The Bay State Banner, September 2025
For much of Massachusetts’ history, polluting infrastructure has been pushed into communities of color, lower-income communities, and areas with less English proficiency — largely impacting those with less political clout to fight back. That’s why Roxbury lives with diesel fumes from the Nubian Square bus yard, and Lawrence still bears the toxic legacy of mercury-leeching incinerators.
“You have these things that people don’t want in their neighborhoods but it’s essential — they somehow get into our neighborhoods. That’s what environmental racism is,” said Dwaign Tyndal, executive director at Alternatives for Community and Environment, a Roxbury-based environmental justice nonprofit. Environmental racism is more than exposure to hazardous waste — it’s underscored by the ways communities of color are systemically marginalized in environmental decision-making, while also having less access to environmental benefits like clean air, safe water, and green space.
