Urban Living Legend - Higher Education: During Dr. Robert Bullard’s first stint at Texas Southern University, researching assorted urban issues while also teaching, he linked where some people live with their comparative lack of household finances, and from there, parsed how those dual forces factor into what gets dumped in their proverbial backyards.
Landfills, garbage incinerators, industrial plants and other polluters are more likely to be situated in areas populated by poor, politically powerless people, Bullard concluded, as he began backing up what he knew was true anecdotally with empirical evidence.
He also concluded that those living near landfills, toxic smokestacks and such also tend, disproportionately, to travel outside of their neighborhoods for well-stocked supermarkets. They confront shortages of affordable, habitable housing and insufficient means of transportation. They are less likely to get hired by major employers — including industrial polluters operating in their communities — who pay wages that reasonably sustain a family.
