THIS WEEK IN RACISM

Pollution, Equity, and Facebook’s Nebulous ‘Cultural Fit’ Lead This Week’s Racist News Roundup

Your weekly dose of racist news to know

Activists shut down the Dan Ryan Expressway in Chicago. It’s a highway that was constructed right smack dab in the middle of a prosperous Black-owned business and homeowner district.

This week’s look at the race and racism stories you may have missed offers plenty of examples of how the effects of racism permeate everything from the air we breathe to the roads on which we travel — but there are some glimmers of hope on the horizon. And this week’s bit of good news is proof that the mass movement against police brutality and for Black lives is bearing fruit.

When racism is in the polluted air we breathe: The Environmental Protection Agency’s new chief, Michael Regan, is ordering the department to use the “full array of policy and legal tools” at its disposal to “infuse equity and environmental justice principles and priorities into all EPA practices, policies and programs.” This is a big deal because Black people are more likely to suffer from asthma and respiratory problems in part because discriminatory policies put polluting industries and highways in Black neighborhoods. The Guardian explains what this new EPA directive will mean in practice.

One former (Facebook) recruiter said he attended a virtual meeting about how to hire more Black engineers, only to have a White manager play a song in the background whose lyrics included the phrase, “Where the n — — — be at?”

Of Covid deaths and data: You may have heard the pronouncement that more men than women die of Covid-19. But a recent study has found that Black women in the U.S. are dying of the virus at three times the rate of White or Asian men. The only racial demographic dying at an even higher rate? Black men. The study was based in part on Covid data from just two states, Michigan and Georgia — because those are the only ones that break down mortality rates by race, gender, and age. This article in The 19th explains why this lack of specific data from more states is a huge problem.

Why are candidates of color not a “cultural fit” at Facebook?: The social media behemoth recently set a goal of hiring 30% more people of…