I'd personally describe the seemingly inevitable placement of toxic byproduct industries in poor minority areas as economic bigotry, I'll concede that in the USofA that veers more toward black neighbourhoods in some states and accept that it also includes a lot of poor white areas also.

Presumably no one said “let’s build the data center where the black people live, mwahahah.” Instead, they said, “let’s build the data center where it’s cheap.” Where it’s cheap also happens to be where the black people live, and that’s a pattern. The pattern has historical roots, but it also affects modern communities. The academic quoted in the article is likely highlighting this point, which probably to them seems obvious, given they are steeped in the field.