By: Alice Rapacz & Cameron Garcia-Nelson

Environmental racism is a big problem in Minnesota. Environmental racism is when neighborhoods of color and indigenous neighborhoods are at a higher risk to environmental harm. These neighborhoods are at a 91% risk of above air pollution guidelines. There are many neighborhoods here in Minnesota that are affected like the Rondo neighborhood and the East Phillips neighborhood. The harmful pollution can come from factories, waste facilities, construction, and vehicles. White neighborhoods have much better health compared to neighborhoods of color and indigenous neighborhoods. The pollution causes people to have asthma-like symptoms and heart disease. Nitrogen dioxide is what pollutes the air and causes people to have these symptoms.

For my final capstone project in my Critical Ethnic Studies class, my partner and I decided to do our project on environmental racism because it is a very real and current issue that affects people all over Minnesota. For the project it contained our final product, a paper, and an evaluation of what we learned from our project and the class.

For our final project, we decided to do a website that would be able to inform Highland Park students, staff, and community about environmental racism. We did a lot of research learning about what environmental racism is, who is affected by it, how, and so much more. We read stories from people who suffered from the harmful pollutants in the air and how their health was at risk due to it. We learned about different forms of pollution and what areas they affect. We put all this information on our website so that people reading it would be informed. 

Here is the link to our final capstone website. There is some of the information above and so much more so that you can be educated on about environmental racism. We also included how you can help and make an impact on changing this issue.