Ecological Racism and General Iron
By Jake Fondel
In 1982 Benjamin Chavis, a Civil Rights Leader, coined the term “Environmental Racism” to describe a system in which communities of color were targeted to be placed near locations of pollution. Now in Chicago, citizens of the 10th Ward are claiming the company General Iron is doing just that in their city.
General Iron, a metal recycling company, is being challenged by the locals of Chicago’s 10th Ward. Through the battle between the two, we can see how institutionalized racism is claiming to impact the locals of the 10th Ward through environmental racism. We will see what the locals are attempting to do to stop General Iron. Finally seeing how our government reacts to the lawsuits that were filed.
General Iron is a company located in Lincoln Park and specialize in taking old industrial iron and transforming it back into a usable state. The process is not easy and requires the metals to go through many systems before it is ready to be used.
General Iron is now moving its operations from the Lincoln Park area to Chicago’s 10th Ward. They will be selling the land they own in the area of Lincoln Park and purchasing new Land on the Calumet River at East 116th Street.
Things are not so simple in this move, however, as the local population of the 10th Ward have begun to push back on the move and not without reason.
Recycling plants create toxic fumes that pollute the air around the area they are set up. These fumes can cause massive harm to the local population. Metal recycling plants specifically will create carcinogens, cause the increase in asthma cases, and irreversibly damage the organs of those who breathe too much of it as seen in the Environmental Protection Agency’s 1976 study on recycled metals.
In an interview with Connie Leal, a Nurse Case Manager, on March 18th she discusses the overarching health issues in the area. It is explained that all the health issues in the area can “affect their metabolism, it can affect the brain neurologically, and have high lead levels. It is very worrisome.” It is clear that another source of pollution would do nothing to help this problem.
Aware of the consequences of having the plant in their neighborhood, locals of the 10th Ward have made efforts to stop the move. Through complaints and protests, things finally came to a head with two Federal Civil Rights Complaints.
The Civil Rights Complaint, which was filed by local groups, stopped the move in its tracks. Now General Iron is remaining at Lincoln Park for the time being. While they have already begun the preparations for the move, the city has been ordered by the federal government to halt the move until the complaints can be looked into.
The complaints come in two forms. One in a lawsuit filed by Reverend Roosevelt Watkins III states that a “Pay to Play’’ issue has come to pass. The Reverend explains that it was through $500,000 of donations to the politicians that allowed for General Iron to move its company. Now General Iron, according to the lawsuit, essentially paid the representatives to be allowed to pollute in the 10th Ward.
The other complaint came from community groups such as Southeast Environmental Task Force and the People for Community Recovery. This complaint points out that the move is not solely based upon money but also race. They argue that the move is really about getting the polluting factory out of the wealthy white Lincoln Park area and moving it into the mostly poorer, Black and Latino neighborhood of the 10th Ward (Chicago Sun Times, Oct 21, 2020).
Both of these cases are intertwined and have many of the same complaints and issues. The key concept for both of them is the idea of Environmental Racism.
Noted by Ben Chavis in 1982, Ecological Racism or Ecological Segregation is the practice in which areas of which low income areas are unfairly zoned to allow for polluting companies and dumping areas. These low income areas are usually located in cities and populated by minority groups.
Noted by the Fumes Across the Fence-Line study made by the CleanAir Task Force of the NAACP, African Americans live in polluted areas at higher rates than other races. It shows that due to these pollutants African Americans have health conditions that other groups simply do not have to deal with at the same rate.
The study goes on to explain that 13.4% of African American Children have asthma compared to the 7.4% of White American Children and that African American Children die due to asthma ten times more than White American Children.
The study ends with the finding that African Americans are 38% more likely to live in polluted air and 75% more likely to be living near a plant or factory.
All of these factors have led many to come to the conclusion that institutionalized racism within America includes the way pollution is zoned and have coined this phenomenon Ecological Racism.
It is through the concept of Ecological Racism that the complaints of General Iron’s move is coming from and the government is reacting to.
The local Chicago government has done little to stop the move, in fact they initially seemed to support it. According to Watkins’s Lawsuit, politicians were fully aware that the move was going to take place. The Chicago Sun Times reported that back in 2018 top officials were in talks about the move and were considering the 10the Ward. The city went so far as to coordinate a joint conference to announce the move.
It was the Federal Government who stepped in to stop the move through the civil rights complaints. Federal investigators are currently the ones focusing on the issue of Environmental Racism and are seeing if the complaints are valid.
The City of Chicago has not done nothing however and has begun their own investigation into General Iron. Though, these investigations are on General Iron’s safety systems and not about the 10th Ward according to officials.
General Iron at this time believes itself to be in the right. Their move had nothing to do with race and is simply a business decision. The move could bring jobs into the 10th Ward and may have a positive effect on the area. General Irons official stance at the time of writing is that they had done nothing wrong and their move was in no way based upon race.
On April 14th, 2021 the Federal Judge Mary Rowland ruled that she would not stop the permit for the move to occur. The lawyer for the prosecution, Victor Henderson said, “While the fight won’t continue in this courtroom, it won’t stop because this injustice cannot stand.”
At the time of writing, General Iron’s move from Lincoln Park to the 10th Ward is on hold and the land in Lincoln Park has gone unsold as Federal Housing Officials are still investigating. It is unclear where either side will go from here.
