this post was submitted on 13 Feb 2025
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...what? Am I just not racist enough to understand this?
Minority population centers tend not to get a lot of infrastructure funding compared their paler counterparts.
Ah, so the issue isn't the in-house plumbing, but the plumbing leading to the house. Hence the "neighborhood" part.
Lead pipes have been illegal for in-house water plumbing for a very long time. Even older houses that were built before regulations have been replaced in almost every home in the USA.
It's the buried infrastructure that has not been fully replaced, in part because cold, treated water does not leech lead into the supply very quickly. Part of the reason Flint became a disaster is that the city decided to switch from Lake Huron, which was treated and protected, to the Flint River, where the water needed to be treated at the Flint water treatment facility.
Unfortunately, the Flint water treatment facility was outdated and insufficient, and the Flint River was far more polluted and corrosive. The lower pH and contaminants dissolved lead from the pipes that were previously stable, and there were also dangerous levels of bacteria causing infections.
If the city had remained on the treated Lake Huron water supply, it probably would not have been noticed and the lead pipes would still be in use today (as they are in an alarming number of places today).
Tap water is perfectly safe to drink everywhere in the UK (except when there's some temporary incident that gets fixed) regardless of who the consumers are, there are very strict regulations to follow regardless.
Surely it's the same in any developed country, clean, safe water is a very important basic right that the populace would quickly riot over if it weren't available. It's water, after all.
Absolutely - but in the UK they don’t have neighbourhoods designed and built along ethnic lines. US city planning seems to be based around cars and segregation. It’s so hard to understand unless you’ve actually seen it in action. It’s worth remembering that the US invented apartheid, to all intents and purposes.
No. The cartoon only makes sense if you live in the US… which not everyone does.
Basically “black” neighbourhoods would - in all likelihood - have a lower standard of public utilities than the equivalent services in a “white” neighbourhood.
It’s like racism hard-baked into the city. Whack.
Canada too, embarrassingly.
Sad face. First world countries, hey?
I thought this might be the case - I was gonna suggest South Africa as another example; but it’s a bit more complicated there, from my understanding.
Aren't the budgets based on the tax income for the districts? Wealthier people tend to be white, and wealthier people have more alternatives on where to live... so why would they choose to live somewhere without clean water, just to save a bit of money?
It's still the same answer in the end... but it's not like some councilman is saying "those blacks won't be getting clean water as long as I'm in charge", no? I'd imagine that neighborhoods filled with poverty-whites would also have bad water quality.
Tax income is usually larger on mixed-use land, that rich people tend to avoid...
I’d tend to agree with all of that. I’m not USian so my comment was - mainly - anecdotal.
I can't even begin to understand how one could segregate water... But then, I don't doubt it, I just don't know how it's possible.
I imagine it just comes down to the last mile local infrastructure not receiving the same degree of maintenance? I'm not sure, though.
I'm confident that isn't the issue.
On no... I am too racist to understand?
Congratulations! You've been awarded a spot in the Republican party!
Sadly the Dems have more than their fair share of "Fuck you minorities for whatever problem I'm currently most anxious about!" constituents and attendant elected officials.
Rahm Emanuel, Gavin Newsom, and Eric Adams get along just fine with a (D) after their names.
If by "racist" you mean "not actively anti-racist," then yes.
There are a lot of people who don't act in a bigoted/discriminatory way themselves, but who also ignore/deny/fail to understand structural/institutional racism. Since the latter is what this comic is about, that might be the category you fall into.
Fuck if I know. Are you?