As we hit the eight-year anniversary of the Flint Water Crisis, one of the worst man-made public health disasters in U.S. history, it must be noted that the sin done to the people of Flint didn’t just start or end with the switch in our drinking water source. Revenue-sharing was cut drastically, impacting the level that city services were able to be maintained. Public safety, water quality and legacy costs all took a hit. Black cities in this situation were set up to fail.
We could start counting the offenses done to us with the toxic dumping that occurred for years in Flint. We could count the discriminatory policies and systems of racism that caused Flint’s Black residents to live in neighborhoods more favorable to social and environmental injustices. But as I hear the cries of the small mostly Black town in Mason, Tennessee, which was recently taken over by a GOP-led state government just as millions of dollars were to roll into the city’s coffers, I am reminded of the discriminatory state government takeover of the city of Flint that preceded the callous and deadly decisions that would soon follow.
Flint residents Sandra and Ricky Greene in the documentary FLINT
CargoJust three years prior to the Flint Water Crisis, in November of 2012, Michigan voters, the people, spoke by repealing Public Act 4, a strengthened version of an earlier Michigan Emergency Manager law. However, shocking many, a lame duck Republican-led legislature disregarded the voice of the people and passed a “new” law, Public Act 436, which retained the previously repealed emergency manager model, the third sin.
Under this unjust policy, Flint became the most notable casualty of this takeover model targeting Michigan’s mostly Black and low-income communities. In less than 18 months, in April of 2014, a state-appointed emergency manager would choose to balance Flint’s budget on the backs of the people by switching to a “less expensive” water source. Again, ignoring the voices of the people, deciding to draw Flint’s drinking water from a water source that had not been properly vetted/tested or treated and one that had been polluted for decades by industries in the area, the Flint River. This was after being on the Detroit Water and Sewage Department water supply system nearly 50 years. In an attempt to hurt Detroit (by taking away their largest customer), the people of Flint were poisoned and Detroit’s water system, its most valuable asset, was privatized.
This heartless act changed the chemistry of our water that flowed through the pipes which we drank from and forever the dynamics of our community as we knew it. It corroded our pipes and our plumbing systems and it eroded our trust in all levels of our government. Our water was not only laced with high levels of lead but the imbalance caused the depletion of disinfectant in our water system, causing water to become laced with high levels of iron, which proliferated growth of pathogenic microbes such as legionella bacteria. The Flint Water Crisis has impeded our ability to be a self-sufficient community. We lost population, tax base, businesses, city services, our water pipes, recreational entities, governmental capacity, and more. Above all, we lost hope and trust in a system that was supposed to protect us. The mental anguish of not knowing the long-term impact of the water crisis was and continues to be something that weighs heavily on the hearts and minds of Flint residents.
And as if the ignoring of our voices in taking over our government and switching our water source wasn’t enough, the state and federal government went on to ignore the cries of the people of Flint, the deaths, the rashes, the hair loss, the brown, smelly water for eighteen months. Those in charge with protecting the people of Flint had to be forced to admit that they were responsible for poisoning us.
Just as vile and disheartening, we have had to continue to fight for adequate resources to simply reconstruct our infrastructure at every step of the way. The media has portrayed us as asking for more than what we deserve and reducing this tragedy to a simple lead issue. First, lead is bad for anyone but what happened here in Flint was not just about lead-laced pipes. It was about being ignored and taken advantage of by our government and a series of cover-ups. We have been exploited by scientists who have said they were there to help us.
Furthermore, elected officials and the media suggest that Flint should be celebrating a settlement of $600 million. However, residents of Flint have watched as other class-action lawsuits, with far less victims who are not predominately Black or low-income, have had larger settlements which were more appropriate for the damages and suffering. And we continue to argue that this amount for many people, which will equate to $1,000 or less per person, does not come close to accounting for lives lost, stillborn babies, miscarriages, brain damage, physical and behavioral health issues, cognitive impairment, property damage, and mental and emotional trauma that this community has endured. Just as insulting, a misdemeanor for those responsible for the senseless lives lost and/or imperiled is not punishment commensurate to the crimes. As the cameras and attention to our crisis has waned, the pipe replacement program, which began under my administration in an act of faith, may be aborted without completing all the homes.
The people of Flint will not be silenced ever again. We will continue to use our voices not only to make sure that Flint is made whole but to prevent another Flint from happening in our country—or beyond.
“Flint” opens in select theaters on Friday, April 29. Dr. Karen Weaver will be participating in the premiere Q&A at the VILLAGE EAST SCREENING in New York on April 29 @ 7 p.m. ET.)" href="https://urldefense.com/v3/__https:/www.angelikafilmcenter.com/villageeast/film/flint-who-can-you-trust__;!!LsXw!UPyQ08f3nAE6tboxJ0J1pXHP9o6HXtXR6rAiezctRoBSTaOny_HUFKQv4wuvh24IS9Ov_eJJ7clUZtzf8mWOCdfNoZMx5xbLI9x6$">VILLAGE EAST SCREENING in New York on April 29 @ 7 p.m. ET.
