'Last Week Tonight' covers environmental racism

I have more stories than I can blog about today, so I decided to take "the route of least resistance" by revisiting Samantha Bee, Rachel Maddow, and Vox on environmental racism, including the Flint Water Crisis and 'Cancer Alley' with Environmental Racism: Last Week Tonight with John Oliver (HBO).*

John Oliver discusses environmental racism, how both government and industry are failing people of color, and pandas.

I'm going to be a good environmentalist by recycling my reactions from last year.

In addition to this being a good survey of the subject, it includes two examples of environmental racism, the Flint Water Crisis, which I've been blogging about for years, and "Cancer Alley"...Vox examined the locale and how racism contributed to it becoming a "zone of sacrifice"...

I can now add "Shingle Mountain" and the housing project in East Chicago to my list of polluted places next to and underneath communities of color. I already knew about the siting of landfills and other contaminated areas near the poorest and least powerful neighborhoods in Texas from Dr. Robert Bullard, who I pointed out in a comment to the video.

That's Dr. Robert Bullard talking to W. Kamau Bell at 03:07. I took my class to a talk of his in 2008 and then I spoke to him afterwards. This is the first time I've seen someone I know personally on Last Week Tonight.

I mentioned him last year as well.

Dr. Robert Bullard...spoke to my environmental science class about his work in fighting environmental racism 13 years ago. I have featured him in my slide show about the politics and economics of the environment ever since. Now I have a video of him to add to that slide show so my current students can see and hear him.

I'm on break right now, having turned in my last grades this morning, but I think I should look for the relevant clip from "United Shades of America with W. Kamau Bell" to show my students either as well or instead of the Vox video I embedded last year. It would definitely improve one of the stories I tell my students.

Stay tuned for Star Wars Day tomorrow. May the Fourth be with you!

*Today is World Press Freedom Day and Politico published a leaked draft Supreme Court opinion that would overturn Roe v. Wade. Both are important and the latter would be terrible news, but I just finished grading final exams, so I'm not feeling up to tackling either right now.