In Flint, Michigan, 102,000 people have been poisoned by contaminated drinking water. Nine thousand of those people are children under the age of 6, according to an article by activist and Michigan resident Michael Moore in The Huffington Post. This is an issue that has been brewing for years, but it is just now getting the media attention and support it deserves.
For those who aren’t aware, this is yet another story of the tragedy that is the under-valuing of lives. To give background on the issue, in an effort to save money, the Michigan state government decided to switch Flint’s freshwater drinking supply from Lake Huron to the toxic Flint River. This happened almost two years ago in April 2014. Residents began complaining about the smell, taste and color of the water almost immediately.
It became apparent that there were major issues with the safety of the drinking water, yet government officials were excruciatingly slow in responding, and even chose to cover up the issues at hand. The governor of Michigan, Rick Snyder, waited to declare a state of emergency until Jan. 5 of this year, and didn’t call on the National Guard to help distribute water until a week later.
So why did the government wait this long to respond? Many, including the new mayor of Flint, Karen Weaver, believe it is because the people of Flint carry less priority in Congress due to their race and socioeconomic status.
More than 40 percent of Flint’s residents live in poverty, with the majority of those people being African-American, according to The Washington Post. Compared to the rest of Michigan, their houses are valued at about a third of the costs of other houses in the area and their income is half of the state’s average.
Far too often in the United States, the problems of minority communities are not addressed in a timely or serious matter. The most notable comparison to this situation is how former President George W. Bush responded to Hurricane Katrina. Snyder even recently admitted to this situation being “his Katrina” — a complete failure of leadership and disregard of human life on his part.
But what makes this even worse and harder for me to wrap my head around is the fact that Hurricane Katrina was a natural disaster. President Bush couldn’t reverse or stop the effect of Katrina, it was going to run its course no matter what. His biggest issue was how he responded.
However, the crisis in Flint is completely government-created and could have been stopped. There was no need to switch the fresh water supply for Flint, other than to provide tax breaks for the rich. Was a small cut on taxes really worth the irreversible health conditions an entire city now has?
Elon University students seem to be engaging in more conversations about race relations in our country, yet there is a lot to be said about how race intersects with poverty and wealth distribution, as well as how the government perpetuates institutional racism. To echo what Hillary Clinton said in the last Democratic debate, if this had happened in the richer, predominantly white suburbs of Detroit, the issue would’ve been fixed within a matter of weeks.
As college students, especially with an upcoming election, we have a much larger voice than we think. Not only do we need to be engaging in conversations about privilege within our community, we need to be relating it to events occurring in the larger world around us and how we can act.
What’s happening in Flint isn’t as simple as race and poor leadership. It is a part of the much larger issue of human rights that has been afflicting our country for decades. With the elections coming up so soon, it is imperative that Elon students are paying attention to issues like this, and using this knowledge and electoral power to help to create change in our nation.