Expert: The NAACP is Fighting to Keep Black Communities From Becoming AI’s Collateral Damage

The artificial intelligence boom is being sold as a vision of the future. But for Black communities living beside the power plants and gas turbines fueling data centers, the costs could outweigh the benefits. As tech companies race to build the infrastructure needed to power AI, many are concerned that Black people will ultimately pay for the revolution. The Root spoke to Abre’ Conner, director of the NAACP’s Center for Environmental and Climate Justice, who stressed that communities already burdened by generations of industrial pollution risk bearing the environmental costs of progress while others reap the rewards.

“The fight for environmental and climate issues has always been a political one. It has always been about who owns the resources and who’s able to control those resources,” Conner told The Root in an exclusive interview. “We cannot remove the inextricable line of the political landscape to environmental and climate decisions that have been thrust upon our communities for decades and centuries at this point.”

The scale of the current data center boom raises the stakes. According to the NAACP, data centers account for 25% of Virginia’s energy consumption, while the state has approved 8,910 backup diesel generators for AI data centers. Nationally, data centers could consume as much as 12% of U.S. electricity by 2030. That’s why the nation’s oldest Black organization is asking the tough questions.

Through its Stop Dirty Data Centers campaign and Frontline Framework, the NAACP is demanding community-centered development and enforceable protections. For Conner, that transparency is critical.

RELATED: The Debate Over Data Centers Boils Over as Fight Erupts at Memphis City Council Meeting

“Transparency needs to be key,” she said, questioning why officials should sign nondisclosure agreements with developers if confidentiality is not legally required. Residents have concerns and, according to Conner, they deserve answers about decisions that could impact their communities for decades.

Those concerns have all culminated in the form of a lawsuit against Elon Musk’s xAI in Memphis. The NAACP is challenging xAI over methane gas turbines powering its data center, alleging violations of federal clean-air requirements. Conner said the company’s decision to operate without a Clean Air Act permit was “appalling.”

“You can’t do that when it comes to people’s health in our environment,” she told us about the tech industry’s move-fast-and-ask-for-forgiveness-later mentality. The technology may be new, but the issue of whose communities bear its costs is not.

Her solution? Hold politicians and AI companies accountable.

“Not only are we fighting a billionaire, who at some point was also a trillionaire during this case as well,” Conner said, referring to the NAACP’s lawsuit against Musk’s xAI.
”We’re also fighting the federal government, which is trying to step in and get rid of the case and expand their power to be able to intervene in cases for the sole purpose of not letting everyday people fight back against pollution in their communities.”

Voters have the power to make both Democrats and Republicans accountable at the ballot box. As the 2026 midterms approach, Corbin Trent, the executive director of A Fight Worth Having and former communications director for Rep. Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, emphasized that local elections can shape zoning, energy infrastructure and environmental protections just as profoundly as national policy.

“Data centers are destroying entire communities and Democrats are right to run on that,” he told The Root. “[President Donald] Trump and his billionaire tech bros are gonna see just how badly voters hate these data centers in just a few weeks when election results come in. Data centers serve them — not us working people.”

Like Conner, Trent noted the real-life consequences unregulated data centers have on American communities, insisting that instead of data centers, politicians should invest in working-class issues.

“We should be focusing on building a society that creates good-paying jobs – not takes them away. A society that invests in healthcare and rural hospitals and renewable energy that brings costs down,” he added. “Expand our rights and freedoms, not hand over more of our data and privacy to tech oligarchs.”

With just weeks until the Nov. 3 elections, Trent and Conner are raising questions about who shapes the political agenda and whose interests elected officials ultimately serve.

“What happens when our political landscape is only shaped by a few billionaires and the people who think that they’re supposed to speak for us without actually representing our interests?” Conner asked. “That no longer seems like the democracy that we all should be working towards moving forward.”