Interview by Andrea K. McDaniels
Existing neighborhoods broken apart by major highways. Rural areas that are internet deserts. Unreliable or fragmented public transportation systems. The Bipartisan Infrastructure Bill, signed by President Biden on November 15, 2021, provides funding to states to address all of these problems. And it has enormous potential to improve communities’ and individuals’ health, says Keshia M. Pollack Porter, PhD ’06, MPH, professor in Health Policy and Management and vice dean for faculty at the Bloomberg School.
In this Q&A, based on the January 10 episode of Public Health On Call, guest host Andrea McDaniels talks with Pollack Porter about the $1.2 trillion plan to rebuild America's infrastructure—and whether it can repair the impact of generations of biased policies that hurt Black and disadvantaged communities.
Let’s start by laying out the historical background. How have past infrastructure policies impacted disadvantaged minority communities?
I think we can look back to as early as the 1950s and how planners of our interstate highway systems routed some highways in this country directly—and sometimes purposefully—through Black and brown communities. In some instances, we know the government took homes by eminent domain. The impact of this has, I believe, left deep psychological scars and trauma on neighborhoods that lost homes, that lost schools, that lost connection to community.
We know that transportation policy and investment have affected the development of Black and brown communities. There's a hope that what comes from the infrastructure bill will rectify these historical inequities, but it's going to be a challenge.
What weaknesses do you see in the law as far as ensuring inequity?
The big question everybody has is about implementation: How will that money be distributed? Will it be distributed in a way that addresses the racial inequities that are built into our transportation system and our infrastructure? That's the question, and without a clear answer, I think that's why there's been a lot of criticism.
One thing people have said is that the states will make a lot of decisions on who gets the funding. What other things do you see that might concern people?
When we look at the law, the language is not very specific because of federalism. We leave a lot to the states, and states will then distribute the dollars to communities.
There’s a question of whether states that contributed to these inequities can be trusted to make decisions to right those wrongs. Will communities that have been marginalized will now be prioritized for funding? That's a real question.
What we're seeing is people naming this as a problem. We see people advocating for resources to get to communities that have not been prioritized for investment. I think by holding our leaders accountable, we can ensure more equitable investments.
Are there other things the Biden administration could do to address these inequities moving forward?
Absolutely. There are ways to pass regulations to say that the dollars flowing from the federal government have to be allocated in a way that gets to communities that have not been prioritized for investment. Another way is, importantly, naming historical trauma and the structural racism that has gotten us to where this is even an issue. It’s critical to recognize the important role of transportation policy and inequities in our transportation system. We have to name it. We have to be committed to dismantling it. And then I do think we can try to guide those resources where they need to go, particularly to communities of color.
We're still seeing communities affected today. The Transportation Department actually invoked the Civil Rights Act to halt a highway project in Houston because there was concern about it going through a neighborhood. But can the federal government step in on every incident? Is that one of the weaknesses we could see?
That's a really important question. We can't rely on the federal government to intervene in every construction project where major highways cut through neighborhoods, forcing many residents to move. And I think that is really putting a bandaid on an issue that requires a lot more assistance.
We have to be proactive. There are ways for us to think intentionally about how we move forward with equitable investments before shovels hit the ground.
There are tools like racial equity impact assessments, where you can do an assessment of how those infrastructure dollars are going to impact communities, and how it will exacerbate or mitigate racial inequities. If we use tools like that to guide implementation, we can ensure that the dollars are being invested in ways that are not going to exacerbate racial inequities.
If we're doing that proactively, we won't have to rely on the federal government to invoke the Civil Rights Acts in order to rectify these wrongs.
