Pollution Privilege, Toxic Truths, and Color-Coded Contamination

Pollution Privilege, Toxic Truths, and Color Coded Contamination

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"We will not allow a windmill to be built in the United States. They're killing us. They're killing the beauty of our scenery, our, our valleys, our beautiful planes. And I'm not talking about airplanes. I'm talking about beautiful planes, beautiful areas in the United States. And you look up and you see windmills all over the place. It's a, it's a

[00:03:00] horrible thing. It's the most expensive form of energy. It's no good. The whole thing is a con jobb. It's very expensive. Yeah, and in all fairness, Germany tried it and, uh, wind doesn't work. It's ever, you need subsidy for wind and energy should not need subsidy. You with energy, you make money, you don't lose money.

But more important than that is it ruins the landscape. It kills the birds. They're noisy."

Hey everyone. Welcome back for another episode of, wait a minute, what is this? Wait, I can't breathe. Oh my gosh. That air, oh, it's very humid. Apparently there's something called corn sweat that's, uh, permeating the Ohios in the midwest's corn sweat. What a ridiculous idea. Like all those other ridiculous things like, uh, greenhouse gases and chlorofluorocarbons, and the hole in the ozone layer.

[00:04:00] You know, sometimes I think scientists just do this so that we'll get up in arms and support their regulating, uh, emissions and costing us money to have our cars, uh, retrofitted or fitted, or checked out. To see how much pollution they're putting into the air. And I use quotations for pollution because pollution isn't real.

You guys are being fooled. What are you talking about? Pollution. The air is fine. The water's fine. Get in. No, ignore the sharks. The the no please those, no, that's not sewage. That's not raw Sewage. Please. Your eyes are deceiving you. No, that's not a dead body floating in the water. Please get in, get in, get in.

 I've got some explaining to do. Let's get into it.

 [00:05:00] Hey everyone. Welcome back for another episode of Ayana Explains It all, the podcast bridging the gap between current events and human behavior. I am your host, Ayana R. Fakhir here, your black Muslim lady lawyer who has an opinion on every darn thing, including the environment. And if you couldn't tell that introduction, I was being facetious, all right, being real.

But I am gonna talk about the environment today. I am serious stuff going on. It's time. We had a little chat about what's going on in our, in Viro, but that corn sweat thing, that's a real thing. Yeah, that's, that's a real thing. Ohio is a corn growing state. And apparently the, the [00:06:00] corn is letting off a lot of condensation, which is going into the air and making things very humid.

It's so disgustingly humid in northeast Ohio where I'm recording this podcast on Sunday, July the 27th, 2025. I'm recording this from northeast Ohio, and I haven't been outside today yet because, um, it's really hot out there and like it's really cold in my house, so I didn't see the point. But, uh, Ayana explains it all is the podcast, as I said, bridging the gap between current events and human behavior.

And it is available on multiple streaming platforms. If you go to our website, www.ayanaexplainsitall.com. You'll be able to find all things podcast, including those streaming sites. Spotify is our flagship, but we are also available on iHeartRadio, on Amazon Music, good Pods, apple Podcasts, Pandora, and a host of others, a host

[00:07:00] of others, ladies and gentlemen, and theys and thems.

Go to our website again, www.ayanaexplainsitall.com, and you'll find transcripts. Show notes. You'll find links to every episode of this show. This is our fourth season. There are so many episodes. I don't even know how many episodes there are. And you would think I know I would. No, because I am the host, the producer, the executive producer.

The casting agent. The lady who collects the emails at Ayanna explains it all@gmail.com. If you ever wanna be on the show, you can hit me up at Ayana Explains it all@gmail.com. That's A-Y-A-N-A. Explains it all@gmail.com and discuss with me ways that we can collaborate. Maybe you wanna co-host one episode, you wanna come on and talk about a particular topic. If you would like to sponsor Ayana, explains it all. You can also send me an email and talk about that. We can find ways to collaborate, get you some ads on my show.

You heard that ad for our vote counts. It's a group of [00:08:00] people who I met on TikTok and we've decided to do this collaborative educational effort where we host town hall style TikTok lives and we have a. Person who's running for a political office, doesn't matter who it is or what party they're running for or where the election is, we wanna have them on our show

we've done it before with a person who's running for. US Senate in West Virginia and it was very successful we, so we decided to make this larger and open it up to candidates from all over the country. Hit us up in our dms. That's our vote counts on TikTok, Instagram, and Facebook. And let us know if you would like to be a part of the movement or if you have ideas for people who might want to go on the show.

 I'm happy to be back. I know I take such long breaks between episodes because my creative

[00:09:00] juices, it takes me a while to get the creative juices flowing. It takes me a while to read. I like to read a lot of things before I sit down and talk about a particular topic.

I like to read journal articles, news articles, books, and I always mention the names of the sources in either the show or in the show notes, so you know who is talking. Where I got the information from, because even though I have an opinion on everything, and I, I, I can explain a lot of things. I don't know everything.

But I am a lover of the environment. Sure. I complain about all the trees and shaker heights.

I promise you there are at least 1 million trees, which is a problem every time it rains because they're always knocking out the power. When they fall down, there was this one big, beautiful tree that I would see every time I would go for a walk. And I believe it was about two years ago, we had a tornado come through, um, our area, which, yes, we're dealing with tornadoes now, like Ohio is tornado alley, which is, is

[00:10:00] crazy to me.  10 years ago we weren't seeing tornadoes like the way we are now, but now we're seeing them and a tornado came through and ripped this tree down, and that's what we're dealing with. And when you have, um, suddenly out of nowhere, you're having tornadoes every. August, September, even in July, and you've got a bunch of trees around because you're not used to having tornadoes.

Suddenly you have to start thinking about, well, what do we do to mitigate the risk of these trees falling onto homes and cars? Because it is a huge risk, and it happens every time we have a bad thunderstorm or like I said, tornadoes. And so now we're having to deal with that crisis. I mean, the, the.

Landscapes and the climates are always changing and not necessarily for the better. And there is a, uh, a president in office who does not believe in climate change, who belongs to a political party that also does not believe climate change

[00:11:00] is real. In fact, they disbelieve so strongly that they are starting to roll back protections that the EPA has put into place for our environment.

But it doesn't matter anyway because the individual states have been doing really bad things. To their people because they want the revenue from corporations and they've also been rolling back protections, uh, that have led to high incidents of cancer and respiratory disorders and diseases in people.

 Something happened in the city of Memphis, Tennessee that is very, in my opinion, evil and black people seem to black people in other marginalized groups always seem to be the Guinea pigs for these, experiments that result in poison water, poisoned air, poisoned land that sees us suffering and no one doing anything about it because it's profits over people in the United States for some reason, we're,

[00:12:00] we've gotten to that point where it's profits over people and the impact of environmental racism, unfortunately, is far reaching in multifaceted in urban areas and low income neighborhoods, often inhabited by black people and other people of color.

They are often situated next to highways. The city that I grew up in, east Cleveland, Ohio, had, has a railway system running right through it. Like my aunt lived in a house that was across the street from train tracks, and the trains would go by every day. And these weren't, passenger trains. No.

These are, uh, cargo trains. You know, they're carrying goods, they're carrying liquids, dangerous liquids. And I just thought it was always strange that a city had a fricking rail railway, a railroad going through it. And you'll see that a lot in Ohio. And these lead to higher levels of air

[00:13:00] pollution. These pollutants cause significant health issues such as, as I mentioned, respiratory disorders such as asthma, particularly affecting young children who are now, who are most vulnerable to these hazardous environmental conditions.

And when you see that black people in the United States have, who are over the age of, I would say 30. One of the leading causes of death in black Americans over the age of 30 are cardiovascular diseases, but also breathing disorders like asthma, COPD, emphysema. And we often get the blame for it. People blame smoking, people blame, cigar smoking, cigarette smoking, marijuana smoke, whatever, smoking when really, a lot of it is air pollution.

A lot of it is air pollution. And I tell people this all the time. When you go to the voting booth and you're voting for

[00:14:00] candidates, consider where you live. Go outside and smell the air. Does it smell clean? Can you see the sun from where you are? Or is it covered in industrial pollutant clouds?

People don't think about that. They don't think about electing a politician who's going to implement better environmental policies that are going to save the air where they live or save the water where they live. A lot of the times, people who live in even suburban areas don't think about their environment.

When they go to the voting booths or when they're researching what candidate they wanna vote for, they don't think about the environment. It's a, it's low on their list of priorities because we we're always focused on money, money, money, money, money, well, guess what?

You can't spend when you're dead. Money. And guess what? You need to, um, pay those copays to your doctors and your specialists, [00:15:00] to your, uh, respiratory therapists and your asthma specialists. Your pulmonologist money. Yeah. You need money. You need health insurance and the reason why you need so much and coverage because you're suffering, because the air where you're living is not clean.

It simply is not clean. This is why emissions standards are important, but now we have someone in office who doesn't believe that any of this is real, whose administration is putting forth the idea that a lot of what scientists have been saying to us over the years about, uh, greenhouse gases and emissions, carbon emissions is not real.

This is what they're saying now. They aim to roll back regulations because it's easier for them to attract corporations into the United States to do business here. If we have regulations like they have in say, China, where if you look around, people are wearing face masks every day [00:16:00] outside of a pandemic because the air is disgusting.

They don't have emission standards and China produces coal like crazy. So, you know, it, it's gotta be, it's gotta be insane there in some areas, in the industrial areas, it's gotta be insane. It's not industrial everywhere, but in the industrial areas it's gotta be bananas. The air has gotta be just sickening and people think that's okay.

Uh, no it isn't. It's not okay. It's not okay to sacrifice humanity for the sake of making a quick buck. It's not, and while the climate crisis is gaining increasing, uh, visibility and urgency in the news and, and, and current events, the impacts are not felt equally across different communities.

Environmental decisions often favor affluent neighborhoods while sacrificing the wellbeing of marginalized groups. These communities face higher [00:17:00] incidences of health related diseases, but lack the political clout to demand change. So what does it take to address these systemic environmental injustices?

Historically, decisions involving waste disposal, industrial development, and urban planning often ignored the voices and needs of racial minority communities. This was not merely coincidental, but the result of deliberate planning that prioritized profits over people.

And today this injustice persists in new forms where they wanted to put a Dakota access pipeline. Remember that? Which cuts through indigenous lands, threatening sacred sites and water sources, despite widespread protests, the economic interest of those in power continue to overshadow the environmental and cultural needs of indigenous communities. It's a stark demonstration of how

[00:18:00] capital interest are frequently prioritized at the expense of marginalized voices. And addressing environmental racism requires a multifaceted approach that includes stronger regulatory frameworks and community driven advocacy. But when you're dealing with an administration, a federal administration that cares for neither, what do you do?

When policies need to not only recognize the disproportionate impact on communities of color, but actively work towards mitigating these effects through targeted actions, but you're dealing with an administration who does not believe that people are being discriminated against based on race when it comes to the environment, when it comes to housing, when it comes to healthcare, when it comes to policing, what do you do?

We need stricter regulations against pollution. But what do you do when you have a federal administration that does not believe [00:19:00] that greenhouse gases are real or are dangerous to humans? We need investment in renewable energy, but what do you do when you're dealing with an administration that does not believe that electric vehicles are better for the environment than gas guzzling SUVs?

We need reparative justice measures aimed at communities most affected by historical environmental injustices. But what do you do when you have an entire state with a place called Cancer Alley? And that state is Louisiana and the Speaker of the House of Representatives, Mike Johnson, is one of the representatives from that state, but is doing absolutely nothing to save the lives of the black people affected by the environmental pollution that is being expelled into the air by the corporations brought into the state to boost its economy.

[00:20:00]

What do you do with that? How do you get around that?

You vote essentially, you vote better, you vote better. You push for justice, but you first have to understand why this is important. You have to understand why this is important.

Have you ever wondered how the environment you are surrounded by shapes your life, or perhaps how your life is shaped by the environment you are not supposed to be surrounded by?

Think about it. The concept of environmental racism isn't just another topic for university lectures. It's a living, breathing reality for many communities across the United States. To understand the gravity of environmental racism, we must start at the roots. It's a story intricately woven into the very fabric of America's history, reflecting broader structural inequalities from as

[00:21:00] early as the 17th century when colonial settlers began.

The systemic dispossession of indigenous lands to the 20th century. Jim Crow laws that dictated the spaces where black citizens could live. Environmental decisions have never been neutral. By the mid 20th century, industrial zones were being strategically placed in areas predominantly inhabited by African Americans. These communities were deliberately chosen due to systemic racial biases that deemed them less deserving of environmental protection. As I mentioned, the infamous case of Cancer Alley in Louisiana, A cluster of communities located along the Mississippi River between Baton Rouge and New Orleans.

It exemplifies this grim reality. Here. Industrial plants have released chemicals and pollutants into the air and water for decades,

[00:22:00] resulting in health consequences for residents, including disproportionately high rates of cancer. But they will blame the people for their development of these diseases.

They will say it's our lifestyles, our diets. They will say it's because we lead sedentary lives. They will not look around at the environment that we live in and say, it's the air, it's the water, it's the land. When indeed it is. Residents of Cancer Alley, largely African American residents have long fought for exposure reduction in stricter regulations.

Yet the challenges remain daunting as industries wield significant political influence. In fact, these industry heads, these leaders have lobbied the state of Louisiana to make it harder, to make it harder for nonprofit organizations to

[00:23:00] receive information on air quality. Because once they receive that information and they're able to analyze it, then they can show that the people of these particular areas are being poisoned by the air and they can sue the state and they can sue these corporations.

So if the, these organizations don't know how bad the air is, if the people don't know how bad the air is, then there's nothing that they can do about it. They can't prove it. They don't have the numbers, then they can't prove it. They certainly can't prove it in a court of law. They can only surmise why is it that these historically marginalized communities are disproportionately subject to environmental hazards?

The answer lies deeply embedded within the systemic racism of the United States, within the pillars of systemic racism. And I will keep saying that.

[00:24:00] I will say it over and over, that systemic racism lies behind every evil, every evil that is poisoning black communities. While urban communities face one type of environmental menace, indigenous lands in the United States grapple with another.

These pipeline projects like the Dakota Access Pipeline serve as contemporary symbols of old indu. Of old injustices. Such projects often proceed despite robust opposition. We saw this during Obama's terms. We saw the protest, we saw this during Trump's first term. We saw the protests, but despite these robust opposition, defiance is the pipeline. Was allowed to cross sacred grounds, violating treaties

[00:25:00] and threatening local ecosystems through potential oil spills and leaks. The struggle against these projects is not just about preserving land, it's an assertion of sovereignty and a call to honor the treaties historically ignored or violated. It highlights a pattern where political and economic power supersedes environmental and cultural rights revealing the chilling endurance of colonial oversights.

And what is the status of the Dakota Access Pipeline today? Currently, the Army Corps of Engineers is completing a court order environmental impact statement. Which will analyze the potential environmental impacts of the pipeline, particularly a key permit for crossing under Lake Oae in South Dakota. In March, 2025, Greenpeace lost a significant lawsuit brought by Energy Transfer lp, the parent company of the Dakota Access Pipeline. The [00:26:00] lawsuit stemmed from Greenpeace's role in the 2016-2017 Dakota Access Pipeline protests with the bulk of the damages awarded based on the defamation and defamation. Per se claims Greenpeace is expected to be bankrupted by this lawsuit, which is a shame. It's an absolute shame. But they were also found liable for trespass to land and chattel conversion, nuisance civil conspiracy, and tortious interference

 People feel like they can't fight back. If they protest a corporation, if they protest the building of a new factory, if they protest anything that is seen as more important than they are, the corporations use legal maneuvers, lawsuits to stymie them.

 [00:27:00] Inner city environments often bear the brunt of air pollution, a direct impact of the environmental racism that is frequently overlooked in cities like Los Angeles and Chicago. Low income neighborhoods and communities of color are situated near highways, industrial zones and transportation hubs that spew pollutants into the air.

This has long been a problem, and we are aware of this, but now we are dealing with an administration, and I will keep repeating this, that has recently announced that greenhouse gases are not dangerous to humans, that carbon emissions are not dangerous to humans. That the standards we are using to measure these dangers are costing the United States.

They're costing the states. That these industries must be [00:28:00] deregulated, that we must roll back some of these protections, even though these conditions of spewing pollutants into the air lead to asthma and other respiratory illnesses at alarming rates with children being most affected, and despite clear evidence, linking health issues with air quality responses from governments and corporations and industry leaders have been slow and inadequate, largely due to lack of political clout and socioeconomic barriers that these communities face.

Once again, poor people, lower educated people, people with no education and no income whatsoever feeling powerless, feeling as if they have no agency, feeling as if they have no right to fight what is happening to them. And when they feel that way, they often become mired in the idea that they also have [00:29:00] no duty to fight. Because the focus becomes on survival. They want to survive. We all want to survive and we tie money to survival. We don't tie clean air and clean water to survival unless there is an acute issue happening like, like the lead water crisis in Flint, Michigan, or the water crisis in Jackson, Mississippi.

Unless there is an acute crisis, we don't feel a duty to act.

If we understood that these issues were ongoing, that they're not, that they have always been acute, that they have always been alarming, then perhaps we would feel the duty to fight them. Then perhaps the people who can afford to can share the burden of fighting this for the lower income people. We're all living in these communities. If you live in a community that's

[00:30:00] mixed income, like where I live at, you have the power to fight for the people who don't have what you have. Are you willing to, is the question. In many states, the decision of where to locate landfills and waste facilities is heavily influenced by political and racial calculations.

Take North Carolina's, Warren County, often called the birthplace of the environmental justice movement. In 1982, A PCB landfill was placed in this predominantly black community of Warren County, North Carolina. Public outrage was intense, sparking protests that drew national attention and highlighted the racial dimensions of waste facility siting decades later.

Disparities in waste management continue as minority neighborhoods often have to contend with the stench and health hazards from these facilities. Just [00:31:00] imagine you're living in a city. Which is mostly low income, and you start to smell a stench and you remember, oh, well there's an old meat packing factory that used to be here, so maybe that's where the stench is coming from.

And you smell that stench for years. And because you live in this area, because you don't have much income, you think, oh, well this is how it's supposed to be. It's supposed to smell bad. These places are supposed to have a a sort, a certain smell to them. Because if you look around at the sidewalks and the streets, they're kind of tore up.

They're not well maintained. The houses aren't in the best condition. They're supposed to be a kind of smell, but the smell gets stronger and stronger and stronger, and other things begin to happen. And finally, after some years, police investigate a particular house and they find a house of horrors. Where a man had been stashing the dead

[00:32:00] bodies of women he had murdered.

Yeah, I'm talking about the Anthony Sowell case from Cleveland, Ohio. The people in his neighborhood were smelling decomposition. They were smelling human body decomposition, but because they lived where they lived and there had been a a, a meat packing factory there long ago, they just figured this is the way it's supposed to smell.

It's supposed to smell like rotting meat. It's supposed to have that. I don't know, I, I've never smelled decomp before, but I gotta imagine it smells very pungent. People thought it's supposed to smell like this. It's not. Just because you live in an area where mostly poor people inhabit doesn't mean it's supposed to smell disgusting.

This is what we have convinced people, right? It's supposed to look a certain way, dilapidated. It's supposed to smell a certain way dirty, nasty, like [00:33:00] rotting flesh. The water's supposed to look a certain way. It's supposed to be tinged yellow maybe, or have sediment in it. The skies above you are supposed to be a little bit dark.

We have conditioned ourselves to believe certain things about low income areas, about areas inhabited by black people, or Latinos or Asians. We've conditioned ourselves to believe certain things about these neighborhoods, and then to believe certain things about perhaps affluent white neighborhoods or even affluent black neighborhoods.

Those are supposed to smell a certain way. They're supposed to look a certain way. Certainly not like where I grew up. Certainly not like where those women's bodies were found in Cleveland. That is an injustice. That is an injustice of the mind, that is an injustice of the mind, and I mentioned before, and I'll come back to it. Cancer Alley

[00:34:00] is the nickname of that area of Baton Rouge and New Orleans, Louisiana, which is home to many black and underrepresented communities. The land is the location of petrochemical plants and refineries.

The plants and refineries emit unhealthy pollutants and toxins into the air, and this information is as recent as last month when I researched this for another project that I was doing. This is still happening. This is still happening in 2025. The plants and refineries emit unhealthy pollutants and toxins into the air, local water, and land.

As a result, locals are subject to high rates of cancer and other health issues, including birth defects and respiratory illnesses. The decisions to place these types of facilities near underserved and underrepresented

[00:35:00] communities like Cancer Alley and Warren County, North Carolina, was based on economic considerations.

Corporations place hazardous facilities in low income neighborhoods because those areas have fewer industrial regulations and cheaper operations. And this is certainly the case in Louisiana. Home of Mike Johnson, the Speaker of the United States House of Representatives, the lack of environmental protections for these areas.

Contributes to health hazards and reduced economic opportunities for the locals. Although people find it very convenient to live near where they work, the place that they're working for, the company they're working for is poisoning them and poisoning their children. When you're sick and unhealthy and you can't work, you certainly can't work anywhere else either. Under the Trump administration, Louisiana

[00:36:00] is, again, I will remind you, pushing to remove public access to air quality information so that private organizations cannot sue the state for violating EPA standards.

 And the following information comes from The Guardian, a US News article from March 7th, 2025. It says, the Donald Trump administration has formally agreed to drop a landmark environmental justice case in Louisiana's cancer alley region, marking a blow to clean air advocates in the region, and a win for the Japanese petrochemical giant at the center of the litigation.

 Legal filings made public reveal that Trump's Department of Justice agreed to dismiss a long running lawsuit against the operators of a synthetic rubber plant in reserve, Louisiana, which is allegedly largely responsible for some of the highest

[00:37:00] cancer risk rates in the United States for the surrounding majority black neighborhoods.

The litigation was filed under the Biden administration in Feb in February, 2023 in an attempt to substantially curb the plant's emissions of a pollutant named Chloroprene, a likely human carcinogen. It had targeted both the current operator, the Japanese firm, Danka, and its previous owner, the American Chemical Giant DuPont, and formed a central piece of the former administration's Environmental protection agency efforts to address environmental justice issues in disadvantaged communities.

A trial had been due to start in April, 2025, following lengthy delays. Now that will not happen. Now. There will not be justice for the people living in cancer alley, and you have Donald Trump. To thank for that, you have Donald Trump to thank.

[00:38:00] For the continuing punishment of poisoning of black men, women, and children in the United States of America, will you continue to support him?

 This is from The Guardian. The Trump administration has started letting companies apply for two year exemptions from compliance with nine rules from the Clear Air Act that were intended to curb pollution.

And now here comes the news that the Trump administration's EPA intends to declare greenhouse gases safe for the environment. A declaration that is heavily refuted by scientists and decades of scientific research instead of reducing emissions. Trump and his cronies in government who deny climate change is real intend to roll back regulations on emission standards.

Even in my own state of Ohio, the governor intends to remove eCheck, which is an environmental check on the emissions levels [00:39:00] of cars registered in the state to ensure compliance with air quality standards. You'll no longer be required to ensure your car is not polluting the air.

Another case of the Trump administration striking against EPA standards and allowing corporations to poison Black Americans. Jackson, Mississippi has one of the oldest water systems in the United States. As a result, the city has had a continuous water crisis that afflict the everyday lives of. Its primarily black community.

In 2022, the issue reached a tipping point when the city's main water treatment plant nearly crumbled. After several days of heavy rainfall, the situation caused most of the city residents to lose access to running water for a few days. During that time, residents had to wait in long lines to access safe water, to drink, [00:40:00] bathe, go to the bathroom and cook.

The governor at the time of Mississippi showed great disdain, showed great indifference to what was happening to the people of Jackson, to the point that under the Biden administration, the Department of Justice declared this to be environmental racism and sued the state of Mississippi for denying black people clean water.

Federal funds were provided to the state of Mississippi to clean up the Jackson Mississippi Water System, which again is one of the oldest in the United States. And in 2025, the city has announced that it is running out of federal funds in intended to upgrade its aging water system and will raise customer rates to cover the cost of much needed repairs.

So far, cuts to the EPA, have not [00:41:00] interfered with Jackson Mississippi's efforts to repair its water system. And whether the government will continue with its lawsuit and oversight of the water system remains to be seen. I certainly hope so, but in another area, in another blow to the black American community.

Thanks to the Trump administration. In Lowndes County, Alabama, and this story is coming from the Guardian from an article dated April 24th, 2025. It states the Trump administration has killed a landmark civil rights settlement requiring Alabama to address raw sewage pollution in majority black residential areas, southwest of Montgomery, Alabama, dismissing it as an illegal diversity, equity and inclusion agreement.

"Why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why, why? [00:42:00] Why?"

Let me read that again. The Trump administration has killed a landmark civil rights settlement requiring Alabama to address raw sewage pollution in majority black residential areas, Southwest of Montgomery, dismissing it as an illegal diversity, equity and inclusion agreement. This does not bode well for Jackson, Mississippi.

The decision in the Lowndes County case could condemn low income people in Lowndes County about 40 miles south of west southwest of Montgomery, to indefinitely continue living with no or failing sanitation infrastructure. Throughout recent decades, UNT untreated sewage flowed from some residents toilet into their yards because the government has not provided sewer infrastructure again. The government has not

[00:43:00] provided sewer infrastructure and residents could not afford septic systems, failing septic systems in the region back up during rain, causing raw sewage to surface in yards. And some residents have dug dish and some residents have dug ditches to try to drain it away from their homes.

And now we have a new issue emerging. One that could again, potentially see black people suffering in the same way they do in Jackson, Mississippi and Lowndes County, Alabama in Cancer Alley, Louisiana. What is happening in Memphis, Tennessee? What is happening in Memphis, Tennessee? Artificial intelligence is what's happening to Memphis, Tennessee.

AI's environmental impact in communities like Memphis, Tennessee is a stark example of how technological advancement can deepen existing inequalities when not responsibly managed. [00:44:00] Elon Musk's Company XAI built Colossus the world's largest AI supercomputer in a predominantly black, economically disadvantaged area of south Memphis.

To power the facility XAI installed over 30 methane gas turbines, many without proper permits or pollution controls. Again, many without proper permits or pollution controls. These turbines emit nitrogen, oxides, formaldehyde, and other toxic pollutants linked to asthma, cancer, and cardiovascular disease.

Let's hear from some of the citizens of this area.

"You can't hardly breathe. It's just like your whole world is collapsing down on you. And it, it's, it's frightening. Eastern Knox lives just over [00:45:00] a mile from XAI. I really wasn't getting the fresh air, I was getting that pollution that was mixed in with everything. You know how you lights your stove and that gas seeps with the little ticking noise.

That's what it smell like.

Alexis Humphreys grew up here one street away from Easter.

When I smelled it the first time I was, I was asleep and it woke me up. 'cause I thought gas was sleeping in the house. But come to find out, we come outside and all the neighbors was outside trying to figure out what's going on.

The area around XAI leads the state in emergency department visits for asthma. Memphis has one of the highest rates of toxic air releases of any American city, and many of its most polluting facilities are in this neighborhood.

He was a ordinary dad, full of joy, full of.

Last year, Alexis lost her grandfather who struggled with a respiratory illness called chronic obstructive pulmonary disease, or COPD.

COPD is a breathing condition, but you don't get it unless you smoke cigarettes. And my granddaddy didn't smoke [00:46:00] cigarettes, but every three weeks or so, my granddaddy was going to the hospital. You would have to get breathing treatments. I have asthma, bronchitis. My mom have just bronchitis, and now my granny has it

Easter, and her husband have also developed COPD.

What does it feel like? I feel like you're fixing to die."

Elon, what he did with Memphis is objectively somewhat dirty, but he is also doing it in an area where there's like a bigger natural gas plant right next door and like, like a wastewater treatment and a garbage dump nearby. Right? And, and, and he's, he's obviously made the world a lot more clean than that one data center in just one year.

XAI has blown past existing polluters. They're emitting somewhere between 1,002 thousand tons of NOx. I'm an air pollution guy, so I deal in those numbers all the time, and that's larger than anything else in Memphis. Gas turbines like these.

Release three main types of deadly pollution, nitrogen, oxides, formaldehyde, and find particulate matter.

Nitrogen oxides combine with other pollutants to form ground level ozone, which [00:47:00] causes and worsens asthma and COPD formaldehyde causes cancer and particulate matter. Airborne soot can pass through your lungs and into your bloodstream causing heart disease.

Most companies that I've dealt with go to great lengths and spend a lot of money to make sure that the day they turn on their operations, they're also turning on their pollution control equipment.

That's a given for a company to do this. It's treating the people who live there as if they don't count.

The turbines have increased Memphis' smog levels by 30 to 60%, making XAI. One of the city's largest industrial polluters environmental advocates and local leaders describe South Memphis as a sacrificial zone, a sacrificial zone. That is a place where pollution is concentrated due to [00:48:00] systemic neglect and racialized zoning practices. These people are being sacrificed for the sake. Of a corporation, not just any corporation, but a corporation owned by the wealthiest human being on the planet.

A person who has been given carte blanche to do what he will in the United States. He'll do it without permits, he'll do it without regulations. Ask the people who live near his rocket spaceship building plant in Texas, how their houses rattle and shake, how they have to witness plumes of clouds of smoke going into the air every time he attempts to launch one of his failed rocket missions.

But this is happening in Memphis, Tennessee, an area already suffering from the effects of systemic racism [00:49:00] and air pollution. Despite contributing the least to carbon emissions low income communities like Box Town Bear the brunt of industrial pollution. Musk's private jet alone emits more CO2 annually than hundreds of local residents combined. XAI. Musk's Corporation operated Turbines without Clean Air Act permits. He exploited regulatory loopholes. Local and national environmental groups, including the NAACP, have filed appeals to halt operations.

Residents have also held public hearings and shared personal health stories and accountability. Some turbines have been removed, but many remain active. And amid this, as I mentioned earlier, federal environmental protections are being rolled back, and the EPA has prioritized [00:50:00] AI development over environmental justice enforcement.

When people say that AI is ruining the environment. You must know how that happens. AI requires a lot of processing and when those processors, when those machines heat up, they have to be cooled down. They have to be cooled down. And what do you have to use to cool them down? Water AI is using human water sources to cool down.

The machines used to output information. When you wanna know what type of cracker goes with hard salami on a charcuterie board.

It sounds ridiculous and it is, but this is what's happening. But then the industrial turbines being used by colossus are emitting pollutants into the air. So they're emitting pollutants into the air,

[00:51:00] unregulated, then they're sucking up all of the water. We'll have dirty air and nothing to wash it down.

Memphis is becoming a test case for how AI's energy demands interact with environmental justice without safeguards. Of course, AI infrastructure can replicate the same extractive patterns that have long harmed marginalized communities. Why is it that these historically marginalized communities are disproportionately subjected to environmental hazards?

Again, the answer lies deeply embedded within the pillars of systemic racism. Systemic racism sets the stage for environmental racism from red lining, segregation, and unequal zoning laws that placed black, Latino, indigenous, and other marginalized communities near industrial zones, redlining, segregation, and

[00:52:00] unequal zoning laws placed Black, Latino, indigenous, and other marginalized communities in areas near industrial zones, highways, landfills, and contaminated land.

These communities often received fewer public resources, poor infrastructure, underfunded schools, and limited healthcare access, leaving them more vulnerable to environmental harm. Systemic racism has historically weakened political representation in affected neighborhoods, making it harder to fight back against pollution and advocate for environmental justice.

Systemic racism enables environmental racism by concentrating environmental burdens along racial and economic lines. Then environmental racism worsen systemic inequality through illness, displacement, poverty and exclusion. Toxic industries,

[00:53:00] waste dumps, and fossil fuel infrastructure are disproportionately located in communities of color under these assumptions that these areas are less likely to organize and resist.

But now we are seeing, as in the Memphis, Tennessee case, that these communities are organizing and they're resisting and they're using social media to do so. They are not sitting back and taking this anymore, even though the government no longer has its back, even though the government no longer has its back, the people are fighting back and we are educating the world.

We are educating the world on the healthcare and environmental disparities that exist now that Donald Trump is president. The healthcare disparities that are heightening, that are worsening under Donald Trump's presidency.

Environmental protections are less enforced now, and especially in these communities. Violations

[00:54:00] will go unchecked for longer. Cleanups will be delayed, and penalties will be softened. And as we pivot towards the modern era of environmental injustice, we start to unmask the nuanced ways in which environmental racism continues to manifest beyond obvious industrial pollution.

Consider the acts, consider the lack of access to clean water, insufficient public transport, and inadequate waste management. These are daily battles for many minority communities, far from being random or solely economically motivated. These issues are often deeply racialized, influenced by decades of policy choices and zoning laws designed to wedge gaps between different societal groups.

For example, Flint Michigan's water crisis did not originate from financial hardships alone. It underscored a systemic negligence that had racial

[00:55:00] underpinnings. The idea was that they could switch the water source and no one would know, and no one would care because these people are poor and mostly black.

If they had tried that in an area of Michigan where wealthy people live and there are many of those areas, they would never have thought of doing that in the first place. These ideas only occur to bureaucrats when it comes to poor areas and racial minority areas because again, they assume that we are powerless.

We are not powerless. They are power hungry.

And in the second Trump presidency, the extreme views he put forth in his first presidency have only worsened when Trump and the Republican Party deregulated some of the very important regulations on the railroad industry. We saw what happened in East Palestine, Ohio when a train derailment led to the leaking of dangerous chemicals

[00:56:00] into the air and water system of the people of the surrounding town.

And now those people are dealing with health issues. But instead of blaming Donald Trump and the Republican party, which is where the blame squarely lies, they blamed who was president at the time of the derailment, Joseph r Biden. He was not the one responsible. They blamed Pete Buttigieg, the Secretary of Transportation.

He was not the one responsible. Donald Trump was responsible in his first presidency for what happened and in his second presidency and in his second presidency. In his second administration. What happened? The effects of what we saw from his policies are only going to get worse. They are going to worsen.

If you go to the EPA website, you will find an article titled EPA launches Biggest dereg EPA launches biggest deregulatory Action in US History,

[00:57:00] as if that is something to be proud of. The EPA administrator Lee Den announced, the agency will undertake 31 historic actions in the greatest and most consequential day of deregulation in US history.

Now you have to ask yourself why an administration would be proud to deregulate an industry, an agency rules that have saved the lives of Americans. You have to ask yourself why they are proud of that. Because deregulation means that corporations will be wanting to do business all over the United States, and that they will come with their big, big, big buildings, their big factories, and they will be allowed to put as much pollutants into the air and water as they want, which means they'll be doing output.

That's so great. It'll be putting so much money into the economy and so many jobs, and people will have jobs and it'll just be big and beautiful, and that is what they care

[00:58:00] about. Big and beautiful. Big and beautiful. Never mind that it kills people.

 Saving lives and ensuring that we get ahead of climate crises is what is most important. We have already seen astronomical flooding in Texas and New Mexico this year. Hundreds of people have died and instead of pouring money into figuring out how to get ahead of these climate crises, we are saying no, we're going to roll back regulations.

We are going to say, what's important about climate pollution? What matters most? And what is quote unquote real?

In a draft of a summary of the forthcoming proposal by the EPA, and this information is coming from Reuters. The agency is expected to say that the Clean Air Act does not authorize the EPA [00:59:00] to impose emission standards to address global climate change concerns and will rescind the finding that global, that greenhouse gases emissions from new motor vehicles and engines in danger, public health or welfare.

In short, the U-S-E-P-A plans to repeal all GHG emission standards for light duty, medium duty, and heavy duty vehicles and engines. After. It removes the scientific finding that justified those rules. So when you're out there and you're behind a big old Ford truck and it's putting all of this black smoke into the air, and you think, oh, why can't the government do something about it? This? Well, you only have Donald Trump to think he's the government. He [01:00:00] says what it is, and what they're saying is that that shit don't matter.

The transportation sector is the largest source of greenhouse gas emissions in the United States. According to the New York Times and scientific research, the transportation industry is the largest pollutant when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions, but. One administration, the Biden Harris administration wanted to move the United States closer to using electric vehicles more than gas powered vehicles.

A notion that upset many. A Republican, many a Republican, many a MAGAt, it doesn't matter anymore. It doesn't matter any more that you have clean air. That is what they are saying. It doesn't matter anymore that you have clean air. It doesn't matter anymore that you are being poisoned by

[01:01:00] corporations. It doesn't matter any more that you have clean water. It doesn't matter. It doesn't matter that the people responsible be held accountable for this.

It doesn't matter. It's not important. That's DEI. It's DEI. To say that they targeted black people for poisoned water, even though they did no longer will you be able to fight this at the federal government level. You'll have to find another way to fight it. You'll have to find another way to fight it.

And when I get online and I see black people discussing the latest piece of celebrity gossip, which seems to be like every hour of every day, instead of anyone discussing how Donald Trump is literally making it okay to poison black people, it pisses me off. When I hear you all discussing Beyonce concert and Keisha Cole concert and

[01:02:00] the cash money for the nine nine 2000 reunion, Donald Trump is making it okay for corporations to poison black people in their neighborhoods, in their homes, and you all don't give not one goddamn.

It's literally just these grassroots organizations, these community organizations, these little rallies, these little groups of communities, uh, of people in these communities who are going out onto their streets trying to get the word out about what Donald Trump and his administration are doing about what Elon Musk and his giant ass corporation are doing about what these.

Foreign corporations are doing to us these little grassroots movements that if more people paid attention would be larger movements, that they couldn't stop, that they couldn't deny, that they couldn't look at and go, well, that's DEI, so we don't have to worry about it. If more of, of

[01:03:00] more millions of us put our voices, lent our voices to the things that matter than we wouldn't.

Have to continue to decade after decade, after decade after decade, fight these same fights and not see any changes made you wanna see change. It's not going to happen outside of you getting off your ass and doing something about it.

At least 300 families have been affected in Lowndes County, Alabama, and about 80% of septic systems were estimated to be failing in the region. The area is over 70% black race is the reason why these people were poisoned by septic sewage. Race is the

[01:04:00] reason. It has nothing to do with DEI. It has nothing to do with affirmative action or race baiting or race, nothing.

Or it has nothing to do with affirmative action or reverse discrimination though they will blame DEI. This is a human rights issue. This is a water rights issue. This is a clean air, clean water, clean land issue. It has nothing to do with. DEI. It is about the basic human rights afforded to every person present on the land of the United States. And to dismiss this settlement puts people in a position where they are unable to afford even basic living, basic, decent living to remedy the wrongs that have been lodged against them.

Is that your intention, Mr. President?

Environmental racism

[01:05:00] is just another method, another way for the privileged of American society to make those who they consider beneath them to stay that way. It is another method for keeping people beneath. Others in this classist society, in this caste system that is American capitalism.

Environmental racism is another tool of oppression that reminds. Racial minorities that reminds lower income, poor people, middle income people who are of a certain race, that they are not like the people at the top. They don't have the resources, the money or the skin color to survive, to be on top and they never will. When you make people feel like they are worthless, they believe it. They believe it when the systems in place that are supposed [01:06:00] to serve the public, make the public feel like they are worthless.

The Department of Justice, the US Department of Justice has said that we will no longer push environmental justice as viewed through a distorting DEI lens. President Trump made it clear Americans deserve a government committed to serving every individual with dignity and respect, and to expending taxpayer resources in accordance with the national interest, not arbitrary criteria.

However, arbitrary criteria that is the race of the people living in the community is the reason why they are being polluted in the first place. These black people were targeted. They were targeted. Whether you believe it or not, that is what happened. So for you to say that this lawsuit isn't necessary because it [01:07:00] uses race as a factor, well, race was the reason it's not using race as a factor. Race because it was a black neighborhood, because these are black people in a black county. No one thought to care of the effects of this. No one thought to do anything about it. No one wanted to do anything about it. And when these people were found guilty. Of allowing this raw sewage to seep into the water system, that was a good thing.

Renouncing that lawsuit and saying that it is a result of DEI is not only asinine, but it is dangerous. Having a lawsuit dismissed and allowing a corporation to poison people has got to be the lowest, most despicable move of any president. It's just another day for Donald Trump, and this has been Ayana. Explains it all. Brought to you by facts, figures, and enlightenment. Take [01:08:00] care.