52 pages • 1 hour read
Mona Hanna-AttishaWhat the Eyes Don’t See: A Story of Crisis, Resistance, and Hope in an American City
Mona Hanna-AttishaNonfiction | Book | Adult | Published in 2018A modern alternative to SparkNotes and CliffsNotes, SuperSummary offers high-quality Study Guides with detailed chapter summaries and analysis of major themes, characters, and more.
Themes
Environmental Injustices Disproportionately Affect Low-Income and Black Communities
Dr. Mona is not shy about labeling herself as an activist and environmentalist, and part of her stated goal in writing this book is to encourage people to build a better country where “democracy and equality and opportunity are once again encouraged and advanced” (15) and “where we nurture one another and create stable and safe environments for all children growing up” (15). Rather than focusing on all of the injustices in the US, many of which have complex historical roots, Dr. Mona focuses primarily on environmental injustices.
Over the course of What the Eyes Don’t See, Dr. Mona provides numerous examples of environmental contaminates that disproportionately affect the health and well-being of low-income and Black communities. Her first major environmental advocacy project is one example. While in high school, the county was considering reopening the Madison Heights incinerator despite an elementary school being located next to it. The Madison Heights community was one of the poorer communities in Mona’s county. There was already evidence that the incinerator had negatively impacted the neighboring community. Community members experienced higher rates of asthma and chronic obstructive pulmonary disease. Despite this evidence, officials were still willing to consider reopening the incinerator, which showed a clear disregard for the health of the community, including school children. Environmental injustices take place in poorer communities, such as Madison Heights, because residents have fewer resources to fight against them.
The Flint Water Crisis itself is an egregious example of an environmental injustice. The majority of its residents are African American, which is significant because Michigan is predominantly white. In addition, over 40% of Flint residents live below the poverty line. Furthermore, the residents did not have political power to stop the water switch from happening. The governor stripped their democratically elected mayor of political power, replacing him with a governor-appointed emergency manager. The explicit goal of the water switch was not to provide Flint residents with higher quality and more affordable water quality, but to save money. Furthermore, when Flint residents voiced concern about the water, the government authorities did not take these concerns seriously. The enormous health burden created by lead exposure occurred in Flint because its residents had little political power to resist.
The environmental injustices that took place in Flint are a legacy and result of systemic racism; a point Dr. Mona explicitly makes. Decades of discriminatory home selling, lending, and education practices coupled with GM’s corporate greed and own racist policies created modern Flint. The structuralism racism embedded in the city’s institutions played a role in why local, county, and state authorities ignored warning signs around Flint’s water. These same officials who were drinking from water coolers at Flint State Office Building were telling Flint residents their water was safe to drink.
Protect Local Democracy and the System of Accountability
One of Dr. Mona’s central arguments is that local democracy and its system of accountability must be protected. Flint is an example of what happens when citizens lose local democracy. The trigger for the water crisis extends back to 2011 when Governor Snyder replaced the democratically elected mayor with a governor-appointed, unelected emergency manager. Dr. Mona points out that Michigan voters actually shot down the referendum that beefed up the prior EM law. Despite citizen objections, the legislature still passed the law.
The emergency manager made decisions for the city, including the decision to switch its drinking water to the Flint River. Because Flint’s mayor and city council did not have any decision-making power, residents had to raise concerns with state and federal agencies. Similar to the emergency manager, these agencies were not directly accountable to the Flint residents. Flint lost its checks and balances in government decisions.
Many government officials—who in theory are supposed to help protect their citizens—were also dismissive of the residents’ concerns. The true magnitude of their indifference was illustrated in email exchanges between state officials released through FOIA. Rather than investigating Flint residents’ concerns about their drinking water, they created talking points to explain why their findings were accurate and everyone else’s findings were wrong.
Perhaps even worse was that some officials knew something was wrong. Dr. Mona notes that, “We found out later that the city, controlled by the state, had deliberately manipulated the water samples from Flint homes so they wouldn’t have to notify the public about the presence of lead, per federal rules” (285). This action is the crux of why local citizens need representation in their local democracy. Because city and state officials were not directly accountable to the residents, they did not put Flint residents’, and especially children’s, safety and health as top priorities.
Community Coalitions Have the Power to Create Change
Dr. Mona consistently describes the power of community coalitions to create change. Various coalitions helped expose the Flint water crisis. Flint residents were the first to notice that something was wrong with their water. Frustrated with the lack of concern from authorities, residents began to invite renowned water experts to conduct water tests. Miguel Del Toral was one of the first government employee whistle-blowers. Despite submitting a memo to the EPA that detailed the scientifically backed truth that there was lead in Flint’s water, fellow government employees second-guessed him and tried to bury his memo. Del Toral gave it to Walters, who then leaked the report to a journalist who had been covering the water crisis from the beginning.
This action touched off Dr. Mona’s own involvement in the water crisis. Prior to the barbeque with Elin and Annie, Mona thought the Flint water was safe and passed this information along to patients, including those with infants. It is Elin, after learning of Del Toral’s memo, who tells Mona that government officials are lying about the Flint water. As Mona becomes more deeply involved in the crisis, she and Elin reach out to other water experts, such as Marc Edwards, leaders of community-based organizations, and pediatricians. Mona notes that she “certainly wasn’t the most important piece of the Flint puzzle. So many others—LeeAnne, Miguel, Elin, and Marc, and dozens of tireless Flint activists and local journalists—were instrumental and critical” (318). Puzzle piece is an excellent description of these various individuals, because by bringing together their own expertise and connections to the problem at hand, they were able to finally prove lead exposure in Flint kids. For example, Jenny and Dr. Mona are able to strengthen their study by discussing it with Marc Edwards. Edwards tells them that they need to control for seasonality and to use the highest blood-lead levels.
Coalitions are also important because they provide individuals that comprise them with much needed support. Over and over again, Mona discusses the toll that activism takes. One poignant example is Miguel Del Toral. Mona notes that “the efforts to silence and ruin Miguel for his whistle-blowing—and his being dismissed, having to leak his own memo, and being sent to the EPA ethics office—had taken a toll on him physically. He could barely stand, let alone walk” (310). Yet, one of the things that strengthened many of them, including Miguel, is knowing that there were others fighting for Flint.
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