A "powerful and indispensable" look at the devastating consequences of
environmental racism (Gerald Markowitz) and what we can do to remedy
its toxic effects on marginalized communities -- featuring a new preface
on COVID-19 risk factors. Did you know...
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Middle-class African American households with incomes between $50,000
and $60,000 live in neighborhoods that are more polluted than those of
very poor white households with incomes below $10,000.
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When swallowed, a lead-paint chip no larger than a fingernail can send
a toddler into a coma -- one-tenth of that amount will lower his IQ.
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Nearly two of every five African American homes in Baltimore are
plagued by lead-based paint. Almost all of the 37,500 Baltimore
children who suffered lead poisoning between 2003 and 2015 were
African American.
From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of
atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste,
Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly
disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and
institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of
people across the country-cutting lives tragically short and needlessly
burdening our health care system. But these deadly environments create
another insidious and often overlooked consequence: robbing communities
of color, and America as a whole, of intellectual power. The 1994
publication of The Bell Curve and its controversial thesis catapulted
the topic of genetic racial differences in IQ to the forefront of a
renewed and heated debate. Now, in A Terrible Thing to Waste,
award-winning science writer Harriet A. Washington adds her incisive
analysis to the fray, arguing that IQ is a biased and flawed metric, but
that it is useful for tracking cognitive damage. She takes apart the
spurious notion of intelligence as an inherited trait, using copious
data that instead point to a different cause of the reported African
American-white IQ gap: environmental racism - a confluence of racism and
other institutional factors that relegate marginalized communities to
living and working near sites of toxic waste, pollution, and
insufficient sanitation services. She investigates heavy metals,
neurotoxins, deficient prenatal care, bad nutrition, and even pathogens
as chief agents influencing intelligence to explain why communities of
color are disproportionately affected -- and what can be done to remedy
this devastating problem. Featuring extensive scientific research and
Washington's sharp, lively reporting, A Terrible Thing to Waste is
sure to outrage, transform the conversation, and inspire debate.
