Zainab Salejwala
TCCS ’19
“Something is wrong and nobody is listening…We’re fighting for social justice and reparations but we’re [also] sick…”
Using a faucet is a privilege. Sounds funny right? Maybe a little. What about pipes and faucets that aren’t orange-y brown that has clean water? Doubly-privileged?
On Thursday, February 8th, I attended a lecture called Flint Rising in the McCormick Lounge that overlooks the UMass Boston harbor. The sky turning soft pastels, the water unmoving heavily contrasted the harsh topic of the event- the water crisis in Flint, Michigan.
The problem started on March 2011 when there was a $25 million deficit. In 2014 the state was building a new pipeline to deliver water from Lake Huron but the city switched to Flint River, a river that is a non-drinkable water source and has been historically contaminated. Two activists who have been at the forefront of this issue are Nayyirah Shariff and Gina Luster. When the issue happened, Michigan passed an emergency law but never declared a state of emergency.
Both Nayyirah and Gina talked about how they started to notice the water changing colors to the way it smelt ranging from “tea, honey, dark liquor, dead body, straight bleach to trash.”
Gina would call the state and water systems, but they would keep telling her that it was probably just a “flush” where the water system is cleaned and it tastes a little chemically and bad for a few days. But as days turned into weeks and as weeks turned into months, the water didn’t improve. And it still hasn’t improved even today. This is how you dismiss a whole population.
Gina, 40, started losing weight, having broken teeth, fainting, and needing to walk with a cane. Nayyirah has seizures. In the middle of talking Gina paused, inhaled and let silence stretch out. And she explained, “Sorry, I need to catch my breath.”
Gina also mentioned how her daughter also gets rashes from the water.
Her daughter only knows of attending school with her backpack full of a day’s supply of water bottles and yellow caution tape or black trash bags wrapped around the water fountains. Nayyirah stressed, “How can you dismiss a whole population?”
To answer that question, Pulido (2016) states: “..[P]eople of Flint are so devalued… based on both their blackness and their surplus status… the devaluation of black bodies has been a central feature of global capitalism” (p. 1).
Gina again stressed, “What kind of message is my daughter getting when she sees those caution tapes?” Nayyirah mentioned that there is no tracking of health programs, no counseling and no curriculum or public health education in response to what is happening.
The water in Flint had extremely high levels of lead which can cause serious health problems. The government kept lying to its citizens and providing them with misinformation. Flint residents who decide to leave do not qualify for health services in other neighboring states. This is how you dismiss a whole population.
For instance, the government would tell residents to boil water which, in reality, makes the lead and other toxic substances more concentrated and harmful. This is how you dismiss a whole population.
The water facility that the city decided to utilize had “not been fully operational in almost 50 years, was understaffed, and some of the staff were undertrained it is not surprising that it was difficult to achieve effective treatment” (Masten, 2016, p.27). This is how you dismiss a whole population.
In Flint, there was also a community of people who only spoke Spanish but the government refused to translate fliers about the dangers of their water supply. This is how you dismiss a whole population.
The situation in Flint reminds me of the Dakota Access Pipeline. Both situations in Flint and North Dakota are about environmental injustice heavily tied to racism, capitalism, hegemony of english, the privatization and access to resources. Both these crises “require attention to the past and how wealth, power, and poverty have historically been created” (Pulido, 2016, p.4). Water is a human right and you should not be able to profile of it.
I can’t believe how the poisoning of the public water supply in Flint has continued for so many years.
Nayyirah and Gina are still fighting for justice. The city is going to stop giving out free water at the end of the month (February 2018) and I hope that, individually and as a program, we are able to take action and help the citizens of Flint, MI.
When you wake up and brush your teeth. Unscrew the cap. Capitalism. When you want to rinse your vegetables under the sink for your salad. Racism. Hold up the two gallon water bottle with your sore arms that have not habituated to the weight of the water although you have been doing this for years now. Lead. Legionnaires. Or brew tea in the afternoon. “Tea… Honey… Dark Liquor…”. Broken promises by the government. Break the seal. When you want to bathe and fill up the tub. Listen to the plastic bend and make guttural sounds. Look at the faucet which is a constant reminder of what should be but isn’t. Bottle by bottle. Drop by drop. Next time you drink clean water, think of Flint, Michigan.
References:
Susan J. Masten. Simon H. Davies. Shawn P. McElmurry. (2017). Flint Water Crisis: What Happened and Why?”Journal American Water Works Association. Vol. 108 No. 12, p. 22.
Pulido,L. (2016). Flint, Environmental Racism, and Racial Capitalism, Capitalism Nature Socialism, 27:3, 1-16, DOI: 10.1080/10455752.2016.1213013