Dr. Elizabeth (Libby) McClure, Assistant Professor, Department of Epidemiology at UNC
Last week I talked with someone working in one of the many care hubs that community organizations and mutual aid groups have formed in Western North Carolina following Hurricane Helene. I hung up the call feeling completely useless and without the skills and wisdom to help address urgent and grave needs. I’m a community-engaged researcher, and my academic training is in epidemiology. I’m incredibly lucky to have been one of Steve Wing’s students and (through him) a longtime partner and mentee of the North Carolina Environmental Justice Network and the Concerned Citizens of West Badin Community (CCWBC). Below I’m reflecting on some of the many limitations and problems with epidemiology research as a tool for environmental justice, and I’m finding some hope in the lessons that Steve Wing, Mama Naeema Muhammad, Mr. Saladin Muhammad, Ms. Valerie Tyson, Mr. Richard Leak, and Mr. Macy Hinson have taught me and continue to teach me in our work together.
LIMITATIONS AND PROBLEMS WITH HEALTH RESEARCH
- Government and scientific community don’t trust people
I see my role as a community-engaged researcher as primarily to elevate and add “credibility” (that is legible to state agencies) to the truths voiced by the CCWBC. I find it deeply unfortunate that my role is needed, as each of the Concerned Citizens’ stories should be enough to motivate change and hold Alcoa, the aluminum company that disproportionately burdened the Black community of West Badin with toxic work and environmental exposures, accountable. By only awarding credibility to privileged scientists, research generally doesn’t respond to community concerns. Traditional health research shifts the dialogue to focus on questions that are not generated by the community and studies that are conducted on the community rather than with it. It also absolves industry of responsibility for its harms to people.
- Research is used to justify harms
Research, even with the best intentions, is often extractive and harmful to community organizing. Health research, in particular, can be used to justify harms. Black scholar, Cedric Robinson, coined the term “racial capitalism” to describe race as a central operating logic of the political, economic, and social system of capitalism. In other words, racism against Black communities is the engine that allows capitalism to grow, not only in slavery, but even in modern industrialization.
Through my work with CCWBC, I have heard medical doctors endorse statements like “Black people have smaller lungs than white people” and company supervisors claim that “Black workers were hired into the smelter out of sharecropping because they were better able to stand the heat.” I think these exemplify racial capitalism because the function of the industry relies on maintaining fundamentally unequal races. In Badin, this was executed by pathologizing Blackness itself. In other settings, disparities are explained by behaviors, typically ignoring the historical, social and political structures giving rise to the disparities.
- Research forces impacted communities to prove harms
Research can also force impacted groups to prove their harms. Epidemiology has set up a structure in which people are asked to prove health impacts of clearly harmful practices with “objective” science. The epidemiology literature on aluminum smelting work doesn’t capture the full set of hazards, document race and gender disparities in exposures or health, or reflect the experiences described by former workers in West Badin. The government and scientific community also has never required Alcoa to prove that its practices are safe before allowing them to conduct their manufacturing.
LESSONS AND ANTIDOTES
- Listen
I find myself frequently returning to this text from Mr. Saladin Muhammad. A lot of my academic training taught us to generate research questions and ideas, when the questions and ideas should come from those most impacted. Our role as researchers is to show up and listen for opportunities to leverage our skills and resources to support community goals. I try to only go where I’m invited, to listen, and to work on research questions that are inspired by community concerns.
- Elevate stories and think critically
Mr. Richard Leak has told me how important it is for the Concerned Citizens to be able to tell their stories, and I think of health research as one way of elevating their stories. But, this has to be done thoughtfully. We have to push the scientific dialogue to value stories as data, and we have to intentionally and collaboratively design our projects in a way that maintains community ownership of this data. This also involves transparency about the power dynamics and potential pitfalls of collaborating with researchers and their affiliated institutions. I think this was some of the motivation behind Steve Wing’s emphasizing the importance of documentation (rather than research) in his trainings to community partners.
- Prioritize relationships over numbers
Ultimately, the relationships are much more important than the research, and all partners need to be treated as such. I’ve learned through our work how important it is to show up to meetings and gatherings, center community concerns in the research, acknowledge community member contributions first and foremost in presentations, and compensate collaborators for their time. Over the past ten years, we’ve had many outputs and accomplishments, but I think the best and most important outcome of my work with the CCWBC has been rekindling their connection to the NCEJN. From a pessimistic perspective, it’s hard to feel like the research piece is actually useful for the organizing, especially when Alcoa and the government have no obligation to respond to it. From a hopeful one, these bonds are the only thing I believe in. They give us the strength and care for each other that we need while government and institutions will not.
