It is evident that the government's response to the crisis was lax at best, aggressive at worst. Officials refused to give residents a meaningful say in their community. Instead, residents had their concerns repeatedly belittled and discounted as they have little political influence or clout. The city itself is Democratic in a Republican state.
In addition to being a political minority, Flint is disproportionately Black and poor whereas Michigan as a state only has a 14 percent Black population. Gov. Snyder denies that the pitiful response to the Flint water crisis was due to race. In fact, no emails or reports ever mentioned race and when asked, his spokesperson noted Snyder’s expansion of Medicaid which greatly benefits poor citizens and his budget allocation of tens of millions of dollars into Detroit a city that is 84 percent Black.
It took over a year for officials to even acknowledge that the water was contaminated and even longer to take any meaningful action. It is clear that officials were unconcerned due to the racial and class breakdown of the city.
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