This is how you create sacrifice zones (Part 1)
AI data centers and the 21st Century sacrifice zone
The term sacrifice zone comes from the Environmental Justice movement. It is rooted in the US practice of redlining. After openly enslaving people became a legally dubious practice, folks in power had to find a new way to legally codify the inferior position of black citizens. Which meant finding an easily scalable way to isolate us and starve us of resources. This is how redlining was born. City leaders would take a map of their community and literally draw the boundaries of black neighborhoods with red marker. That red line served as the legal boundary for black existence. Black people weren’t allowed to live outside of those lines. Our children could not go to school outside of those lines. We could not own businesses outside of those lines. The line also marked where white investment ended. No loans were approved inside of those lines. No citywide infrastructure projects extended inside of those lines. And only the most predatory white businesses would provide services inside those lines.
This intentional overcrowding and underinvestment predictably lowered the housing and property values inside those lines. Which then allowed city leaders to locate nuisance uses inside of and surrounding those lines. Permanently altering the health trajectory of the communities that exist inside those lines. That is where the term sacrifice zone originated. Each new noxious use that was placed alongside others was considered to have little impact on overall community health since the existing pollution was already so high. Whereas those same uses would dramatically impact community health in the pristine areas outside of the redline. So, redlined communities were required to bear the full brunt of the entire community’s negative uses. What do a few more carcinogens matter to a neighborhood with an already overwhelmingly high level of cancer?
This is the pattern we know in the US. We’ve seen it play out over the entirety of the lived experience of every American who’s drawn breath on this land since the Great Migration. But the pattern is changing.
AI data centers are creating a new form of sacrifice zone. The process started under the radar (along with the builds), but it’s becoming more apparent now. But folks are culturally incapable of acknowledging it. I live in one of the most expensive sacrifice zones in the world. The Bay Area in California. Here, people in million dollar homes that abut data centers are posting articles about xAI in Memphis and shaking their heads, kawaisō. They aren’t being unreasonable, there’s good reason for this disconnect.
For over a century non-Black Americans have been able to pay their way out of sacrifice zones. We call it white flight. Work hard, stack your generational wealth, and move to the suburbs where the trees are abundant, the air is clean, and the noxious uses far away. And when the more-monied masses realizes they’d rather the hustle and bustle of the city, they can count on city leadership to increase taxes, remove rent stabilization, relocate noxious uses outside of the city center, and incentivize gentrification. Moving the redline out so the more-monied class can move back in. So has it been for all of our lived history. Until AI data centers.
This series will be a deep dive into the various ways that AI data centers are fundamentally changing the way sacrifice zones are created in the US. And how those changes are creating a new diversity of inequality in this country. I’m looking forward to taking a hard look at AI data center environmental impacts through a 21st century environmental justice lens. Sign up for a paid subscription to join me on this journey.