Corporate Neglect, Educational Erasure, and Voting Myths:
How White Supremacy Fuels Ohio’s Political Battles
By: Vix Burgett-Prunty
Norfolk Southern’s $600 Million Disaster: Who Pays for Corporate Crimes?
The legal battle over who will cover the $600 million settlement for the East Palestine derailment (U.S. News, 2025) isn’t just about one company’s negligence, it’s about who our system prioritizes when disaster strikes.
Norfolk Southern, like most major corporations, is led by wealthy executives (overwhelmingly white and insulated from consequences) who externalize harm onto working-class communities, many of them white, but treated as disposable in the pursuit of profit.
Compare this to environmental crises in majority-Black or Latino areas (Flint’s water crisis, Cancer Alley): the pattern is racial capitalism (Cedric Robinson, 1983). While white rural towns may get more media sympathy, the system still protects capital over people of all races, just with varying degrees of visibility.
The trial’s outcome will reveal whether accountability exists for corporations—or if, once again, working people foot the bill while shareholders walk away unscathed. We already know the answer to this.
Ohio’s DEIA Ban: The Backlash Against Racial Progress
The bill to eliminate Diversity, Equity, Inclusion, and Accessibility programs in Ohio’s public colleges (U.S. News, 2025) isn’t just a political stunt, it’s a calculated move to recenter whiteness in education.
DEIA initiatives exist because universities have never been neutral. From legacy admissions (which favor wealthy, mostly white students) to campus policing that targets Black and Brown students, higher education has always upheld racial hierarchies. Banning DEIA doesn’t “restore fairness”—it enforces silence.
The backlash from students and faculty highlights a generational divide: younger, more diverse Americans recognize systemic inequity, while older, predominantly white lawmakers cling to a myth of “colorblind” meritocracy, a myth that has always benefited those already in power (Bonilla-Silva, 2006).
This isn’t just about college campuses. It’s about who controls knowledge, opportunity, and ultimately, the future.
The Noncitizen Voting Panic: A Weaponized Myth to Justify Suppression
Despite evidence that noncitizen voting in Ohio (and nationally) is exceedingly rare (News 5 Cleveland, 2025), conservative lawmakers continue pushing the narrative as a pretext for restrictive voting laws.
White supremacy thrives on manufactured crises. From 19th-century fears of “Irish voter fraud” to modern-day claims of “illegal voting,” the goal is the same: to shrink the electorate by targeting marginalized groups (Carol Anderson, One Person, No Vote, 2018).
Voter ID laws, like those championed in Ohio, disproportionately disenfranchise poor, elderly, Black, and Latino voters, people less likely to have easy access to birth certificates or passports.
The lie isn’t accidental. It’s a deliberate strategy. to maintain political power by defining who counts as a “real” American—and who gets excluded.
The Big Picture: White Supremacy as a System, Not Just a Symbol
These three stories, corporate impunity, educational erasure, and voter suppression, might seem disconnected, but they’re all tools of the same system:
Economic violence prioritizes profit over people, sacrificing working-class communities (of all races) to protect capital.
Cultural control ensures institutions (schools, media, government) reinforce dominant narratives, whiteness as default, dissent as threat.
Political exclusion keeps power concentrated by limiting who gets to participate in democracy.
The system doesn’t just harm Black, brown Indigenous and people of color, it also manipulates poor and working-class white people, offering them racial resentment and violence instead of healthcare, fair wages, or clean air.
Where Do We Go From Here?
If these patterns feel overwhelming, that’s because they’re designed to be. But resistance is growing, in labor movements, student protests, and voting rights activism. There is a grassroots anti-racism prohumanity movement being formed right now.
References
1. Anderson, C. (2018). One Person, No Vote: How Voter Suppression Is Destroying Our Democracy. Bloomsbury.
2. Bonilla-Silva, E. (2006). Racism Without Racists: Color-Blind Racism and the Persistence of Racial Inequality in America. Rowman & Littlefield.
3. Robinson, C. J. (1983). Black Marxism: The Making of the Black Radical Tradition. UNC Press.
4. U.S. News. (2025, March 30). Trial Will Determine Who Will Pay $600 Million Settlement in Disastrous Norfolk Southern Derailment.
5. U.S. News. (2025, March 28). A Bill Banning DEI in Ohio Public Colleges Is Opposed by Students, Teachers.
6. News 5 Cleveland. (2025). Noncitizen Voting Is Very Rare in Ohio and America.
For deeper analysis on how class and race intersect in these struggles, check out:
When Safety Isn’t a Given (https://60kandbelow.substack.com/p/when-safety-isnt-a-given?r=4zs2hy)
Follow EAGER Community #BeEAGER and learn how to organize at (http://www.joineager.com)
The fight isn’t just about calling out racism, it’s about dismantling the machinery that keeps it running.
