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University of California Press

About the Book

The tireless resistance of local communities fighting for ownership of America’s third largest water system.
 
Toxic Water, Toxic System exposes the consequences of a seemingly anonymous authoritarian state willing to maintain white supremacy at any cost—including poisoning an entire city and shutting off water to thousands of people. Weaving together narratives of frontline activists along with archival data, Michael Mascarenhas provides a powerful exploration of the political alliances and bureaucratic mechanisms that uphold inequality.
 
Drawing from three years of ethnographic fieldwork in Flint and Detroit, this book amplifies the voices of marginalized communities, particularly African American women, whose perspectives and labor have been consistently overlooked. Toxic Water, Toxic System offers a fresh perspective on the ties between urban austerity policies, environmental harm, and the advancement of white supremacist agendas in predominantly Black and brown cities.

About the Author

Michael Mascarenhas is Professor of Environmental Science, Policy, and Management at the University of California, Berkeley, and author of New Humanitarianism and the Crisis of Charity: Good Intentions on the Road to Help and Where the Waters Divide: Neoliberalism, White Privilege, and Environmental Racism in Canada.

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By Michael Mascarenhas, author of Toxic Water, Toxic System: Environmental Racism and Michigan's Water WarMy new book, Toxic Water, Toxic System is not just the story of how the state failed Black communities in Michigan—poisoning an entire city and shutting off water to thousands of people. It’
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Table of Contents

Contents

List of Illustrations 
Preface 
Acknowledgments 

Introduction: Thirsty for Environmental Justice 
1. In the Service of White Privilege 
2. Flint: The Anvil of Democracy 
3. Defending the Karegnondi 
4. Foundation Colonialism 
5. Emergency (as a Paradigm of) Management 
6. Environments of Injustice 
7. The Water Is Off 
8. Shut Off and Shut Out 
9. We Charge Genocide 
Conclusion 

Notes 
References 
Index

Reviews

"A must-read for those curious about the ongoing water crisis in Michigan."
Booklist
"Toxic Water, Toxic System brings attention to research on the Flint crisis while adding valuable historical and storytelling context."
Sociology of Race and Ethnicity
“In this inspiring work, Michael Mascarenhas issues a clarion call to use bolder, more accurate language to confront environmental racism as intentional actions perpetrated by elites in the service of white supremacy, vulture capitalism, and genocide. That’s what I call tellin’ it like it is!”—David Pellow, author of What Is Critical Environmental Justice?
 
“Theoretically rigorous and empirically rich, this book is a compelling read for anyone interested in the roots of inequality in the United States.”—S. Ravi Rajan, Olga T. Griswold Chair and Professor of Environmental Studies, University of California, Santa Cruz
 
“Mascarenhas and We the People of Detroit make an incredible team, crafting a book that is community based, historically and empirically rich, and clear in its vision and recommendations for the future of water.”—Kyle Whyte, University of Michigan