News & Commentary

The ACLU of Michigan documentary “Here’s To Flint” is a searing examination of the origins of the Flint water crisis and the determined efforts of Flint residents, activists and researchers to learn the truth about the city’s lead-contaminated drinking water.

Individuals who contribute to racial inequities and discrimination are not always motivated by purposeful racial hostility.

By now, you've surely heard about the Flint water crisis. And you probably know why it happened: After the state of Michigan suspended democracy in the impoverished, predominantly African-American city, emergency managers appointed by Gov. Rick Snyder were given absolute power to make unilateral decisions that resulted in the lead poisoning of the municipality’s water supply.

Michigan state government’s arrogant, callous indifference to both the plight of the people of Flint and the weight of outraged public opinion is explained quite simply by the fact that some officials regard black Michigan as their own little Africa. With the mentality of colonizers, they created and wielded the mighty weapon of Michigan’s emergency manager law, and they set out to dominate and exploit predominantly black cities with breathtaking indifference to the rights and the welfare of those who live there. Michigan’s emergency manager law gives the governor the power to place all authority of a mayor and city council in the hands of a single unelected individual, supposedly for the purpose of rescuing the municipality from financial distress.

GRAND RAPIDS, Mich.—ACLU of Michigan investigative reporter Curt Guyette has been named Michigan Journalist of the Year by the Michigan Press Association for his groundbreaking coverage of toxic contamination of the Flint water supply, a public-health disaster that exposed the city of 100,000 people to lead poisoning for almost two years even as government officials insisted the water was safe.

The Flint water saga has taken some wild twists in the past few weeks.

Throughout 2015, black students across the country were forced to face down racial hostility and violence on college campuses that seemed drawn straight from the Jim Crow era.  In addition, a leading presidential candidate spent much of the year promising to build a wall to keep out Mexican immigrants.

The State of Michigan attempted to cover up the fact that its own data revealed a significant spike in lead found in Flint children after the state forced the city to draw water from the Flint River, a researcher who studied the Flint crisis has alleged.

In the summer of 2014, as the City of Detroit was shutting off water to thousands of homes a week, a small group of activists resorted to civil disobedience in an attempt to draw attention to the crisis.