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

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