As a Latina immigrant who has spent years fighting for environmental justice in South Los Angeles, I know firsthand what it means to grow up breathing unhealthy air. In my neighborhood, the sound of an asthma inhaler is as common as a car alarm. You don’t need a scientific study to know that pollution hits communities of color the hardest—you just need to walk outside and breathe.
But the data confirms what we’ve always known: People of color in the U.S. are exposed to more dangerous particle pollution than white Americans from nearly every source—cars, industry, even the methane gas-burning appliances in our homes. In Los Angeles County, Black residents seek asthma-related emergency care nearly five times more often than white residents. That is not a coincidence. That’s environmental racism.
And now, the federal government is backing away from its responsibility. The Trump administration is not only rolling back clean air policies—it recently revoked an executive order directing agencies to reduce environmental burdens based on race and class. In this void of federal leadership, it’s up to us here in Southern California to act…