The residents of Flint, Michigan are currently experiencing political injustice, institutional racism, and environmental degradation. What is also horrifying about this situation is that this is a story that is not making headlines. Instead, the political officials in Flint are attempting to sweep the issue under the rug, which is exactly why we need to be informed as to what is going on.
So what is really going on in Flint, Michigan? According to the U.S. Census, the population in Flint is 57% black, with 41% of its residents living below the poverty line. In 2014, Flint declared that they were in a state of emergency due to financial troubles. According to the Michigan Emergency Manager Law, the governor is allowed to appoint unelected officials to take over during the state of emergency. However, this Michigan Emergency Manager Law disproportionately affects African Americans in communities just like Flint. 50% of African Americans in Michigan have lived in cities that were under the control of an emergency manager, while only 2% of white people in Michigan have lived under an emergency manager. This systematic political disempowerment of African Americans essentially takes away their right to vote for their officials and leaves them with emergency managers who do not know what is best for their community.
In fact, these emergency managers made the decisions that directly led to widespread health issues in Flint. The emergency managers took over Flint’s budget and decided that one way to cut costs was to switch the water supply from Lake Huron to the Flint River. However, residents have known for a long time that the Flint River is extremely contaminated. In fact, residents call the river the “General Motors’ sewer.” One resident noted that industrial chemicals, sewage, and road salt had been contaminating the river for years.
Soon after the switch, residents began noticing stomach pains, hair loss, and rashes. This past August, E. coli was found in the water. Currently, the water smells like sulfur and chlorine. When it comes out of the tap, it is yellow or rust colored. However, the largest problem is that the water is contaminated with toxic lead. This toxic lead is now poisoning the residents, and has a particularly devastating effect on the children in Flint.
Residents made their way to their government “officials” to complain about the toxic water. However, the residents were ignored. These unelected emergency managers acted in an extremely negligent – not to mention illegal – manner. When the managers went to test samples, they took a small amount of samples from the wrong places, using the wrong protocol. The protocol they used is known to underestimate the amount of lead in the water. Secondly, they even threw out two samples, which would have shown the disturbing quantities of the lead.
The story of Flint begs the question, would this type of environmental degradation and political injustice have happened in a predominantly white neighborhood? Would it have happened in a wealthy neighborhood? The answer is almost certainly no.