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Flint, Lead, Violence and the Inner City


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Hello Fam, it's been a while since I posted here.
Feels great to be back.

I'm sure most you are aware of SOME of what's going on in the city of Flint Michigan.  But being from Detroit and having traveled to Flint many times and having friends and family up there, what's NOT talked about as much is Flint's high crime and violence rate.
 And there is a CLEAR link between lead contamination and not only violence but also low IQ and poor academic performance.
Check out this amazing article I found from Mother Jones Magazine linking lead and violence:

Mother Jones Lead and Violence


If this is accurate, and I believe it is....then it  would explain the high crime rates and dismal academic performance plaguing many inner city communities.  The fact is, lead and other toxins are most likely contaminating the water systems of urban areas all over the nation. 

I think we should all get together and come up with some sort of plan to rid the cities of all heavy metal toxicity and this would probably help tremendously with the problems that seem to have been plaguing so many of our communities for decades.

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6 hours ago, Troy said:

Hey @Pioneer1, welcome back.  I have not had a chance to read the article yet, but I did however add Mother Jones to Huria Search, I have just decided to expand beyond Black owned Properties for quality journalism we need to consume.


Thanx

As far as expanding beyond Black journalism for quality......looks to me like we don't have much of a choice now a days, lol.

 

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I really think this re-discovery of so much lead contamination in the drinking water of urban areas around this nation may be a turning point for Black progress.  It may provide many answers to a lot of the social, criminal, and academic problems that Black America has been facing for decades.

For decades many of our social scientists, civil rights leaders, and others have been trying to figure out the root cause of so many of the problems plaguing the inner cities of America....perhaps we may now have a leading suspect.

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I like this thread, but I'm very hesitant to blame the problems of Blacks on what is really an infrastructure issue. although I guess you could argue that the poisoning of the water system contributes to a lot of social issues. I think it is an opportunity for creative solutions.

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CD

To the average person who knows little about psychology or psychiatry this may seem like a bit of a stretch to connect lead contamination with violence and academic performance. It may even seem ridiculous.

But I had an experience years ago with mercury poisoning that let me know how real the effects of metals poisoning can be. I was a healthy person and out of nowhere when the mercury levels accumulated in my body I started getting rashes, my muscles started jerking in spots, and I started having anxiety issues. After prayer and research I was blessed to find out what the problem was and removed it and I got better.


Lead, mercury, arsenic...these metals can cause severe PSYCHOLOCIAL effects in people at low doses!

At high doses....they kill you.

At low does....they may give you depression, make you bi-polar, scizophrenic, hyper-aggressive, retarded, and a host of other problems and you may not directly tie to the metal poisoning itself.

If you look at what's happening in the inner cities all over the nation where the pipes are old and outdated and look at the high rate of violence and poorly performing schools....it can't just be a coincidence.

Nowhere in nature do you find stupid and violent constantly occupying the same space.
One person may be slow, another may be violent....but to have so many residents in a limited area that are of both low intellect AND quick tempered????

That area is being poisoned!

It is actually said that the Roman practice of putting lead in their wine to sweetin it actually lead to the fall of the Roman Empire because the population became increasingly volatile and began fighting and killing eachother until the empire collapsed from the inside.

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I hear you, but I can only base my opinions on where I live and have lived in the US and by looking only at my experiences, it just doesn't carry any weight and removes the personal responsibility and choices in regard to the actions of the people. I'm just unable to give over the ignorance and violence to "lead in the water" right now. As the evidence becomes clearer in connection maybe I will accept it, but right now I will look at as an additional theory in regard to the low performance of kids in the ghetto. That's the best that I can do.

When I look at Memphis it's gentrification that shifted violence in the city. It's also an unwillingness to work. I've told Troy this before and I guess I'm telling you, Memphis is 64% Black. It's one of the few cities where Blacks rival the numbers of Whites. Blacks hold very high positions in the city and a considerable amount of status. Memphis actually has a middle class (a shrinking one, but still). Memphis on any given day has more job openings than one could imagine in the US. These aren't just cheap, low paying jobs either. They are well paid warehouse positions and a lot of tech positions.  If we look at Memphis' high crime areas, Hickory Hill, for example, less than twenty years ago it was a mostly White area so the pipes and infrastructure couldn't have possibly been shifted over the last few years. The same with the Raleigh/Frayser area. Maybe this could have happened, but what I know did happen was the projects in Memphis were demolished and all of the people from the projects moved to these middle class areas and the crime shifted with them.

If I use your logic on Memphis this would mean we'd see the same problems in the White community, and that just isn't the case. It also avoids the discussion on how many of these students become the graduates of high schools and colleges out of this area. I don't know if there is a way to skip houses with lead poisoning, so the theory just doesn't fit when there are so many who are unaffected. Once again, I can make the same assumptions about Southeast San Diego where I lived and Los Angeles where I lived for a short time. The violence and issues with health were cumulative. In Memphis there are a ton of factories in South Memphis therefore you have a lot of kids with asthma in that area. This is verifiable so I know this is true. Does this contribute to violence... maybe, but it's a stretch. 

I do admire that you are taking the time to draw connections and put in the work and that's more important than anything.

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  • 2 weeks later...

Flint resident wonders if lead caused her miscarriage

http://www.cnn.com/2016/03/03/health/water-crisis-flint-michigan/index.html

 

Wakes says she fears the effects of lead in the water on her son, Jalen, 7.

 

"My son has been going to the same school for two years. Last year he was suspended one time. This year I have paperwork he has been suspended 56 times," Wakes said.

"I thought it was just the school and all that, and then I started noticing his behavior at home with just me and my daughter. I started noticing a change in my daughter's behavior. They're getting more aggressive."

Suspended 56 times!!!

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Studies link childhood lead exposure, violent crime

June 6, 2015  9:31 am   

After growing up poor in a predominantly African-American neighborhood of Cincinnati, the young adults had reached their early 20s. One by one, they passed through an MRI machine that displayed their brains in sharp, cross-sectioned images.

For those who had been exposed to lead as toddlers, even in small amounts, the scans revealed changes that were subtle, permanent and devastating.

 

The toxic metal had robbed them of gray matter in the parts of the brain that enable people to pay attention, regulate emotions and control impulses. Lead also had scrambled the production of white matter that transmits signals between different parts of the brain, largely by mimicking calcium, an element that plays a critical role in brain development.

Scars left by lead have had significant consequences for the study participants and their communities. As children, they struggled in school more than those who had not been exposed. As teens, they committed crimes more frequently, University of Cincinnati researchers reported

Last month, a Tribune investigation found that lead hazards are festering in the same parts of Chicago that have given the city a national reputation for violence and academic failure. In impoverished, crime-ridden neighborhoods like Austin, Englewood and Lawndale, more than 80 percent of the children tested in 1995 had dangerous lead levels.

 

http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/ct-lead-poisoning-science-met-20150605-story.html

 

 

 

 

 

* Take  a look at the DATE of this article, it was before the current lead crisis being exposed in Flint and other cities.


 

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At one point during the recent Democratic Presidential Debate, Hilary Clinton said that lead levels in Cleveland Ohio actually tested higher than in Flint (still 5 times higher than what is considered normal) !

So what does that mean?

It means that urban areas all over the nation are suffering from the effects of lead poisoning.



Something tells me what we're hearing so far is just the TIP of the iceberg.

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Guest Wilson

I refuse to blame heavy metal toxicity on my people's current crises. The whites, Hispanics and Asians drink the same water as we do but they are not experiencing the difficulties that we are. There are other things in play here.

However, I do believe that the lead and mercury is unhealthy for everyone.

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Guest Wilson....

Guess What....


You can refuse to believe cigarettes are responsible for lung cancer, but science still says otherwise.
Your denial has no bearing on reality.

Whites, Asian, and HIspanics ARE NOT drinking the same water as "we" do becauase all of "us" aren't drinking the same water ourselves. The water supplies differ from region to region and even when people are drinking water from the same supply the plumbing in the poorer neighborhoods produce more lead and other contaminants in the drinking water.
.....and guess/t Wilson...guess who predominates in the poorer neighborhoods?

Finally, who said Whites and Hispanics AREN'T experiencing the same difficulties?
I've lived in White and Hispanic neighborhoods all over this nation and poor Whites and Hispanics are suffering from gun violence, suicide, drug addiction, high rates of domestic violence, high rates of mental illness, gangs, and everything else.

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And it don't stop................

 





Ras Baraka: Newark Mayor Ras Baraka speaks during a news conference addressing recent finding of lead levels in Newark schools, Wednesday, March 9, 2016, in Newark, N.J. Elevated levels of lead caused officials in New Jersey's largest school district on Wednesday to shut off water fountains at 30 school buildings until more tests are conducted, officials said.

NEWARK, N.J. — Elevated levels of lead caused officials in New Jersey's largest school district on Wednesday to shut off water fountains at 30 school buildings until more tests are conducted, officials said....

http://www.msn.com/en-us/news/us/lead-fears-in-water-at-30-newark-schools/ar-AAgAcMp?ocid=ansmsnnews11




 

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  • 2 weeks later...

There have been articles written about the lead that was found in housing developments in New Orleans and possible connections to the violence this city experiences. Five years ago we launched an initiative to do our part to help reduce the violence which claims the lives of many young black men. We have had success. I'll post the link for those interested in reading about it. 

http://www.nola.com/crime/index.ssf/2016/01/new_orleans_peacekeepers_crime.html


http://legacy.wwltv.com/story/news/crime/2016/02/16/takingastand-peacekeepers-work-squash-beefs-street/80448758/

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Thanx for the links.

I didn't read anything about lead poisoning in them, perhaps I overlooked it.

Although I like what the brothers are doing and I believe Louis Farrakhan last year asked for 10,000 Black men to stand up and secure their communities things aren't quite as simple as stomping into the ghetto and busting heads. A lot of our brothers mean well and they are so frustrated with the madness going on in the hood and the seeming ineffectiveness of the police that they impulsively rush to take action.

But first of all a lot of these brothers have undisagnosed psychiatric issues as a RESULT of lead poisoning, poor diet, and other causes that are beyond their ability to control.  Simply trying to reason with them or threatening them with disciplinary violence is often counter productive as their problem may be one require medical treatment.


Second, a lot of community organizations go after drug dealers and dope houses.
I understand why, but unless we're coming with ALTERNATIVES to selling dope....like providing them with well paying jobs that allow them to live decently in society, we're just taking away the one thing that's keeping them from robbing old ladies in the street.

And then you have the whole sexual issue concerning what is and isn't appropriate to say to a women on the street.

So I know there is an emergency situation going on in a lot of communities and I'm glad you were able to have some success down in NOLA and make an impact in the community but we must make sure the brothers are properly trained so that they don't make situations worse.

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Regarding lead I mentioned that in New Orleans several years ago a similar article was was published that questioned if there was/is a link between violence and lead.  

I only posted the link to show that we have examples of people trying to curb and reduce the violence. 

The call for the 10,000 is not to go target or bust the heads of dope dealers and gang members. The call is to get people who would be willing to work to reduce the violence.

 

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The call for the 10,000 is not to go target or bust the heads of dope dealers and gang members. The call is to get people who would be willing to work to reduce the violence.

It is my understanding that Minster Farrakhan said he wanted 10,000 men to reduce the violence by standing between Black people trying to kill eachother.

http://www.finalcall.com/artman/publish/National_News_2/article_102600.shtml

We know that both street gangs and the drug game are MAJOR contributors to the killing and other forms of violence happening in the ghettos all across America. They aren't the only contributors but they are among the major ones.  If they aren't part of the focus, I'm not sure how effective the brothers will be.

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