"Several members of a federal environmental justice committee on Thursday sharply criticized a new White House website that shows which communities are deemed disadvantaged—and therefore in line for more federal dollars—because it excludes race as a factor in its calculations.

“There are some things that happen to us just because we are Black,” said Beverly Wright, founder and director of the Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, and a member of the White House Environmental Justice Advisory Council.

Wright said the website tool will “miss the mark completely if it doesn’t include race.”

Susana Almanza, director of People Organized in Defense of Earth and Her Resources, agreed, saying race has been used as a factor to discriminate against people of color for generations in the U.S., but “all of a sudden” it isn’t being used to support them."

Stephen Lee reports for Bloomberg Environment March 31, 2022. [2]