Talk:North Carolina PCB Protest, 1982

1. First, what does the article do well? Is there anything from your review that impressed you? Any turn of phrase that described the subject in a clear way?

You give a great overview of Reagan-era environmentalism and its shortcomings, and establishing the population statistics of Warren County. I also like the background you provide about other instances of unrest in Warren County in 1979, which is important in setting up the conflict of 1982.

2. What changes would you suggest the author apply to the article? Why would those changes be an improvement?

First, I think you could also have a more clear structure: background information, a cause/triggering event, a beginning of the protests, a climax where people took definitive action, an end/consequences for the protesters, and an aftermath for the people of Warren County. In this improved structure, I feel like you can provide a more complete timeline of the event, complete with leaders and organizations involved. When did the protesters meet in 1982; what specific days? Also, what happened in between the initial 1979 meeting and 1982? Additionally, was there a particular community group involved? If so, who lead that community group?

Your lead section (the section that goes before your article) is labeled as your background section, so you need to place the content that is currently under background directly above the "Background" subtitle. Also, in your lead section, you should also include what the outcome of the protest was (even if there was none, just arrests) and more concrete dates (rather than 1980s, provide the specific date(s) and year of the protests.

When you establish a clear background section (I would imagine that section would contain the information currently under your "Status Quo and Environmentalism" section), I think you could move the information about 1979 unrest there, since these instances of resistance occurred before the more official protests in 1982. The protests you are talking about were set up in 1979, so any information about 1979 should fall under your background section.

Another place to expand is in your background section about the 1980s. I think because you introduce the fact that Warren County's population was predominantly African American, you could definitely add some information about how Reagan era politics and policy directly impacted African American communities.

Under the protest section, I am curious as to what means of protest were used in 1982. Did the protesters occupy public space/property? Were the protests over the course of a few days or weeks, or was it just one day? Also, what happened after the protesters were arrested?

Last, you have good information so far, but you need to include references and shortened notes to give credit to your sources.

3. What's the most important thing the author could do to improve the article?

I think you need add some more details (potentially responding to some of the questions I asked above) and adjust the structure of the article to make the event appear in a more chronological order, as a series of unrest/protest with a clear background, a cause/triggering event, a beginning, an arc where people took action, an end/consequences, and an aftermath for the people of Warren County.

4. Did you notice anything about the article you reviewed that could be applicable to your own article?

I really like your overview of the political climate and agenda at the time of the protests, and I feel like I can do a better job addressing the politics of post-WWII Chicago in my Background section for my article.

Feel free to let me know if you have any questions! Coffmanse (talk) 17:42, 27 February 2020 (UTC)

Peer Review

1. I think you did a really good job choosing what information should be in the article. It doesn't feel like there's any irrelevant or extraneous facts. I also like the section "Status Quo and Environmentalism in the 1980s" because I think that's an important topic that would be easy to overlook. 2. First, I would say it would be important to add citations to your work. I also think it would be good for you to go through and link some terms in your page with other existing homes, like Warren County or North Carolina. I also think it would be good to expand on the information you have in the article and add more details. I'd also expand on some of the information in the article already, for example defining the acronyms like EPA and PCB. Other than that, I would just say a general spelling and grammar check would be helpful. 3. I think the expansion of information and the addition of citations would be the most important. 4. I still really like the section I mentioned before that explained the larger political climate, I'd like to add a section like that to my article and expand on my background section.McCuskerER (talk) 04:11, 28 February 2020 (UTC)

A Poor Peer Review

If anyone happens to read this, I know this article was a school project but the so-called "peer review" process only looked at cosmetic matters and completely failed to check the article for accuracy.

• One of the key players in the saga was Robert "Buck" Ward, but the article's original author made up the company "Buckward Transportation" (which in turn was spelled once as "Backward Transportation", which the peer reviewers did not notice). Even so, no such company of that name ever existed, as Ward was in the transformer business and contracted with independent trucking companies to haul his toxic waste away.
• The original author said that Ward and/or his non-existent transportation company operated the PCB dump in Afton, which is incorrect.
• The author's original version of the article stated with absolutely no evidence that Ward was "responsible" for the Love Canal disaster, which is not even remotely true. As anyone can tell from basic knowledge of Love Canal, that disaster was caused by the Hooker Chemical Company as far back as the 1940s. Ward was tangentially involved in transporting the area's toxic waste decades later.
• The author's original version of the article stated that the Afton PCB site violated the Toxic Substances Control Act (TSCA). No it didn't. Ward's original illegal dumping on roadsides was the TSCA violation. The use of an organized facility to process PCBs professionally was absolutely compliant with TSCA. The problem was that TSCA did not allow community involvement in where such a site was located; therefore the governor was able to select the Afton site due to a loophole or oversight in the way TSCA was written, and the local people were unable to resist the location selection. This is exactly what the protesters said during the protests, which can be detected by anyone who actually studies the protests.

It is a good thing I stumbled across this article and found its plentiful errors, because I have studied the environmental justice movement professionally. Here, the "peer review" that took place above failed. ---DOOMSDAYER520 (Talk|Contribs) 14:26, 12 June 2020 (UTC)

Wiki Education assignment: Protest and Police in US History

This article was the subject of a Wiki Education Foundation-supported course assignment, between 16 January 2024 and 30 April 2024. Further details are available on the course page. Student editor(s): Josiah-Kidd, Itssandres (article contribs).

— Assignment last updated by Taedayvion312 (talk) 21:27, 24 January 2024 (UTC)