10 May 9 • 2019
jn
A
t a time when the faithful
at Chabad of Poway faced
unspeakable terror and a
mosque in Michigan was the target
of a bomb threat, we must recognize
that the fight for
all to be free from
discrimination is not
over.
News stories
like these cause
older stories like
Flint to fade from
the headlines. But
it is important to
recall that it was five years ago that
government officials began to draw
residents’
drinking water from the
Flint River, beginning a chain of
events we now know as the Flint
Water Crisis.
Today, trauma continues to affect
the daily lives of Flint residents.
Too many, especially children, were
harmed by the lead they drank
and will face lifetimes of medical
care and educational impediments.
Adults also faced medical issues that
almost certainly contributed to their
early deaths.
But beyond the physical scars,
an entire community awoke to the
realization that their leaders had
betrayed them and, as a result,
they’
ve lost their fundamental trust
in government and society.
While the work of replacing water
lines and ensuring every home has
clean, safe water continues, we can’
t
lose sight of the work that remains
to rebuild the relationship between
people and their leaders at every
level, and beyond the boundaries of
Flint.
In February of 2017, the
Michigan Civil Rights Commission
released an exhaustive report,
“The Flint Water Crisis: Systemic
Racism Through the Lens of Flint.”
The Commission, led by two
co-chairs, one Muslim and one
Jewish, concluded that systemic
racism played a significant role in
contributing to the public health
crisis — a crisis that would never
have been allowed to happen in
communities like Birmingham or
East Grand Rapids.
Decision makers at all levels
failed the residents of Flint. The
Michigan Civil Rights Commission
and the Department of Civil Rights
are no exception. By not challenging
our assumptions, by not asking
ourselves the tough questions about
how policies and decisions play out
in different communities, especially
communities primarily made up of
people of color, those decisions and
actions led to tragedy.
While it’
s important to speak that
truth, it is another to do something
about it. That’
s where Michigan’
s
civil rights leaders must continue to
speak out and find ways to play a
healing role in Flint and anywhere
the civil rights of Michigan citizens
are being abridged.
It’
s not a new direction for
the Jewish community. From its
beginning, the Jewish community
has been at the forefront of the
civil rights movement. Giants like
Professor Harold Norris, who
authored the central civil rights
provisions of the 1964 Michigan
constitution, and Burton Gordin,
the first director of the Michigan
Department of Civil Rights, were at
the center of the struggle.
But Flint demonstrates that the
fight to ensure equity — for all
races, nationalities, ethnicities
and faiths — must continue to be
a priority for every government
agency and social action
organization with the mission of
ensuring civil liberties at its core.
On this fifth anniversary of one of
the greatest tragedies in the history
of our state, let us recommit to the
fight to secure social justice for
all. ■
Dr. Agustin Arbulu is executive director of the
Michigan Department of Civil Rights.
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Enduring Flint Lesson
Fight to Ensure Equality
Agustin Arbulu
24725 West 12 Mile – Ste. 110
Southfield, MI 48034
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