Did Race Play A Role in The Slow Response to The Flint Water Crisis?
We are four years removed from the devastating water crisis that affected over one hundred thousand residents in Flint, Michigan.
The city is still in the process of replacing the thousands of pipes that were contaminated with Lead, which was the main cause of concern. One has to ask, however, why this problem has not been completely fixed — and why it is taking so long to be fixed.
For residents of Flint, replacing water pipes is not enough to restore their trust in government officials, who reiterated that the water was perfectly safe to consume, despite the water appearing suspicious in color and smell.
Kenneth Glover, a resident of Flint, Michigan, (interviewed by the NY Times) is one of many who are weary of water services, as he “is so careful not to let the hand towel in his bathroom absorb a single drop [of the contaminated water]”. The water pipes in his household have been replaced for over a year, but Mr. Glover adamantly intends to be as meticulous as possible when it comes to any chore/sanitizing process.
Considering what has been mentioned above; Is there an underlying discriminatory factor in the painstakingly slow response by local and federal officials?
According to a Independent article, race was, indeed, a factor. The Mayor of Flint, Karen Weaver, did not shy away from suggesting that the response would not have been as slow as it was, had the community not been predominantly black. The Michigan Civil Rights Commission contends that the city’s actions that led to the contamination of drinking water, likely would not have been taken in cities like Ann Arbor or East Grand Rapids; cities that are predominantly white. They also emphasize that these decisions were merely the result of a “history of systemic racism” that was at the core of the foundation of Flint — likely a strategic rhetoric to not lay the blame entirely on the supposition that officials were deliberately slow in responding purely because of the collective race of the Flint community.
The entire situation is reminiscent of a similar incident that occurred in Bhopal, India. After corporate employees neglected to attend to the initial gas leakages, they were unable to contain the complete gas storage leaks, that took the lives of over 3,500 people, including women and children. To this day, no formal punishment has ever been given to those responsible, and no compensation has been given to any of the victims and their families.
It’s quite possible to argue that if this disaster had occurred in an Anglo-Saxon community, the response could have quite possibly been drastically different, but the question will always remain; is it a coincidence that such disastrous events garner slow responses when the community is made up of minorities?
https://www.magnumphotos.com/newsroom/exposure-portrait-corporate-crime-raghu-rai/
