Systemic racism is the cause of the dangerous water in Flint. We just talked about this a week ago.
Senior Scholastic Quiz: Who does the author appear to blame? What is his evidence? What does the word "systemic" imply about agency and culpability?
Deconstructionist version of Senior Scholastic quiz: Who is not mentioned here? Do they possibly bear some blame? What liberties does the word "systemic" allow?
4 comments:
"Systemic racism" would appear to be whites being unconcerned about black people. WRT the water system, are there not white people also drinking that water? Are all the government employees (and elected folks) white? Were they "in power" when the decision was made to use the Flint River water? I'm getting a post hoc, ergo prompter hoc vibe.
Also unmentioned, the political party predominantly in charge of Flint over the those years, and the only elected official mentioned by name is a Republican.
"Systemic racism" ≡ "disparate impact, no matter the cause"
Flint:
POPULATION: 99,000 (2014 estimate), down from a peak of almost 200,000 in 1960.
— RACIAL MAKEUP: black, 57 percent; white, 37 percent; others, 6 percent.
— RESIDENTS BELOW POVERTY LINE: 42 percent.
You'd never know that America's older cities have tens of thousands of miles of lead water pipe. In act, I imagine this is a world wide problem. Not too long ago, Chicago got caught testing for lead in drinking water only in areas where it was lest likely to be present, in order to rig their reports.
I read several blogs at the time that this was a big story and the MSM was trying to pin the blame on Snyder. I am just parroting what I remember. The solution for lead pipes has been part of water treatment best practices since the 60's or so, as in Water Treatment 101, it is so basic. It was Flint's Water Department that made the decision to forgo the use of the mitigating chemicals, due to cost.
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