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Racism is not just a set of discriminatory actions; racism (and racial capitalism) is hardwired into very #infrastructures of our daily lives, shaping who breezes through life with clean, potable water and who lives without ‘universal’ public services. A thread.
In the Annals of @theAAG, @shiloh_deitz and I explore domestic water provision in the USA and expose its racialized, classed, and political nature. Yep, we do the entire country. We run the @ipums numbers. We make the maps. We bring the facts. tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.10…
Myth: Public water service is 100% universal in the USA. Fact: Nearly 1.5 million occupied households the US lack complete plumbing (water + sewerage) in their homes. That’s equivalent to the nation’s fifth largest city. A city of the plumbing poor. #waterinsecurity
Myth: Most people without complete plumbing live in rural areas. Fact: 73% of households without networked water service are located in metropolitan areas, including many of our wealthiest cities, like San Francisco, New York, and Los Angeles.
Myth: Water poverty in the USA is a trailer park problem. Fact: Just 14% of households without complete plumbing are ‘trailers’ or mobile homes.
Myth: America is a meritocracy, offering equality and justice to all. Fact: Across all households, accounting for income + housing type, Native American households are 3.7 times more likely to lack piped water service; Black and Hispanic households are 1.2 x more likely.
“This article begins to map the failure of public policy and local state institutions—what Bakker calls ‘governance failure’ and what Pulido et al theorize as the ‘neoliberal racial state’—to provide equal life opportunity in the United States.”
We introduce #plumbingpoverty as a tool to examine the intersectional nature of infrastructure, space, and social inequality. We run models and make numbers talk to theory. And we map the hell out of #waterinsecurity in the global North.
Big thanks and praise to @shiloh_deitz, a brilliant young scholar and generous collaborator who makes #datascience work for #socialjustice.
And while I’m doling shout-outs like the #WuTangClan, thanks to @nikheynen + two reviewers; to Jason Jurjevich, Amy Lobben, Olivia Molden, Kate Shields, @GinartLou, and @FionaDeLosRios for A+ comments; to @ianshawz for dusting me off + setting me straight
Thanks to @ipums and @ipumsi for maintaining a brilliant data set. High praise and love to the @HWISE_RCN + @uogeog communities. And finally, thanks, @kclgeography, for taking a chance on me.
