During a recent house committee
hearing, Congresswoman Rashida
Tlaib decided to grill the CEOs
of the major banks in the United
States on the topic of pollution.
And how their investments in fossil
fuel companies leads to
pollution specifically,
in poor neighborhoods,
in poor parts of the country, and
in parts of the country that
by the nature of them being poor
tend to be communities of color.
Now, what was amazing about this
was just how easily she calls them
out on their ignorance on
the topic of environmental racism.
Watch.
>> I just want to ask one of
my one, yes or no.
Are you familiar
with the term environmental racism?
I'll start with Chase.
Are you familiar with environmental
racism?
>> I said vaguely, yes.
>> Vaguely, okay.
How about you, City group?
Miss Frazier >> The same that only
vaguely, I don't know the specific
definition of it.
>> That's fine.
And how about you Mr. Moore Gorman?
>> No, I'm not.
>> Morgan Stanley doesn't,
isn't familiar.
Okay, how about Bank of America,
you all familiar with the term
environmental racism?
>> Yeah, vaguely familiar, but
since, >> Yeah Wells Fargo, do you
know what environmental racism is,
yes or no?
>> I'm not familiar.
>> That's unfortunate.
How about you, Mr. Solomon,
Goldman Sachs, >> Vaguely familiar,
but not specifically.
>> I love that.
I mean, just to give you an idea of
what she's talking about and why
she's grilling bank CEOs about it.
The six CEOs at the hearing lead
financial institutions that
together have invested 1.1 trillion
with a T,
trillion in fossil fuels since
the 2015 Paris climate agreement.
And that's according to a recent
report from several
environmental groups,
entitled Banking on Climate Chaos.
Environmental racism is certainly
something that we need to talk
about more moving forward because,
the polluting activities of these
major companies and corporations.
Of course, disproportionately
impact poor communities,
communities of color.
Essentially communities that have
no power and aren't able to
aggressively fight back against
the behavior that's taking place.
>> Yeah, obviously as with anything
disastrous and catastrophic that
tends to happen in America,
poor working people, Black people,
indigenous people,
Latin people tend to suffer at
a disproportionate amount.
However, I kind of wish that they
wouldn't position this as
environmental racism because let's
be honest, Jamie Diamond doesn't
give a damn if Black people
are harmed by an investment
that his firm has made.
In fact, to him this thing,
that means I'm doing it right.
If I'm only harming Black people,
no, I'll have nobody to be against
this thing.
I wish they will position it
a little bit differently because
I'm sure viewers of TYT will
remember the Keystone pipeline.
And getting that blocked and
stopped in the coalition of people
who got involved as far
as the boots on the ground was as
diverse array of Americans and
Canadians quite frankly,
as has ever been seen.
It's like it's indigenous people
all the way up in North Dakota,
to farmers in Nebraska and
everything in between.
They banded together to stop this
thing and
that was environmental pollution.
People were like, man,
we don't want our drinking water to
permanently be compromised by this
thing that nobody actually needs.
Is just there for corporate greed.
So I do wish they would position it
a little bit differently because
let's face it, the sad reality is,
if you're the CEO of a firm like
JP Morgan, Chase, or Goldman Sachs,
and you add one Black or
Brown, or woman's face up on your
corporate board.
Everybody's going to pat you on
the butt and say what a good job
you doing to help the lives and
the plight Black, Brown and
indigenous people in this country.
When in reality is, your funding
stuff that are doing the opposite,
actually ruining
the lives of these people.
>> So I want to go to the next
video because.
Well, actually, before I do,
I agree with what you're saying and
and you're hitting at
something that I also wanted to
articulate about how.
Yeah, they don't really know much
about environmental racism or
what's happening in communities
that tend to be much poorer because
they're good.
We live in a country that actually,
really two different countries and
then they're living large.
They're not worried about pollution
or an oil refinery or some sort of
catastrophic environmental issue
where they're living at because
they're protected.
And they have the resources to
weather any storm, right?
In their minds.
I mean, obviously things can get so
bad that their money can't protect
them and we're quickly approaching
that phase.
But when it comes to our lawmakers
who can invest in individual stocks
and their investments typically
beat out the stock market,
which gives you an idea of just
how corrupt they are.
When it comes to CEOs of major
banks, they're not in any way
concerned about the things that
keep Americans up at night.
So, have they heard about
environmental racism?
Of course not.
They're not concerned about it,
it does not apply to them.
Let's go to the next video where
Tlaib gets a little more specific
about the issue.
>> Well, I want you all to know
environmental racism showed its
face in a deadly way during
the pandemic in my district, where
more of my Black neighbors died at
a higher rate from COVID than any
other community in Michigan.
Even though our Black population in
Michigan is less than 15%.
The pre-existing health conditions
that come from living in
the backyard of corporate
polluters financed by our banks.
When it comes to racial justice,
I see many of you having these
commitments to just diversify your
executive ranks.
Good, but I think the American
people really truly want to know
what about the actions that
are needed to invest in our
communities like mine, that you all
profited off of that left us with
more pollution, decay, and poverty?
You all should know and be familiar
with the term environmental racism.
Because for generations Black,
Brown, and indigenous communities
have seen the fossil fuel
corporations use your banks to
finance and construct oil and gas
refineries, petrochemical plants,
and pipeline projects.
These polluting projects
haven't been
built in wealthy neighborhoods.
>> I have to say,
oftentimes I'm a little critical of
progressive Democrats because they
love to flex muscle on Twitter or
even during these hearings, and
I want to see more action, right?
So, how about withholding your vote
as a bloc on must pass bills to
ensure that we get our priorities
included as provisions in
the legislation, all of that.
But at least at the very heart of
what we're seeing right now with
this wonderful exchange between
Tlaib and these corporate CEOs,
is that we're at least being
represented to some extent.
And it's so rare these days to see
it in Congress that whenever you do
see an exchange like that it makes
news, for a good reason.
Because finally, we're hearing what
actual working Americans have been
suffering from for a long time and
have not been represented by the
likes of Nancy Pelosi or certainly
not someone like Mitch McConnell,
a Republican whose number one
priority is to just continue
cutting taxes for the rich.
But just to give you a little more
context into what Congresswoman
Tlaib was talking about there.
She gave as example,
the Marathon Refinery, a 250-acre
oil processing facility and
tank farm near the Boynton
neighborhood of Detroit, which
has received 15 violation notices
from the Michigan Department of
Environment, Great Lakes, and
Energy for Pollution since 2013.
The area,
which includes more than two-dozen
industrial sites is 71% Black.
Also, Detroit is the 10th worst
metro area in the country when it
comes to asthma attacks for Black
children, which a 2017 report from
the NAACP and other groups said is
linked to oil and gas exposure.
So these are communities
that haven't been represented.
These are communities who have been
neglected, forgotten, and
Rashida Tlaib wants to raise
awareness about what her
constituents have been suffering.
But when she's raising awareness
about that was, she's really
speaking for or on behalf of so
many Americans across this country
that have been neglected by
our Congressional lawmakers.
>> Yeah, what I did like to because
again, I was not a fan of the way
that they racialized COVID-19.
Because again, people are taught
not to give a damn about the things
that affect only Black people,
only Mexican people,
only whatever marginalized group.
I like that she connected it to,
no, these people died at
a disproportionate rate because of
pollution that you guys put in
their neighborhood.
This isn't some genetic or
racial phenomenon.
It's like no, they happen to live
in the places that got polluted by
the corporate interests.
I love that she connected those two
things and made it plain for
everybody to understand.
And I just wish they would do that
more often and take it to the next
step further and
be like, look guys, they did that
in this neighborhood just now.
You know where you lived.
You know that there are people who
live in much better rich
neighborhoods than yours, and you
better know they'll never go there.
So they come into your town next.
I would hope that they will use the
fearmongering against the corporate
interest every now and again.
>> Well, you might actually
enjoy this next clip.
It's our final clip of this story.
And she has one final question for
these CEOs.
Let's watch.
>> 4217 in the neighborhood I
represent with Marathon there,
is the most polluted zip code in
the state of Michigan of majority
Black community.
So I want to ask you all one by
one.
Chase Bank, Mr. Diamond,
do you live near a refinery?
Yes or no,
do you live near oil refinery?
>> I do not.
>> How about you Miss Frazier?
Do you live near oil refinery?
>> No, I do not.
>> Mr. Gorman,
do you live near an oil refinery?
>> No.
>> Mr Moynihan,
am I saying it right,
from a Bank of America?
Do you live near a refinery?
>> I do not.
>> How about you, Mr. Sharp?
How about you, do you have Marathon
Oil Refinery in your backyard?
>> No, I don't >> How about you,
Mr. Solomon?
>> No, I don't.
>> So I need you all, all of you to
address racial equity.
What that means is understanding
environmental racism and
reversing decades of it and
halting the damage that you all
continue invest in.
>> My favorite part about that was,
first of all the question was
a great question because think that
shes hitting out what you were
referring to Was.
But the Bank of America's CEO where
she's like, hey you I don't know
how to pronounce your name.
[LAUGH] You know what that guy got
under his skin.
We know with these
corporate executives or
like Brian, hey, I don't know.
Do you live near oil refinery?
He looks super annoyed.
I loved it, so yeah, that
was great >> That's a trick we used
to use on the basketball court.
And whenever there was a white boy
on the court,
we'd be like white boy.
We knew his name was Tyler, but
we call them white boy, anyway.
That was a trick we used to use
back on the court back in the days,
back when I used to hoop [LAUGH]