“Flint Water Crisis: Systematic Racism through the Lens of Flint”
Report of the Michigan Civil rights Commission
“While we almost universally recognize that racial discrimination is wrong, this consensus has not translated into decision-making or policies that reflect those values. What explains this dichotomy? Implicit bias refers to stereotypes or attitudes that operate without a person’s conscious awareness. Research confirms that individuals experience implicit bias against a broad range of groups that is often based on race, ethnicity, nationality, gender or social status. Multiple studies have established that every one of us has implicit biases and stereotypes, and that these biases unconsciously influence our decision-making, and often lead to inappropriate decisions regarding people who fall into these categories.
The City of Flint’s long history of segregation in housing and education also plays a role. Historically, Flint’s community of color was long relegated to substandard housing, education, and job opportunities. Initially, the segregation was a result of both private discrimination (restrictive covenants) and government policies (mortgage requirements, school district lines, etc.). Of course, much of this was made possible because American jurisprudence at the time was largely based upon the U.S. Supreme Court’s adoption of the “separate but equal” doctrine in Plessy v Fergusson.2
These policies built upon each other to such an extent that, if you were an African American or an immigrant from certain countries, it was almost impossible for you to buy a home outside a few neighborhoods designated for people of color, or to attend a school that wasn’t overcrowded, let alone one that would prepare you for college. Even industry was complicit: until the end of WWII, jobs for people of color were limited to janitorial positions or the stifling work within the foundries.
We also examine the systems, structures, policies and processes created during the past century that helped shape racialized outcomes in Flint. As Flint grew, many residents left the city for suburban life, but the remaining government policies and private restrictive covenants kept people of color confined to the same three or four neighborhoods within the city limits. By 1970, government policies had officially changed and the written restrictive covenants were expunged. But the legacy of discrimination remained. It has brought the City of Flint to where it now finds itself – with a majority of its residents being people of color, and their complaints, along with those of their white neighbors, largely ignored.
This brings us to the question: Would the Flint water crisis have been allowed to happen in Birmingham, Ann Arbor or East Grand Rapids? We believe the answer is no, and that the vestiges of segregation and discrimination found in Flint made it a unique target. The lack of political clout left the residents with nowhere to turn, no way to have their voices heard. This brings us to the final two areas covered by this report: Environmental Justice and the Emergency Manager Law.
Environmental Justice requires that all people and communities receive the equal protection of environmental and public health laws, and should have an equal and meaningful voice in decisions related to their environment. As the Governor’s Flint Water Advisory Task Force found, the Flint water crisis is an example of environmental injustice. The people of Flint did not enjoy the equal protection of environmental or public health laws, nor did they have a meaningful voice in the decisions leading up to the Flint Water Crisis. Many argue they had no voice.
We believe that if the State of Michigan had an environmental justice plan in place, this crisis could have been mitigated and maybe even prevented. We will never know. Equally, had the emergency manager law focused on the financial health of the city and the welfare of its residents, and not just on cost-cutting measures, and/or had it allowed for meaningful involvement of the community when it came to the very basic needs of life, clean water and clean air, this too could have served to mitigate or even prevent the water crisis.”
2 Plessy v. Ferguson, 163 US 537 (1896), was controlling until reversed by Brown v. Board of Education of Topeka, 347 U.S. 483 (1954).
