Running head: RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 1

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1 Running head: RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 1 Racial and Socio-Economic Inequality as the Primary Predictors To Flint s Failure to Meet Goals of Accessing to Clean Water Rita Rebaza Salt Lake community college Race and Ethnicity

2 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 2 Abstract This research seeks to explore the connection between race and income and The Flint water crisis. Since the current literature of environmental racism in Flint, Michigan is very limited, the purpose of this project is to extend past research about environmental racism, as well as to identify and examine the correlation between race and socioeconomic status and Flint water crisis. Because of the limited research devoted to environmental racism, it is important to develop more complete data for exploring and understanding how a person s race and level of income impact its chances of receiving water quality. Three methodologies and approaches will be developed in this research project in order to explain the core research questions, including the analysis of extensive literature reviews, official and unofficial documents, individual interviews, and surveys. Those methods will provide factual and valuable qualitative and quantitative information that will help to understand this issue. Introduction Flint Water Crisis has received national attention over the past several months. Flint residents have been exposed to lead contaminated water since 2004, but the government declared the city under emergency on January of In April 2014, under the direction of state emergency managers, the city switched from using water purchased from Detroit to water from the Flint River due to financial problems. Corrosion pipes is what caused lead to leach into the drinking water. As maintained by studies, the poor, majority black residents of Flint, are the most affected since they conform 56.6 percent of the Flint population with a medium household that is 50 percent below the State s, meaning that 42 percent of residents live under the poverty line (Ross & Salomon, 2016). After a short time of switching to Flint River water, residents expressed concerns regarding water color, taste, odor, and skin problems. Michigan s governor,

3 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 3 Rick Snyder, publicly communicated that at least 200 children in Flint have elevated levels of lead in their blood, which can cause irreversible damage to their developing brains (Covert & Konczal, 2016). Although Governor Snyder directly attributed Flint water crisis to comprehensive bureaucratic mismanagement and not to racism, extensive literature and case studies show the opposite that lead contamination and other environmental dangers are unequally distributed along racial lines and low income families (Bowen, Salling, Haynes & Cyran, 1995, p ). Comparative research reports that Flint is not the only victim of environmental racism in the U.S.A., other cities populated by minority groups are also facing the same environmental issue (America, 2016). For instance, case studies have documented systemic exclusion of black residents from water and wastewater services in Mississippi, Alabama, North Carolina, and Ohio (As cited in Butts & Gasteyer, 2011, p. 389). In the face of these repetitive environmental issues, a number of questions arise, such as: Does a person s race and level of income affect his/her chances of receiving water quality in Flint? How does Flint water crisis impact its residents? Why didn t the state and federal administration intervene when Flint water crisis emerged? Therefore, the following hypothesis (H) will be examined in my proposed study: H1 Race and level of income diminish the chances of receiving water quality in Flint. H2 Poisoning of water affects Flint s residents socioeconomically, medically, psychologically, and demographically. H3 Contamination of water in Flint reflects a discriminatory and weak federal and state management.

4 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 4 More specifically, this research aims to: Affirm that Flint s long held and widespread racial and socio-economic inequality encourages poor water quality in Flint. Determine how racial and socio-economic inequality can perpetuate discrimination and the implications discrimination has on the Flint population. Assess the likelihood that the new steps taken by the federal and state management will be successful in helping Flint meet the water quality standards. Literature Review I. - Racial and Socio Economic Factors To understand Flint water crisis, it is necessary to define the term of environmental racism. Benjamin Chavis (1994), former head of the United Church of Jesus Christ s commission of social justice, define Environmental racism is a racial discrimination in environmental policy-making and enforcement of regulations and laws, the deliberate targeting of communities of color for toxic waste facilities, the official sanctioning of the presence of life threatening poisons and pollutants for communities of color, and the history of excluding people of color from leadership of the environmental movement (Holifield, 2001, p. 83). Although scholars, policy makers, lawyers and activists continue to debate its meaning, U.S.A. federal government never adopted the term as guide to policy since its meaning basically encloses racism and discrimination, terms that go against the nation principles. Although many studies reported that environmental contamination in specific areas across the United States is primarily associated with racism, in Pulido s study (1996), Race and class are deeply intertwined and inseparable in the experiences of communities suffering from injustice. This means that the processes that have produced environmental injustice have also simultaneously produced

5 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 5 uneven development, marginalized landscapes, increased criminalization of poor people and people of color, and the social movements that work to transform them (as cited in Turner & Wu, 2002, p. 6-19). In accordance with Pulido s research is the study developed by Wright (2003) which affirms that environmental racism is the Product of a long history of discriminatory practices cumulatively disenfranchising minority civic societies. For instance, in the case of Detroit, although blacks dominate municipal leadership, financial decisions are controlled by state government, where blacks lack political representation. This lead that the decisions based on how land and natural resources are distributed often disproportionately disadvantage poor, black residents (As cited in Butts & Gasteyer, 2011, p. 388). As reported by the United States Environmental Protection Agency (EPA), blacks are 79 percent more likely than whites to live in a neighborhood where industrial pollution or environmental danger is suspected of posing the greatest health risk. Hispanics and Asians are also most likely to live in similar conditions as their black counterparts (as cited in Dullard, Mohai, Saha & Wright, 2007, p. X-XI). But what socioeconomic factors lead to this problem? Based on Sassen s structural inequality theory (2007), globalization is what accentuates spatial, social, and economic polarization between the disadvantaged and the advantaged comparing on how the economic system was in the past. Currently, global trends are promoting considerable growth in some cities while deteriorating others. For example, Michigan, known as the birthplace of the automobile industry and the economic symbol of America s industrial empire, is without discussion one of the places that have been most affected by the transition from an industrial era to a service-based era. It is the lack of capital investment, and employment, along with expansion of redlining practices that have corral black families into less desirable neighborhoods which commonly lack

6 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 6 of the most basic services. These reasons are what explain the problem with water and wastewater infrastructure in poor minority communities since having access to clean water basically depends on the municipal or regional service with rates based on the cost of service, maintenance, administrative costs, financing costs and contracting costs. These rates that vary according to neighborhoods are what financially impact the poor minority populations since they are the ones who have the higher water costs per household (Butts & Gasteyer, 2011, p ). Since they could not afford to pay for such higher water rates due to financial burden, they are provided with poor water service. II. - Effects of Drinking Lead Contaminated Water Beside this, how does lead contaminated water impact Flint s residents? As many critics have highlighted, Flint water crisis is not an incident, it is a case of environmental racism that has impacted the city and its residents demographically, economically, but most importantly medically since its effects cannot be reversible. Extensive scientific investigations report that lead in drinking water is different from lead from other sources. Lead is a potent neurotoxin that disproportionately affects developmentally vulnerable children and pregnant mothers of low income and minority groups. It has an impact on many developmental and biological processes, particularly on intelligence, behavior, and over all life achievement. Moreover, lead in water exacerbates preexisting risk factors in children with limited protective measures including poor nutrition, scarce resources, concentrated poverty, and older housing stock (Hanna-Attisha, La Chance, Sadler & Schnepp, 2016, p ). A report from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (2013), found that both black children and poor children are almost twice as likely as white and non-poor children to have high blood lead levels (as cited in Covert & Konczal, 2016).

7 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 7 III. - Federal and State Management Discussing people s life demands respect, and responsibility. The Flint dilemma is a serious case of deteriorated waste water infrastructure and it is in need of urgent replacement. As claimed by Pontius (2008), the costs of capital replacements, along with increasing costs for treatment, are far beyond the costs that some communities can bear. In 2009, EPA estimated that the gap between existing and needed investments in the US water infrastructure over the next 20 years was more than $ 334 billion. The issue here is that these rates have been regularly increasing as water agencies attempt to address this issue at the national level (as cited in Butts & Gasteyer, 2011, p. 386). A recent inquiry reports that across the country, blacks are more than twice as likely as whites to live in a home with substandard plumbing. More than 1 percent of black people live in houses without potable water and modern sanitation, compared to less than 0.5 percent of whites. They are also twice as likely as white people to mistrust the water that flows from their faucets and to say that more regulation is needed (Covert & Konczal, 2016). Certainly, getting government to be involved with environmental issues in communities of color has been a difficult task. The government has been slow providing answer to environmental racism across the nation since they do not agree that racism is associated with environmental problems. The pertinent authorities either opt to make excuses or simply ignore the problem since there is not a governmental institution that does justice for the disadvantaged. As the magazine America (2016), states, These problems are easier to ignore, take longer to be noticed and are more difficult to fix because the people who exercise power are not linked to these communities by history or by a common life. They have failed to provide equal protection to people of color and low income communities as clearly seen in the two cases in Post Katrina

8 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 8 New Orleans and in Dickson County, Tennessee. It is evident that the environmental protection system is broken, and is in need of fixing (Dullard, Mohai, Saha & Wright, 2007, p. 156). Although the federal and state management has an action plan designed to ensure Flint s recovery, the required procedure is not yet implemented. Flint doesn t need bottles of water or water filters. The city needs a change in the water infrastructure which means the urgent replacement of the old water pipes with new ones, and a fair price based on its resident s income to pay for water service. Furthermore, the city needs short and long term action plans that address themes such as healthcare, education, and economic improvements. Certainly, water is not a privilege; it is a human right; therefore, it is the government s responsibility to protect the communities well-being and stop with institutional discrimination. Methodology and Approach To conduct the research project, I will conduct qualitative and quantitative research. Those researches will provide essential background on the core research questions, shed light toward current relevance of the topic, and provide several points through which I can fully identify the factors that lead to Flint residents to receive poor water quality, as well as describe the impact of those factors in Flint s population Secondary Data Analysis a. - Official and Unofficial Documents. In order to explain H2 and H3, a comprehensive analysis of official and unofficial statistics will be undertaken including the 2000, 2010, and 2015 U.S. census data, tax records, and administrative data (housing data, social security information, property deeds, and electoral statistics), broadcast media, media publications, internet searches, and libraries. I plan to find information specific to my research areas in order to find a frame of reference for effective evaluation of the topic.

9 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 9 b. - Literature Review. Beside the official documents, extensive literature review, from both electronic and printed sources that address past and current events of environmental racism, and cases studies will also be analyzed. I will examine literature reviews that especially address environmental cases similar to Flint in relation with water, such as Tucson (Arizona), Fresno County (California), and Cleveland (Louisiana). The purpose of using this methodology is to: Investigate and identify factors or events that may explain the Flint water crisis in relation with other past or current events. It can be locally, regionally, or nationally. Examine the similarities and the differences based on the information gathered (statistics, observations, and theories). Propose a causal explanation for the phenomena (found out if the independent variable/race and income and dependable variable/water quality have a correlation). Although this type of methodology has its disadvantages because it works with data that may contain bias information, it adequately captures past change and development that a survey or interview cannot. Moreover, secondary data contains pre-stablished degree of validity, reliability to explain the phenomena. As result, selecting the reliable ones is the main objective research. 2. Ethnography a. Interview. Individual interviews will provide a well source of knowledge since the information gained here is usually more realistic. This methodology will also serve to explain H2 and H3. Individual interviews will be based on socioeconomic determinants (race/ethnicity, income, and social status) and by a way of structured questionnaire which will be used to collect information about the factors that lead to Flint water crisis. The interview is especially important for examining questions like "What socioeconomic factors lead to Flint water crisis? The people

10 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 10 to be interviewed will be some city residents, local and federal governmental officials, local journalists, local media experts, and local social activists. The purpose of interviewing them is: The city consumers can provide further data that I cannot get from the U.S Census and Statistics Department. They can also help me to identify the potential factors that lead to Flint water crisis, and describe its effect in the Flint families and the whole community. Local and federal governmental officials can give me some ideas on the regulation of water in Flint and how the government policy and procedures have been executed in the city. The reporters and journalists can give me some information from a different perspective since they provide a specific local space where social issues collide, where political issues are struggled over, and subject positions are constituted. They are represented publicly as dominants truths (Ono, p. 3). The social activists can provide a deep analysis of real sceneries whereby Flint population is facing since they are often involved with the most vulnerable groups. II. - Quantitative Research a. Surveys. Survey can provide larger and higher-quality databases that would be feasible to answer the proposed research question. A questionnaire that contains standardized and openended questions will be designed and implemented to a random sample of 100 city residents to measure the correlation between race and income and water quality. Socio demographic determinants such as age, race/ethnicity, income, marital status, and education by zip code will be examined to explain if the independent variable (race and income) has an effect in the dependent variable (water quality). This methodology will serve to explain H1.

11 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 11 Expected Results The anticipated outcome of this research is an attempt to publicly identify the correlation between race and level of income and the chances of receiving water quality in Flint, as well as how its implications allow it to become a social dilemma. After analyzing secondary data and surveying a random sample of the Flint population, the data should allow us to see the correlation between race and income and water quality. Data from the survey compared to official and unofficial documents, as well as interviews are expected to be much stronger since the information to be collected from the Flint residents will be current. Implications The realization of this project is really important because of the limited research exploring current environmental racism across the nation, especially in Flint, Michigan. Because of this, it is a difficult task to evaluate environmental and other potential predictors that may be influencing the pattern of this social issue across time and space. For that reason, it is necessary to continue cross sectional studies and longitudinal research to evaluate the progression of the racial, economic, medical, psycho-social, and demographic impact in relation with receiving poor quality water over time. In addition, the conduction of a comparative historical research is necessary in order compare and contrast past and present events in relation with environmental racism and propose a causal explanation for the phenomena. Furthermore, it is necessary to conduct research that addresses a variety of other predictors that also may lead to Flint water crisis including lack of city tax revenue, lack of capital investment, unemployment, bureaucratic mismanagement, racial underrepresentation, white flight, redlining, and among other predictors. In conclusion, the project goal is to increase understanding, reduce misconceptions, and provide to the scholar community with reliable and usable information that explains causal relationship

12 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 12 between racial and socio-economic factors and the chances of receiving water quality in Flint and its effects in the population. Moreover, to find out what the Flint community in general thinks about the Flint water crisis and what needs to be done to protect the future of their families and future generations. And most importantly, invoke to the pertinent authorities to take action in the issue because the community well-being, the race generation, and the health cost depends on their immediate action.

13 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 13 References America. (n.d). Flint was no accident. 214 (15), 5. Bowen, W. M., Salling, M. J., K. E. & Cyran, E. J. (1995). Toward environmental justice: Spatial equity in Ohio and Cleveland. Levin college of Urban Affair, Cleveland State University, Cleveland, Ohio; The Institute of Public Policy, George Mason University, Virginia. Annals of the Association of American Geographers, 85 (4), pp Doi: /j tb ervice/ pdf Butts R. & Gasteyer. S. (2011). More cost per drop: Water rates, structural inequality, and race in The United States-the case of Michigan. Department of Sociology, Michigan State University. doi: S uality_and_race_in_the_united_states_the_case_of_michigan Covert, B., & Konczal, M. (2016). Environmental racism. Nation, 302(10), 5. b=aph&an= &site=eds-live Dullard, R., Mohai, P., Saha, R., & Wright, B. (2007). Toxic waste and race at twenty: Grassroots struggles to dismantle environmental racism in the United States. United Church of Christ justice and Witness Ministries.

14 RACE AND SOCIO-ECONOMIC INEQUALITY 14 Hanna-Attisha, H., LaChance, J., Sadler, C., & Schnepp, A. Ch. (2015). Elevated blood lead levels in children associated with the Flint drinking water crisis: A spatial analysis of risk public health response. Michigan State University College of Human Medicine, Department of Pediatrics and Human Development. doi: /AJPH Holifield, Ryan (2001). "Defining environmental justice and environmental racism". Urban Geography 22 (1): doi: / nd_environmental_racism Pulido, L. (2015). Geographies of race and ethnicity 1. Progress in Human Geography, 39(6), doi: / b=aph&an= &site=eds-live Ross, T. & Salomon D. (2016). Flint isn t the only place with racism in the water. The Nation. Turner, R. L., & Wu, D. P. (2002). Environmental justice and environmental racism: An annotated bibliography and general overview, focusing on U.S. literature, Berkeley Workshop on Environmental Politics. An_Annotated_Bibliography