Apartheid. USA 1988

April 15, 1987:

Ambassador Perkins's prayer
(editorial in the New York Times)

It's finally possible - how long has it been? - for Americans to take pride in some Reagan Administration conduct in South Africa. Washington has rightly and promptly condemned the Pretoria Government's sweeping new rules barring protests against mass detentions without trial. Better still, Edward Perkins, America's new Ambassador and a black, made a point of participating in an ecumenical service in Cape Town that offered defiant prayers for the detained.

These are only symbolic gestures, but they are not empty. Witness the angry reaction from South Africa's Foreign Minister, who demanded that Western envoys attend a

[p. 61]

briefing on black violence. Even symbols can spotlight an outrageous wrong; an estimated 30 000 people, including perhaps 10 000 children, are being detained without trial in South Africa's bursting jails.^83.

A study, prepared by the United Church of Christ's Commission on Racial Justice, asserted that the placement of hazardous waste facilities in communities with large concentrations of black and Hispanic people, hardly was a coincidence or happened by chance. The report discovered that more than 15 million of the nation's 26 million blacks lived in communities with one or more uncontrolled toxic dumps. More than 8 million of the nation's 15 million Hispanic residents live in communities with one or more uncontrolled hazardous sites. Three of the 5 largest toxic waste landfills in the United States are situated in predominantly black and Hispanic communities. The largest commercial hazardous waste landfill in the nation is in Emelle, Alabama, where blacks make up 78.9 percent of the population. In Scotlandville, Louisiana, the site of the fourth largest landfill, blacks make up 93 percent of the population. Similarly, in Kettleman City, California, the site of the fifth largest landfill, 78.4 percent of the residents are Hispanic people. The Reverend Benjamin F Chavis Jr, Executive Director of the commission told the Times, that he was particularly concerned about the health risk posed by these facilities, especially in the light of recent studies that have shown a high incidence of cancer, heart disease and birth defects among minorities.^84.

83. The New York Times, first two alineas of an editorial on April 15, 1987

84. The New York Times, from a report by Lena Williams