What does ‘environmental racism’ mean? What does it look like in practice? When researchers discovered that residents of the small, unincorporated, predominantly Black community of Tallevast, Florida, were experiencing abnormally high rates of cancer and miscarriages, it was clear that something was wrong. Tallevast, a town shaped by the legacy of segregation, is the site of the now-defunct Loral American Beryllium Company, which was purchased in 1996 by Lockheed Martin, the largest defense contractor in the world.
In this episode of “Rattling the Bars,” Eddie Conway is joined by James Manigault-Bryant to discuss how the military-industrial complex poisoned residents of Tallevast and destroyed their property, their environment, and their health. Manigault-Bryant is professor of Africana Studies at Williams College, a descendent of one of Tallevast’s founding families, and co-author of the Boston Review article “Poisoning Tallevast.”
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