Toxic neglect

Environmental racism across nation triggers schoolwide teach-in

[caption id=”attachment_2783" align=”alignleft” width=”192"]

Laney College English Professor
Jackie Graves is one of the
organizers of the Laney College
Teach-In on May 5.[/caption]A teach-in is scheduled for the afternoon of On May 5 at Laney College. It will be both informative and a call to action for faculty, staff and students at Laney. The subject of the event is the crisis in Flint, Michigan and its toxic drinking water.

The teach-in committee of student leaders and the faculty union have invited a panel of educators to participate in a panel discussion, including leaders from the Women’s Economic Agenda Project (WEAP) and the Flint, Michigan Democracy Defense League Water Task Force.

Flint’s crisis reflects the breakdown of America’s cities. In Oakland we face similar problems, from the dearth in affordable to the predicament of our educational system.

The educational event is part of Laney College Access to Information initiative, which was designed to place our community at the forefront of informed action, the agency of a well-educated
community college.

The horrifying crisis in Flint reflects the problem with austerity and with the corporate decisions that have precluded the powers of our elected officials.

Claire McClinton is the featured speaker at the teach-in. McClinton is an ex-auto worker from Flint.

She will be talking about the crisis of toxic drinking water and its effects on the Flint community, what we should all know about the disaster and about what we can all learn from it. Also discussed will be how the people of Flint have dealt with the situation, the response of the Flint community to draw attention from the rest of the country, what we can learn about the disaster
and what is being done about it to help solve the problem.

Additional reporting contributed by Alison Stapp.