Environmental Racism and The Flint Water Crisis

In this case study, I look at Flint, Michigan’s state and city officials’ management in relation to their race and class bias during the Flint Water Crisis. Their bias, although covert, caused permanent harm and damage to the health of many of their residents. Their bias ultimately deprived several poor minority residents of a basic human right- water. Among several years, many residents were without water while others were poisoned by the corrosive Flint River that state officials claimed would be safe. How did race and class bias play out in state officials’ management of the Flint Water Crisis?

Drawing on 6 government-issued advisories, 50 emails made publicly available from the lab director of the Michigan’s Department of Environmental Quality, and historical research, I argue that the management of the crisis was handled through a white racial frame that negatively impacted a majority-black city with territorial stigma. Emergency management, biased decisions, and inaccessible resolutions emerged from the white racial frame which allowed environmental racism to dismantle the public health of an entire city.