California: whites accused of polluting black neighborhoods with their cars

Los Angeles Times has published an article accusing "white and affluent drivers" of "polluting the air" that people of color breathe in L.A.

The author, Sammy Roth, points to a University of Southern California (USC) study that asserts that there is a racial and economic gap in access to clean air.

According to the USC study, which was coordinated by urban planning expert Professor Geoff Boeing, the main reason the white population is disproportionately polluting the air for rest of the county's inhabitants is in the design of the roads. Roads connecting various ends of the city, which have a largely white population, pass through the Hispanic and black inner-city neighborhoods.

County residents who drive more are less exposed to polluted air. For every 1% increase in driving distance, the presence of lung damage from pollution is estimated to drop by 0.62%. Boeing's findings claim that those who drive the most are the county's suburban residents. The Los Angeles Times article takes this a step further, asserting that it is white people who are to blame.

A racial problem

It is nevertheless worrisome that the press findings point so directly to one segment of the population. The L. A. Times op-ed directly accuses the county's white population of poisoning the air for all other ethnic groups. It is strange that the newspaper does not point out that different ethnic groups also live in those suburbs from which the "polluters" come from. In downtown neighborhoods, which are increasingly exposed to gentrification, the population is becoming more racially mixed and diverse.

The same study, by means of a map, shows how the outlying neighborhoods of the county have more diverse populations than the downtown neighborhoods. The majority-white neighborhoods are only marginally so. This can be contrasted with non-white majority neighborhoods, where there is less diversity.

Meanwhile, the latest polls from Loyola Marymount University claim that Angelenos believe racial tension has increased in recent years. Only 8.2% of county residents believe that different ethnic groups relate to each other very well, compared to 40% who say they feel increasing racial tension.