Energizing the Workforce: A Terrible Thing to Waste Part I

“A powerful and indispensable book for anyone who cares about a just and healthy future for all Americans. Harriet Washington asks the critical questions that get at the heart of racism and inequality in health, income, social welfare, and power in twenty-first America.” - Gerald Markowitz

One of the key goals of Energizing the Workforce is to bring the light the inequities and issues in the Energy Sector and address ways that we can make progressive change. Within this pillar, another larger, global movement comes into the conversation and that is environmental justice. According to the EPA, “Environmental justice is the fair treatment and meaningful involvement of all people regardless of race, color, national origin, or income, with respect to the development, implementation, and enforcement of environmental laws, regulations, and policies” (EPA, Environmental Justice).

To understand the depths and effects that this has on our energy industry, I have turned to the one thing that always provides me with accurate answers, books. The intersection between income, health, environmental factors (including energy), and decision making is undeniable.  Reading (and intensely annotating) “A Terrible Thing to Waste: Environmental Racism and Its Assault on the American Mind” by Harriet A. Washington has been one of the most eye-opening experiences I have ever had. Understanding the historical, underlying barriers that prohibit communities of color to access resources and maintain healthy lives is a key step to understanding why there are countless issues in energy employment. In the coming weeks, I will be doing chapter reviews of the book above and explain how and why this connects to the energy workforce.

Part I: Color Coded Intelligence
Chapter 1: The Prism of Race: How Politics Shroud the Truth about Our Nation’s IQ

If I were to highlight all the important sections pulled from each chapter, I might as well give you a copy of this book. However one of the most imperative pieces that arose from chapter one is this: “Scientists are beginning to quantify these effects (industrial chemicals, pesticides, waste dumps, etc.) in a manner that support the connection between IQ and environmental exposures in communities of color” (Washington, page 25). If you are asking yourself how can environmental or health factors really have that much of an effect on the intelligence or IQ of a person? “It makes sense to argue that populations of wealthy/rich countries do better on IQ tests because they have access to better nutrition and education” (page 43). Access is the keyword here. If you do not have access to the resources that enhance knowledge or promote healthy living, this can lead to a lower IQ which then opens the discussion to how the value of an individual based on their intelligence. To be frank, this is not news to anyone. Washington recounts the decades upon decades of global research that examines how race, health, and intelligence are all interwoven into a web that is difficult to untangle.

“But race is a social reality with real-world biological consequences and nowhere is this more apparent than environmental racism” (page 58). These consequences are born and bred in spaces that she refers to as “sacrifice zones,” or are the areas in which groups are subjected to the high exposure of metals or chemicals and that interfere with brain development (page 58).  Not only do these zones have this barrier to tackle, but they are also the target of intense marketing of products that ensure “brain-eroding nutritional deficiencies that have biological consequences.”

Clear a mud, right? It is important to remember that the details within this book complete the bigger picture. Addressing inequities that are instilled in education, health access, housing, and countless other facets of our lives begins that conversation that can change the world (as cliché as it sounds). It goes back to something I discussed in one of the first editions of “Energizing the Workforce.” The community that I work in DOES NOT look like the community that I live in. Until those two look the same, it is important to point out that they are different. I live in a community that is zealous and I have neighbors of all different backgrounds, religions, and ethnicities. I, however, am employed by a sector that is overwhelmingly male-dominated and lacks racial diversity. Is this because my neighbors lack ACCESS to resources that can lead to employment in the energy industry? Is it because I live in a disadvantaged area that can possibly be categorized as a sacrifice zone? I do not know the answers to these questions yet, but Harriet Washington is solving the issues firsthand.

Washington’s insight and knowledge on how race is a clear barrier to good health, educational resources, and even employment opportunities gave me a deeper understanding as to why things are the way they are. But furthermore, it gave me more of an incentive to want to change