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by dtwest 2563 days ago
This problem is widespread throughout the Rust Belt/Midwest and very costly to fix. Because many of the repairs fall on local governments, poorer neighborhoods struggle with this. So you can point to the water in a poor black neighborhood in Michigan and say it is proof of racism. But why are you ignoring the poor white neighborhood in Appalachian Pennsylvania that has the exact same problem?

To paint this as racism is either dishonesty or ignorance.

Many of the neighborhoods with this problem have been areas of severe deindustrialization. When a city like Flint shrinks because the main factory shuts down, they no longer have the tax revenue to support their own infrastructure, let alone build new infrastructure. They are stuck in a slow decay, and would need Federal assistance to get out.