Infrastructure and racial equity are two of the largest priorities for the Biden Administration. But if they want to make real progress on either, they must start by understanding how the two issues are inexorably linked.
Inequities in infrastructure have been a consistent impediment for minority communities in urban and rural areas. A 2019 study found that race is the strongest determinant in whether Americans have access to safe, potable water. Water contamination in Flint, Michigan garnered national headlines, but similar problems exist in towns and neighborhoods across America.
A main reason for this is that industrial sites are more likely to be located near minority neighborhoods, and people of color are more likely to feel the impact of pollution and toxicity. The NAACP and Clean Air Task Force found that African-Americans are 75 percent more likely than other Americans to live in ‘fence-line’ communities, defined as areas situated near facilities producing hazardous waste.
This, in part, explains why African-Americans are exposed to 1.5 times as much sooty fossil fuel emissions as the rest of the population. These emissions are associated with lung disease, heart disease and premature death.
Growing up, I experienced this inequity firsthand. My childhood neighborhood in Baton Rouge, Louisiana was in the shadows of smokestacks of nearby chemical plants, and our skies were more likely to be filled with mysterious black flakes than with fireflies. In fact, this stretch of the Gulf Coast has illness rates so ubiquitous that is has been dubbed “Cancer Alley.”
If the federal government is going to make massive investments in infrastructure, it should begin by taking a number of steps that will help ensure these long-neglected communities receive overdue attention.
First, federal funding guarantees should include designations and safeguards on money intended for use in minority communities. Historically, federal funds for these communities have gotten diverted at the state, local or city level to projects in more affluent neighborhoods. Steps must be taken to put an end to this shameful practice.
Second, the federal government must ensure greater inclusion of minority-owned businesses in infrastructure projects. This doesn’t require new laws; it requires enforcing existing laws.
The Department of Transportation’s Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) program is intended to ensure that businesses owned by minorities and other historically disadvantaged groups have an equal opportunity to participate in federal projects. Yet nearly half of states have failed to meet DBE participation goals. These goals need to be strictly enforced if any comprehensive infrastructure plan is expected to make a long-term impact for minority business owners.
Finally, the Biden Administration should ensure that new methods of procurement – such as public-private partnerships – include the same protections for minority and women-owned subcontractors as traditional methods of procurement. Traditionally, surety bonds have helped protect these subcontractors in the event that lead contractors default on their obligations, and requirements for these bonds should also be utilized and enforced in future federal procurements. Solutions to address this inconsistency have been introduced in Congress by Senator Chris Van Hollen (D-MD) and Congressman Stephen Lynch (D-MA), and should be enacted to ensure these protections continue to serve minority and women owned businesses.
Too often, the infrastructure debate in Washington and the media centers on the total amount of funding. This is important. But for minority communities, the more important debate is not just how much is spent, but where and how it is spent.
Wendell Stemley is the Emeritus Director of National Association of Minority Contractors (NAMC)
