Pls read this important commentary from ppl on the front lines of the #Flintwatercrisis response re: the $600 million settlement proposal and re: whether justice is being done in Flint. Thanks to @SacobyWilson for the opportunity. Highlights in the thread. https://www.liebertpub.com/doi/pdf/10.1089/env.2020.0048

2/14 "We contend that part of the work of justice is empowering community members to determine for themselves what justice means and when justice has been
done."

3/14 "From the beginning of the water crisis, we have
repeatedly experienced the phenomenon of people from
outside our community...defining what justice entails for Flint residents...based on assumptions about the type and the severity of harm done to us."

4/14 "But outside assessments of harm have repeatedly failed to capture the scope of our crisis, incorporate community knowledge and concerns, and imagine what it will take for the community to thrive as opposed to merely surviving."

5/14 "Class-action lawsuits have notorious limitations as
instruments of justice. When high-profile harms occur,
communities become vulnerable to opportunism and
exploitation on the part of people claiming to help, including people within the legal profession."

6/14 "On the positive side, the settlement proposes to treat all minors who were exposed to Flint water as eligible for damages automatically."

7/14 "This is a vindication of local activists’ insistence upon describing residents as ‘‘poisoned’’ (rather than merely ‘‘exposed’’): any consumption of lead-tainted water results in some amount of harm, and children, especially, are entitled to be compensated for that harm."

8/14 "By contrast, however, the settlement puts adults exposed to the water in the position of having to prove harm through a claims process."

9/14 "All of the uncertainty around the settlement, combined with the reporting burden of the claims process, adds additional layers to the ongoing trauma of mind, body, and spirit that Flint residents are left to carry, often while struggling to meet basic life needs."

10/14 "We and other residents and activists have long argued that some forms of compensation should be automatic for affected adults no less than affected children."

11/14 "[W]e bristle when we hear the settlement described as an 'apology,' as if it is a benevolent and voluntary act. Not only does this framing erase the contributions of residents and their allies, who have had to fight for everything that has come to our city..."

12/14 "...it erases the ways in which government agencies have continued to pursue their own interests even under the guise of bringing justice and recovery to residents."

13/14 "However individual residents decide to respond to this settlement proposal, we must keep coming back to the question of what justice looks like to those who have
been treated unjustly."

14/14 "[We insist that] people ask us and our fellow residents before concluding that Flint has been made whole."