Beaumont, Texas
Beaumont, Texas, is located right off the Gulf of Mexico, as are most of the state's refineries. The small city of 113,000 is close to Spindletop, the world's first major oil field and one of the largest in American history. As Spindletop grew oil pumps, Beaumont grew refinery capacity.
Today, the town is home to ExxonMobil's Beaumont Refinery, the nation's sixth largest and capable of processing 334,500 barrels of oil per day. According to the Toxic Texas Tour website, about 45% percent of Beaumont residents are African-American, mostly poor and lack resources to fight against refinery spills, fires and explosions. The refinery is regularly listed as one of the nation's most polluting, and residents have reported headaches and other health problems for years. It's standard operating procedure for refineries to dump tons of chemicals into the storm drains ahead of hurricanes.
Update: This caption originally stated the African American community near Beaumont was 95%. That figure was incorrect.
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Comments
I have recently been diagnosed with 2 autoimmune diseases that have been triggered by environmental toxins. I wonder where they came from!? I am a 27 year old female that grew up in the West in of Beaumont , Texas my entire life & I never , ever felt good.. I've got Systemic Lupus (meaning , my immune system has been triggered by a toxin to attack my body's own organs, tissues, or whatever it wants.) I will get justice for the pain and suffering I have gone through and will continue to go.... More
Native Port Arthuran here: It's about poor folks, not Black folks. We're Black, White, Hispanic Vietnamese, you name it. What we have in common in these refinery neighborhoods is that we can't afford to live elsewhere. Our school systems are lousy; our libraries are lousy; generally, we see no way out of our mosquito-ridden, crime-filled neighborhoods. It's not much different from poverty elsewhere, except for the pollutants and the bugs.
While the city of Beaumont itself isn't 95% black, the area surrounding the refinery is. Since the article is about worst *neighborhoods* near refineries, it might be an understandable error.
And really - why is this particular error - a quite minor one to be sure - such a source of consternation for commenters? Can they not refute any of the other facts in the article? Were they directed here by some other blog or something?
Thank you for cleaning up your own toxic spill (the demographic error). But what does ethnicity have to do with anything? Generalizations abound in this piece. And Beaumont isn't exactly a garden spot, but it's far nicer and less industrialized than poor Port Arthur down the road.
Awful, awful article. Specifically relating to everything mentioned about Beaumont and it's surrounding areas. It's almost like the writer is a Triangle native and hates the place with a passion. Beaumont is hardly "95% black", which has been mentioned before, and certainly not "mostly poor". Beaumont, Port Arthur, Port Neches, Groves, and Nederland residents are not the sickly knocking-on-deaths-door people they're made out to be in this piece. Growing up in the area I couldn't wait to.... More
This entire article is garbage. Apparently its ok to make up facts to further your own ideological agenda. It's amazing what passes for journalism these days.
"Today, the town is home to ExxonMobil's Beaumont Refinery, the nation's sixth largest and capable of processing 334,500 barrels of oil per day. [b]About 95 percent of Beaumont residents are African-American[/b], mostly poor and lack resources to fight against refinery spills, fires and explosions. The refinery is regularly listed as one of the nation's most polluting, and residents have reported headaches and other health problems for years. [b]It's standard operating procedure for.... More
I live right outside of Beaumont, where the heck did you attain your demographic information? From personal experience I thought the claim that 95% of the population is African American sounded quite off. After looking up the 2000 Census I've found that only 45% of Beaumont's population is African American. Where is 95% coming from?
Please check your facts before publishing. The following is from Wikipedia and directly contradicts your statements:
The racial makeup of the city was 46.39% Caucasian, 45.85% African American, 0.24% Native American, 2.48% Asian, 0.04% Pacific Islander, 3.55% from other races, and 1.45% from two or more races.
Hispanic or Latino of any race were 7.93% of the population.
The median income for a household in the city was $32,559, and the median income for a family was $40,825..... More
the last census shows that beaumont's black population is 45% of the total. the rest are caucasian and latino. nice job trying to be sensational.
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