Half an hour ago the CNN news interviewer, a young black woman, interviewed the city's recently elected mayor, a somewhat older black woman.
The newsie very nearly badgered the mayor, repeatedly demanding whether she would call this an incident of "environmental racism," and also harping on the poverty of the town.
Flint is in no worse shape than many of the towns up and down the Ohio and Monongahela valleys that used to thrive on booming steel.
But those towns are and were mostly white, so nobody whined about racism and nobody much cared what was to happen to all those people whose good jobs were lost to foreign and non-union competition, just like the jobs in Flint.
O, apparently, has called the mayor to the White House to commiserate, and promised some form of federal assistance specifically relating to the water issue, I think.
It is believed there is no safe level of exposure to lead, but the harm done by small amounts is less than that done by large amounts.
The change of water supply in Flint increased the amount in tap water.
Significantly?
Unreasonably?
Maybe, but it's hard to be confident, given this has become part of the constant stream of racial complaint and blame that has characterized our politics for decades and only worsened under Obama, who has actually personally made it worse.
No comments:
Post a Comment