In the US, we have a living history of discriminatory policies based on race

https://www.thesidewalksymposium.com/blog/the-enduring-shado... , here is a quick overview of redlining in Memphis

Yeah. I've heard about it. So this wouldn't be a problem if it affected a different group of people?

Probably not because if it affected white neighborhoods, it either wouldn't be enacted, shut down after complaints, or receive enough bad press as to be shut down.

That's a lot of assumptions. If they wanted that to be the point of the article they could have done it a lot more explicitly.

It would be the exact same problem, and equally bad.

I agree. Which is why I think that detail is not relevant and just a distraction.

Well, if racism in America was over. As in, similar rates of wealth and poverty, incarceration and college degrees, etc etc, across racial lines, then yeah, it would be a distraction. But when economic disadvantage, inherited from outright racist laws, is abundantly clear to see, it's hard for me to accept that we are not still anti black (and anti poor, etc) as a country when things like this happen

It isn't affecting (and historically doesn't affect) the "different group" though. That's the point.

Because the people who decided where to locate it and the people in government who could do something to stop it make decisions about how much they care based on those folks’ skin color. If those generators were placed near a rich white neighborhood, the government response would be wildly different.

Mississippi in particular is well known at the state government level to actively choose not to enforce environmental regulations in areas where its Black citizens live.

And TFA addresses this. South Memphis was a community largely composed of freed slaves, where manufacturers set up shop, the military dumped waste (now a superfund site), and people have continued to mark the area for polluting industries for generations.

To be fair they would definitely do this to rural and/or poor white people too.

Maybe. East Palestine OH got a decent amount of political attention.