Under Construction @ Keele 2017 Under Construction @ Keele Vol. III (3) | Page 13

Seth Schindler explains that ‘the slum is considered subaltern urban space
precisely because we currently lack the epistemological and methodological tools to
understand it, and this may explain why representations of the slum careen wildly
between poverty pornography and wonderment’. 10 This inability to capture
socioeconomically depressed areas in the Global North with nuance and precision
underlines an emerging “Third World” in industrialised countries. The “wild
careening” between hyperbolic representations of these spaces is not a new
construction. Instead, these descriptors – or more specifically, the distance at which
one stands when utilising these gaze(s) – is rooted in a much deeper, more insidious
colonial history. The language, perception, and normative behaviours that emerge
from this history (when applied to the First World) mirror similar practices and efforts
to explain and understand space where the colonial encounter was most severe, and
most immersed in racial categorisation.
This paper sets out to advance three central arguments. The first section will
demonstrate how the lack of political power and the socioeconomic vulnerability of
communities of colour, such as Flint, provide a ripe ground for environmental
violence and racism. Secondly, the emergence of a distinct spatial invisibility will be
investigated. The coupling of environmental pressure and policies of ghettoisation
will help unpack the appearance of this invisibility. Finally, a third discussion will
review how eroding human rights – particularly for communities of colour, like Flint –
are framed not as problems or failures of human rights, but rather problems or
failures of governance and responsibility. Finally, this paper will close with possible
ways in which this ongoing process could be disrupted.
Section I: Environmental Violence and Race
Paul Stretesky and Michael Lynch, to illustrate the pervasive nature of corporate
polluters in the United States, claim:
[I]f the government threatens to enforce a particular environmental
regulation, corporations may threaten to shut down, fire employees and
Seth Schindler, “Understanding Urban Processes in Flint, Michigan: Approaching ‘Subaltern
Urbanism’ Inductively,” International Journal of Urban and Regional Research 38 (2014): 792.
10