Fighting to Breathe: Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of Youth Activism in Baltimore

266 Pages·2022·16.441 MB·English

by  Nicole Fabricant

Fighting to Breathe
California SerieS in PubliC anthroPology
The California Series in Public Anthropology emphasizes the anthropolo-
gist’s role as an engaged intellectual. It continues anthropology’s commitment
to being an ethnographic witness, to describing, in human terms, how life is
lived beyond the borders of many readers’ experiences. But it also adds a com-
mitment, through ethnography, to reframing the terms of public debate—
transforming received, accepted understandings of social issues with new
insights, new framings.
Series Editor: Ieva Jusionyte (Harvard University)
Founding Editor: Robert Borofsky (Hawaii Pacific University)
Advisory Board: Catherine Besteman (Colby College),
Philippe Bourgois (UCLA), Jason De León (UCLA),
Laurence Ralph (Princeton University), and
Nancy Scheper- Hughes (UC Berkeley)
Fighting to Breathe
Race, Toxicity, and the Rise of
Youth Activism in Baltimore
Nicole Fabricant
univerSity of California PreSS
University of California Press
Oakland, California
© 2023 by Nicole Fabricant
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data
Names: Fabricant, Nicole, author.
Title: Fighting to breathe : race, toxicity, and the rise of youth activism in Baltimore / Nicole
Fabricant.
Other titles: California series in public anthropology ; 54.
Description: Oakland, California : University of California Press, [2023] | Series: California
series in public anthropology ; [vol 54] | Includes bibliographical references and index.
Identifiers: lCCn 2022022528 (print) | lCCn 2022022529 (ebook) | iSbn 9780520379312 (cloth) |
iSbn 9780520379329 (paperback) | iSbn 9780520976627 (epub)
Subjects: LCSH: Air—Pollution—Social aspects—Maryland—Baltimore. | Youth
movements—Maryland—Baltimore—21st century.
Classification: lCC td883.5.m32 b35 2023 (print) | lCC td883.5.m32 (ebook) |
ddC 363.739/2097526—dc23/eng/20220812
LC record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022528
LC ebook record available at https://lccn.loc.gov/2022022529
Manufactured in the United States of America
31 30 29 28 27 26 25 24 23 22
10 9 8 7 6 5 4 3 2 1
I dedicate this book to two freedom fighters:
Michael Fabricant (my father) and
Marleny Soleto de Arauz (my mother-in-law).

ContentS
List of Illustrations ix
List of Characters xi
Foreword xv
Preface xix
Acknowledgments xxi
Introduction
1
1. Failed Development on Baltimore’s Toxic Periphery: A History
21
2. Free Your Voice: An Origin Story
47
3. Fighting the Nation’s Largest Trash- to- Energy Incinerator
71
4. “Whose Land? Our Land!”: Land Trusts as Fair Development
102
5. Compost! Learn So We Don’t Have to Burn:
Zero Waste Is Our Future
129
Conclusion
153
Postscript: A Letter of Confession to the Activist Scholar 163
Notes 175
References 193
Index 219
illuStrationS
maPS
1. The Black Butterfly of East and West Baltimore and the gentrified
White L 4
2. The geographic areas considered part of the South Baltimore
Peninsula 6
3. Industrial pollution sources around Baltimore 25
figureS
1. A worker resting during lunch hour at the Bethlehem-Fairfield
Shipyards 38
2. Workers building the SS Frederick Douglass at the Bethlehem-
Fairfield Shipyards 39
3. Last house standing in Fairfield 44
4. Massive CSX coal pier 48
5. Toxic tour with Dante Swinton, Energy Justice 92
6. Protestors gathered outside MDE headquarters 95
ix
x / Illustrations
7. A homeless resident from Hazel Street Homes, which burned
down in 2018 114
8. Protest for housing justice in McElderry Park 120
9. Community residents building the stage on the South Baltimore
Community Land Trust lot 124
10. First passive house of South Baltimore Community Land
Trust rendered by architects from The Neighborhood Design
Center 126
11. BRESCO burning trash 131
12. Example of “black gold” made by the Baltimore Compost
Collective 135
13 and 14. Protestors at the April 2020 Earth Day die- in in front
of BRESCO 144