Americans joke about a lot of first world problems, but in Flint, Michigan the issue of unclean water is no laughing matter. Often we hear about programs and innovations to get clean water to developing countries, but not to an established city in America’s heartland. 

Flint. Where children have been drinking contaminated water under the negligence of the city. 

Flint. Where children are consuming a resource that makes up 70 percent of their bodies. 

Flint. Where elders and parents, children and babies have been dosed with remnants of lead that will affect the state of their health for the rest of their lives. 

Every time I wash my dishes, drink a glass of water, rinse my fruit, or eat a piece of ice, I think about those kids in Michigan. Every time a mother boils a pot of spaghetti, I think about the poison that will be leeched into their meal. It’s relentless. To think that every time that you wash your hands or take a shower you are being poisoned is frightening. And what’s even scarier is to see that these local officers and the government quite frankly don’t give a damn. 

It makes me think, “Black Lives Matter.” Not just in the frame of police brutality, but in the free flowing of water quality, air, and environmental justice. 

Everyone knows the question: “If a tree falls in the woods and no one is around to hear it, does it make a sound?” I would like to ask you this: “When a city, mostly populated with working class black people, is poisoned with contaminated water and everyone is there to see it, will anyone care?”