On Flint
For me, the Flint, Michigan water crisis was the biggest heartbreak I have seen in quite some time. This is a perfect example of what racism/white supremacy looks like and what it is. It’s not a Klansperson marching up and down the street burning crosses. It’s not a skinhead calling you n*gger. It’s not a police officer blowing your head off because you are Black. This is the government poisoning its citizens.
The fact that no one in Michigan Governor Rick Snyder’s cabinet has been brought up on charges and/or is in prison is amazing. The fact that this was not a prominent issue during the 2016 Presidential campaign is amazing. The fact that Barack Obama has tiptoed around this issue is amazing. This is water! It is life. Scientists are constantly looking for water on other planets because that means life exists there.
Can you imagine your water supply being poisoned? Water is something that I take for granted. Can you imagine people being forced to drink it? Please don’t tell me the government didn’t know anything about it, because they did. This is exactly what the United Nations talks about when they place sanctions on countries for human rights violations. The United States has no moral standing to ever, and I mean EVER try to discipline or criticize another country for the treatment of their people. Children in Flint are going to be growing up with possible deformities. Women are losing babies and kids are experiencing mental defects and this is all because the most basic necessity is poisoned.
I don’t understand why our President hasn’t pushed this issue? You know, I call Barack Obama a coward and this is a great reason why. The Flint water crisis should have been the number one issue his administration addressed. We have an entire city that is systematically being poisoned. As I listened to Galen Bingham and Dr. Lawrence Rasheed talk about this travesty earlier and they were 100 percent right about something else—this is also gentrification. Let’s push ‘em all out. There are very few economic possibilities in Flint. Michael Moore has chronicled Flint’s decline for years, and now we are seeing this extreme environmental racism and genocide happen and no one seems to be doing anything about it. Why is Governor Synder not serving time? Why is he still governing the state?
Can you imagine this happening in San Francisco? No. It will never happen. There is too much money and too many white people living there. However, it happens in a place like Flint where the population is predominately Black. Yes there are white people there, but I believe the government looks at them as “collateral damage.” They don’t really matter to the system.
The Flint water crisis is disgusting and breaks my heart. We must never forget about this. We must pressure President-Elect Trump for a solution.
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Photo credit: Getty Images
Why wasn’t the Flint, MI Mayor and city council brought up on charges?
Pressure President-elect Trump to do something about it? He probably considers everyone in Flint ‘losers’ because they’re too poor to deserve clean water.
Heartbreaking and appalling. Have been filtering drinking and shower water for years. I advise us all to do that. Plus we need to actively inform ourselves and be politically “vocal” about how our food supply is treated. Thank you for keeping focus for us all through your posted article.