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Poor Air Quality: An Example of Racist Policy Making

Foster Open Dialogue page

Activity: Recognizing How Social Institutions Support Racism  

Race and Ethnicity Sociology in Action book cover image

  • Time frame: 30 – 45 minutes
  • Setting: Online or face-to-face
  • Source: Chapter 4 (Learning Outcome: 4.3) from
    Race and Ethnicity: Sociology in Action,
    edited by: Kathleen Odell Korgen and Maxine P. Atkinson
  • Contributor(s): Kathleen Odell Korgen

Doing Sociology 4.3 Poor Air Quality: An Example of Racist Policy Making?

In this exercise, you will examine statistics on pollution and demographics as they relate to clean-air policies. San Bernardino County had the third worst air quality in the country in 2019. The air quality has deteriorated considerably over the past several years, leading to poorer health outcomes for its residents. According to the Los Angeles Times, smog regulators in Southern California set a goal to raise $1 billion a year until 2031 to pay for greener vehicles and equipment. So far, though, they have only raised 25% of the necessary funds. 

Review the demographics of San Bernardino provided in Table 4.1 below. Then answer the following questions:

  1. How do we know if there is a relationship between the demographics of the area and the air quality? 
  2. Why do you think the regulators are falling so short of their financial goal?

Table 4.1 Racial, Ethnic, and Immigrant Status of Residents of San Bernardino, California
(Source: Data USA 2019)

Race, Ethnicity, and Place of Birth

Percentage of San Bernardino Population

Born Outside the U.S.

24%

Latinx

64%

White Alone

15%

Black or African American

13%

Asian

4%

American Indian or Alaska Native

0.2%

Native Hawaiian or Other Pacific Islander

0.2%

Two or More Races

2.5%

Some Other Race

.17%

Note to Instructors: 

This exercise can be carried out online, in face-to-face classes of all sizes, as an out-of-class essay assignment, or as an informal writing assignment where students share or hand in their notes. If you conduct it in a large face-to-face class, you may want students to share their answers in groups and then randomly call on groups when you discuss their answers as a class. We used this url to find the news article: https://www.latimes.com/local/lanow/la-me-smog-southern-california-20190701-story.html.

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