Synopses & Reviews
A "powerful and indispensable" look at the devastating consequences of environmental racism (Gerald Markowitz) and what we can do to remedy its toxic effects on marginalized communities — featuring a new preface on COVID-19 risk factors. Did you know...
• Middle-class African American households with incomes between $50,000 and $60,000 live in neighborhoods that are more polluted than those of very poor white households with incomes below $10,000.
• When swallowed, a lead-paint chip no larger than a fingernail can send a toddler into a coma — one-tenth of that amount will lower his IQ.
• Nearly two of every five African American homes in Baltimore are plagued by lead-based paint. Almost all of the 37,500 Baltimore children who suffered lead poisoning between 2003 and 2015 were African American.
From injuries caused by lead poisoning to the devastating effects of atmospheric pollution, infectious disease, and industrial waste, Americans of color are harmed by environmental hazards in staggeringly disproportionate numbers. This systemic onslaught of toxic exposure and institutional negligence causes irreparable physical harm to millions of people across the country — cutting lives tragically short and needlessly burdening our health care system. But these deadly environments create another insidious and often overlooked consequence: robbing communities of color, and America as a whole, of intellectual power. The 1994 publication of
The Bell Curve and its controversial thesis catapulted the topic of genetic racial differences in IQ to the forefront of a renewed and heated debate. Now, in
A Terrible Thing to Waste, award-winning science writer Harriet A. Washington adds her incisive analysis to the fray, arguing that IQ is a biased and flawed metric, but that it is useful for tracking cognitive damage. She takes apart the spurious notion of intelligence as an inherited trait, using copious data that instead point to a different cause of the reported African American-white IQ gap: environmental racism — a confluence of racism and other institutional factors that relegate marginalized communities to living and working near sites of toxic waste, pollution, and insufficient sanitation services. She investigates heavy metals, neurotoxins, deficient prenatal care, bad nutrition, and even pathogens as chief agents influencing intelligence to explain why communities of color are disproportionately affected — and what can be done to remedy this devastating problem. Featuring extensive scientific research and Washington's sharp, lively reporting,
A Terrible Thing to Waste is sure to outrage, transform the conversation, and inspire debate.
Review
"A Terrible Thing to Waste is a powerful and indispensable book
for anyone who cares about a just and healthy future for all Americans.
Harriet Washington asks the critical questions that get at the heart of
racism and inequality in health, income, social welfare and power in
21st century America." Gerald Markowitz, author of Lead Wars and Distinguished Professor, John Jay College, CUNY
Review
"An unflinching look at environmental racism in black and brown communities." Angela Helm, The Root
Review
"Deeply researched, well written and timelier than ever,
A Terrible Thing to Waste will necessarily transform public and
scientific debates over urban decay, environmental policy and reported
racial differences in IQ...Eye-opening." Amy Brady, Shelf Awareness (Starred Review)
About the Author
Harriet A. Washington
has been the Shearing Fellow at the University of Nevada's Black
Mountain Institute, a Research Fellow in Medical Ethics at Harvard
Medical School, a senior research scholar at the National Center for
Bioethics at Tuskegee University, and a visiting scholar at DePaul
University College of Law. She has held fellowships at the Harvard T.H.
Chan School of Public Health and Stanford University. She is the author
of
Deadly Monopolies,
Infectious Madness, and
Medical Apartheid, which won a National Book Critics Circle
Award, the PEN/Oakland Award, and the American Library Association Black
Caucus Nonfiction Award.