Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr., president and CEO of the Hip Hop Caucus, has spent more than two decades advocating for environmental justice in Black communities.
Featured in the Netflix documentary “The Plastic Detox,” Yearwood argues that microplastics and the petrochemical industry have become civil rights issues because Black communities disproportionately bear the health and environmental costs.
In this edited interview, he explains why plastic pollution matters, why he considers it an environmental justice issue, and what people can do to reduce their exposure.
Word In Black: Why should Black communities care about microplastics?
Rev. Lennox Yearwood Jr.: It’s simple: stop plastics — particularly as they are impacting our community. For too long, our community has been seen as the path of least resistance. Companies have been looking to put things in our communities that they wouldn’t put anywhere else.
Plastics come from fossil fuels, from oil and gas, and these facilities are being placed specifically in Black communities, causing tremendous pain through toxic exposure.
I’m from Louisiana. There’s an 85-mile stretch between Baton Rouge and New Orleans called Cancer Alley. It got that name because so many petrochemical facilities have been placed there to make plastics, and the result is some of the highest cancer rates in the country — particularly affecting Black people in that community. The fact that a business plan exists that amounts to a death sentence for our communities means we have to do everything we can to stop it.
WIB: How are plastics affecting people’s health?
Yearwood: We figured it would be tough for people to understand petrochemicals. They may understand plastics, though, which is why we were part of “The Plastic Detox.” The film is about how plastic is affecting your life.
Let me be very clear: this isn’t about some faraway person who doesn’t live near you. The plastic in your kitchen, the plastic in your house that is breaking down — we are consuming roughly a credit card’s worth of plastic every single week. That’s the amount of plastic going into our bodies through everyday exposure as plastic breaks down around us.
If you have plastic cups, utensils, laundry packets or takeout containers in your home, that has a huge impact. The film shows how that affects everything from sleep and asthma to reproduction. We followed families who agreed to be tested. We went into their homes, took urine and blood samples, removed the plastic and tracked what happened. According to the documentary, participants reported sleeping better, losing weight and experiencing less brain fog. In some cases, people who had struggled with infertility were able to have children.
Another key part of this story is that women — and Black women in particular — are on the front lines and fence lines of the environmental justice movement. They are literally staying home and fighting back against corporations.
We’re not saying get rid of every use of plastic. There are important medical and industrial uses, from heart stents to aerospace. What we’re saying is that the fossil fuel industry is trying to maintain its margins by creating a gluttony of plastic that we simply don’t need, and that excess is what’s harming us.
WIB: How can people reduce their exposure to plastics?
Yearwood: Step one is what you’re doing right now: engaging with journalism and storytelling that tells these stories. We appreciate Black media especially, which has been critical for covering issues that mainstream outlets ignored for too long.
Step two is the documentary. At Hip Hop Caucus, we’ve come to understand that we’re fighting differently than our parents did. Our parents fought for equality in the 20th century. Today, when it comes to plastics, petrochemicals and environmental justice, we are fighting for existence in the 21st century. We have to tell the story differently — through documentaries, social media, town halls and every channel we have.
Even if you don’t live in Louisiana or other places with heavy concentrations of petrochemical facilities, it still affects you. Clean air and clean water are impacted everywhere. We now have detectable plastic in the placenta. If it’s this bad in 2026, imagine what people will ask 100 years from now. They’ll want to know what kind of world we chose to leave behind.
On a practical level, reduce the plastic in your home. Replace plastic cups and utensils where you can. Stop microwaving food in plastic containers. Be mindful of takeout packaging. And watch the film — it walks you through what to do, step by step.
WIB: Do you see connections between data centers and the petrochemical industry?
Yearwood: Absolutely. What’s striking is the similarity: these companies look at predominantly poor Black communities and see them as the path of least resistance. They believe these communities can’t defend themselves. So they place the worst of the worst — petrochemical plants, data centers and pipelines — in those neighborhoods, destroying not only people’s current lives but their children’s futures.
Data centers consume enormous amounts of water, and petrochemical facilities pollute the air. The cumulative burden falls on communities that have historically had the least political power.
Our parents fought for equality in the 20th century, and we are still fighting for that. But now, because of petrochemical facilities and other environmental threats, we are also fighting for existence itself.
The babies born today deserve blue skies, clean water and healthy communities. Our job, like our parents before us, is to fight for their freedom to live well.
This article originally appeared here.