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

How do we build not injustice, but justice into place? The legacies of centuries of extraction and subjugation must be addressed. From our analysis, we have derived six principles for action:
1. End separate and unequal schooling.
2. To end violence, spark mobility.
3. Invest in social infrastructure.
4. Root out corruption.
5. Make structural racism visible and confront it.
6. Bring the supply chains home.

The Crow Creek reservation in South Dakota ranks as the 4th most disadvantaged place on our index. In 1863, its population was exiled from the rich land of southwestern Minnesota when Gov.Alexander Ramsey expelled the Sioux after the bloody US-Dakota war. Native Americans died by the hundreds, some in the war but most to starvation after they were forcibly relocated onto land mostly in hospitable to human habitation.

The 1862 Homestead Act–benefiting white settlers–was passed just 3 years before General Sherman's special field order No. 15–with its 40 acres and a mule promise–and was overturned by President Andrew Johnson, devastating the prospects of most southern Blacks, who were desperate to establish homesteads of their own. They have never been compensated for that loss.
–Systemic racism in action

The places [of greatest advantage] made significant investments in schools, contributing to long histories of high graduation rates&college attendance. They have enjoyed the lowest rates of violent crime, income inequality,& public corruption. They're rich in social capital: residents are connected to one another through volunteerism, membership in civic organizations, and participation in other community activities.

One farmer has been holding out on giving his land over to fracking because he knows the 100+ people he employs would immediately be out of work. But it’s difficult to say no to all that money. The water-intensive process of fracking+an extended drought has led to a catastrophic drop in the water levels and the huge aquifers that once ensured to prosperity of the region.
–Stop fracking destroying the environment!

White Mississippians are stuck in the cycle of defeat and shame and defiance. We have to be forced to do what's right by the federal government, which makes us feel defeated. And then that leads to this place of shame–that just makes us more defiant. We are defensive and defending ourselves. We would rather lose than admit when we've ever been wrong.
–He is describing a a collective lack of emotional maturity.

In the Cotton Belt, millions of acres of land are no longer cultivated; the land has been stripped of the rich topsoil accumulated over millennia by the rapacious planting of tobacco&cotton. This isn't new. When Frederick Olmsted traveled in 1850s reporting for the NYT, he wrote about passing many farms where the soil had been used up.

–We need to stop planting monocrops. Diversity is how we restore&enrich the land.

[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.