"If we talk about the environment, for example, we have to talk about environmental racism - about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica"
About this Quote
The most effective part is the juxtaposition: South Central Los Angeles versus Santa Monica. These aren’t distant regions with different climates; they’re neighboring worlds separated by policy, wealth, and political attention. By choosing two iconic place names, he turns inequality into a map you can picture instantly: ports, freeways, refineries, warehouses, policing of space, and the long history of pushing risk toward people with less power to refuse it. “We have to talk about” functions like an ultimatum. It’s not moral persuasion so much as boundary-setting: any environmental conversation that skips race is, by implication, incomplete and dishonest.
The statistic about lung capacity lands as a visceral metric. It reframes “pollution” from a vague nuisance into stolen health and curtailed futures, especially for children who didn’t choose their exposure. Coming from an actor-activist, the rhetoric is plainspoken and scene-based: he stages an injustice the way a film does, with a stark contrast shot that makes denial harder to maintain.
Quote Details
| Topic | Equality |
|---|---|
| Source | Help us find the source |
| Cite |
Citation Formats
APA Style (7th ed.)
Glover, Danny. (2026, January 17). If we talk about the environment, for example, we have to talk about environmental racism - about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica. FixQuotes. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-talk-about-the-environment-for-example-we-72753/
Chicago Style
Glover, Danny. "If we talk about the environment, for example, we have to talk about environmental racism - about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica." FixQuotes. January 17, 2026. https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-talk-about-the-environment-for-example-we-72753/.
MLA Style (9th ed.)
"If we talk about the environment, for example, we have to talk about environmental racism - about the fact that kids in South Central Los Angeles have a third of the lung capacity of kids in Santa Monica." FixQuotes, 17 Jan. 2026, https://fixquotes.com/quotes/if-we-talk-about-the-environment-for-example-we-72753/. Accessed 12 Feb. 2026.




