More Than Roads and Bridges | TMI Briefs

For those of us who have been long disadvantaged in this nation through structural racism and discrimination, a sound infrastructure in every community is critical as a bulwark against the pernicious harms of discrimination and segregation. Having a solid infrastructure on which everyone stands helps counter structural inequities driven by segregation and longstanding differences in investments in communities based on race. Unequal investment is one of two types of inequities stemming from our historic and current infrastructure policies and practices. There is inequity directly via unequal and inadequate investments in Black communities, and there is also an indirect inequity because the harm from failing infrastructure is more severe for Black communities. Black communities are disproportionately low-wealth communities, and people with little wealth commonly lack the resources to protect themselves and to recover quickly from disasters resulting from infrastructure failures. When we fail to make adequate infrastructure investments, we subject African Americans to high risks of harm from infrastructure failures.