Flint: An American Failure

Abstract

FLINT'S WATER AND THE AmERICAN URbAN TRAgEDY By Anna Clark New York (NY): Metropolitan Books, 2018 320 pp., $30.00 The story of Flint-the Michigan city in which people were harmed by drinking water that contained lead and lethal bacteria-is a warning to all struggling US communities that confront disinvestment, declining population, excessive financial focus, incompetent leadership, nontransparent government, and racism. According to The Poisoned City, "by 2017 52 percent of African Americans in Michigan were being governed by an appointed Emergency Manager"-in essence, their votes in local elections were irrelevant- whereas only 2 percent of white residents were so disenfranchised. When she called the Genesee County Health Department's Childhood Lead Poisoning Prevention Program (a statewide initiative) to report high levels of lead in the water, she was told that water was not their responsibility. When she was finally given a copy of a one-page document, it seemed to show no increase in Flint children's blood lead levels.