COMMUNITY ANALYSIS

Community Analysis



Community Analysis

Demographics

The total African American population living in my community is 3.3 million. The other nine states in the top 10 were Florida, Texas, Georgia, California, North Carolina, Illinois, Maryland, Virginia and Ohio. 38 Percent of Mississippi's total population that was black in 2010. Mississippi led the nation in this category followed by Louisiana (33 percent), Georgia (32 percent), Maryland (31 percent), South Carolina (29 percent) and Alabama (27 percent).

84.3 Percent of the total population in Detroit, who identified as black, which is the highest percentage nationally among places with populations of 100,000 or more. It was followed by Jackson, Miss. (80.1 percent), Miami Gardens, Fla. (77.9 percent), Birmingham, Ala. (74.0 percent), Baltimore, (65.1 percent), Memphis, Tenn. (64.1 percent), New Orleans (61.2 percent), Flint, Mich. (59.5), Montgomery Ala. (57.4 percent) and Savannah, Ga. (56.7 percent).

Environmental issues

Global climate change looms as a major environmental justice issue of the 21st century. Climate change poses special environmental justice challenges for communities that are already overburdened with pollution and environmentally-related illnesses. As seen in Hurricane Katrina that hit the Gulf Coast, the environmental effects of climate change are real. The adverse impacts fall heaviest on the poor. This deadly pattern occurs disproportionately among African Americans and other people of color across the U.S. who are concentrated in urban centers, coastal regions, and areas with substandard air quality—including ground level ozone.

Mounting scientific evidence documents that human activities are altering the chemical composition of the atmosphere through the buildup of greenhouse gases—primarily carbon dioxide, methane, and nitrous oxide. Changing climates are expected to raise sea levels, alter precipitation and other weather conditions, harm fish and many types of ecosystems, and threaten human health with a . broad set of problems, including heat stress and heart failure, increased injuries and deaths from severe weather such as hurricanes; more respiratory problems from drought-driven air pollution; an increase in waterborne diseases including cholera, and increases vector-borne diseases including malaria and hantavirus; and mental health problems such as depression and post-traumatic stress.

Occupational health hazards

Blacks are more likely to be hurt by global warming than other Americans, according to a report issued Thursday. The report was authored by the Environmental Justice and Climate Change Initiative, a climate justice advocacy group, and Redefining Progress, a nonprofit policy institute. It detailed various aspects of climate change, such as air pollution and rising temperatures, which it said disproportionately affect blacks, minorities and low-income communities in terms of poor health and economic loss. Heat-related deaths among blacks occur at a 150 to 200 percent greater rate than for non-Hispanic whites, the report said. It also reported that asthma, which has a strong correlation to air pollution, affects blacks at a 36 percent higher rate of incidence than whites.

Resources available in the Community

The African American community has had to overcome immense odds in order to survive. Not only to survive but to persevere on a level that brings them continually upwards. The numbers of factors of opposition facing the community are generally the ...