Leadership Forum. “At the same time, communities of color also face the hurdle of economic injustice. It makes sense to right two wrongs at once — make these communities safer places for families to live by cleaning up the environment, and make them sustainable places for families to work by creating environmentally sound jobs. Do that, and you create a lasting sense of self-esteem in these communities that goes beyond environmental causes and delivers a blow to racism in this country.”

A group of African American legislators from twelve states met at CPA’s Houston conference to find new ways of gearing state-wide job creation strategies toward racial equity and environmental responsibility along with economic growth.

For more information on Toxic Wastes and Race Revisited, CPA’s Houston conference or environmental racism in the U.S., contact Darold Johnson at CPA.

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