Kat Gale’s Reviews > The Injustice of Place: Uncovering the Legacy of Poverty in America > Status Update

[Areas of mountaintop removal] have seen 1200 more deaths...Practices that degrade & poison the environment are literally killing people. In these areas, cancer & mortality from diseases of the heart, lungs, & kidneys are significantly elevated. Birth defects are much higher. The poorest Americans in the country are the ones paying the highest price for the environmental effects of resource extraction & degradation.

A study conducted by researchers at the Duke University School of Medicine found that communities located near hog farms had higher rates of mortality from any cause, higher infant mortality rates, and elevated levels of kidney disease, tuberculosis, and septicemia, even after controlling for other factors.

FEMA deemed 46% of applicants with income below $15,000 ineligible for help, compared to 10% of those making more than $70,000. White, more affluent homeowners were much more likely to receive aid...the very government agencies responsible for helping Americans recover from disasters are exacerbating pre-existing inequalities, not reducing them.

Denials of aid deepened distrust. People were traumatized from these storms. Traumatized. And FEMA came in riding on these white horses like they're going to save the world and almost every other person that went to them were denied...the amount of aid FEMA will provide is directly pegged to the market value of a home, part of why higher income families claim the bulk of the resources

Corruption is a seldom recognized form of exploitation in which an elite few are allowed to live off the spoils of public office and to preserve the status quo. Under these conditions, it is nearly impossible for a community to improve.

Reports of pain are sky high and Appalachia and several other rural regions, likely as a result of the history of physically demanding work in these locales...their disorders were often serious and debilitating.

Blaming government benefits for breaking the spirit of the poor is just the latest guise in a long history of elites blaming Appalachian highlanders for the region's problems. In fact, most of the low-income people we spoke with told us they were desperate to do more than rely on a disability check. Even those with severe disabilities hope to have a job one day so they could contribute to society.

The state of mind in rural America is one of "good rich people" and "bad poor people"...[poverty] is defined as a moral failing. The moral narrative shields the elite from having to grapple with the grinding poverty in this poorest white-majority place in the nation, with the long history of extraction & exploitation, and with the very real corruption that is crippling the community & perpetuating the class divides.

Local offials relied on vote buying&voter intimidation to retain power, discriminatory hiring&firing to control voters,& bribes of food, moonshine,&cash...Control of local offices enables public servants to facilitate illicit moneymaking schemes–some of which risk their constituents' lives...including the willingness of elites to make common cause with criminals, bringing drugs&illegal painkillers into the country.

The infusion of 1.5 million of federal aid threatened the power of local politicians, who mounted an intimidation campaign to ensure that the populace voted for the political machine's representatives to serve on the board of the US Office of Economic Opportunity's Community Action Program, which was later defunded due to their persistent corruption and self-dealing.