This article looks at the commentary and significance of Tattered Ts youth hoodie with a graphic design featuring Little ADOS with the text “Environmental Racism is Killing Us Too.”
What is ADOS Advocacy Foundation? (American Descendants of Slavery)
In the last two years, the "ADOS" movement has made its way into national discussion, calling for reparations to those whose ancestors were enslaved on American soil.
ADOS advocacy foundation was organized to execute policies to eliminate inequalities faced by communities comprised of the ancestors of African slaves. But what does ADOS stand for and what are its goals? This article outlines some of the key elements of the organization.
The ADOS advocacy foundation's black agenda details many important topics for justice, however, today we are specifically focused on recognition and examples of environmental racism.
ADOS Motto: The American Descendants of Slavery (ADOS) Advocacy Foundation is a grassroots organization that arose in response to a national landscape rife with yawning racialized gaps.
The state of California recently acknowledged four hundred years of slavery and created a task force to study ADOS reparations proposal. A similar bill was recently passed by the state of New York and aims to create a community commission for reparations. This bill is in committee in the Senate, and this is a crucial step forward for reparations advocates, but it needs to go much further. For now, advocates of reparations are encouraged by recent developments.
Environmental Racism and its impact on communities of color
The United States is a global melting pot of environmental racism, which affects low-income minority citizens most adversely. As a result, communities of color are more likely to live in areas with hazardous waste dumping sites, factory farms, and pesticides. This has a negative effect on the health of people in these communities and reinforces existing racial inequalities in wealth and living conditions.
In addition to the lack of environmental protection, minority communities are disproportionately affected by pollution and other forms of inequality.
Examples of environmental racism as it affects the economy
In America, environmental racism is pervasive, and the resulting living conditions are ingrained in day-to-day life for many people. For example, the city of Chicago has faced challenges due to the impact of coal plants on minority populations, resulting in poor health effects for 34% of adults in affected communities.
Another example is Southwest Detroit which is home to many oil refineries and other polluting industries. In addition, young Black children in this community have higher blood lead levels.
The Flint Water Crisis
The Flint water crisis has exposed the intersection between environmental racism and political correctness. While state officials were quick to minimize the problem, a more troubling pattern was uncovered: local and state politicians were playing a political game by ordering residents to switch over to bottled water. This tactic reveals the callous indifference of local and state officials to the citizens of Flint, where the water has been poisoned for more than a year.
Hurricane Katrina – New Orleans
The state of Louisiana experienced a colossal failure from the federal government to provide proper disaster relief after hurricane Katrina. The response to the catastrophe was a glaring example of environmental racism, as the lack of proper relief efforts devastated a large minority population. In cases as these, the underlying issues are made worse by pre-existing racial wealth disparities. In fact, there is evidence from the Army Corp of Engineers, Homeland Security and the federal Emergency Management Agency warning that the levee in New Orleans was already failing. The Katrina disaster was only a matter of time.
