Polluted Promises Summary

Section I: One of Laurie Abraham goals was to present an accurate reflection of what poor and chronically ill African Americans encounter when they do not have access to the best health care our society has to offer. She wanted to report the most accurate story of the impact that social policy had once it hit the street level operations. She also wanted to provide a qualitative description of the problems linked to the lack of access to care by deeply illustrating a deeper understanding of what it really meant to the poor when they lacked adequate access to care. Abraham wanted to provide criticism of our social policies such as Medicaid and Medicare and how they affect individuals such as the Barnes family. She also wanted to translate the

Both of these books are a socio-anthropological insight, which offers analyses of the people represented. They challenge common perceptions against the author’s findings throughout their books. Checker gives us detailed accounts to help us fully understand environmental injustice, and what can be done to combat it. She is hopeful that the readers will not only be inspired to change but to engage in some activism of their

She demonstrated the inaccuracies and restrictions that each individual program provided to individuals who were not always poor enough to have access to them. She also compared immunization rates among poor minorities in Chicago with immunization records in Third World nations, which illuminated the weaknesses and lack of effectiveness of preventive measures across our nation based on the daunting facts in the city of Chicago. Preventive health was the most severe thing she reported as more care and resources were provided to individuals in their deathbeds instead of simple proactive measures that could prevent diseases and reduce overall cost. Across each example she was able to demonstrate the four separate levels of inadequate health care that are major determinants of poor health for many African American