Member-only story
Keep Close Watch
From a Water Crisis to Reparations, Plus Black Muppets—Racism and Anti-Racism in the News This Week
Stop explaining away Black people’s justified skepticism of vaccines
Here are the racist (and anti-racist) news headlines you might have missed in the past week. We’ll start with the ongoing water crisis that might have escaped your attention because it’s not in Flint, Michigan, and finish with anti-racist muppets. How’s that for a contrast?
One of America’s Blackest cities doesn’t have safe water: A few weeks ago, I mentioned the thousands of folks in the overwhelmingly Black city of Jackson, Mississippi, who were still without drinking water weeks after back-to-back winter storms knocked out their service. But like a pimple that lies painfully under the skin before erupting, Jackson’s water problems are both ongoing and acute. Many people living there had unsafe drinking water long before the storms and still do, as a Mississippi Today article explains. For the last five years, city officials have advised pregnant women and children under five to avoid drinking tap water — a fact many residents aren’t even aware of. In a Slate interview, environmental activist Catherine Coleman Flowers explains how Jackson’s water problems are rooted in racist…
