Georgia town allegedly diverting sewage to black neighborhood
Rochelle, Ga. made national headlines recently when Wilcox County high school held its first-ever integrated prom last weekend.
Now, nonprofit environmental law organization Earthjustice is targeting the town for another instance of racial discrimination: its sewage treatment.
According to Earthjustice, “White residents of Rochelle live on the south side of the city’s railroad track. African-Americans live on the other side.” The city maintains pipes in the predominantly white neighborhood, but not the African-American side. “As a result,” writes Earthjustice, “untreated sewage backs up and overflows into the streets and the yards of residents on the north side of the tracks.”
“Sewage overflows my pipes and flows under my house. It’s time somebody did something about it. They [the white community] live comfortably and I want to live comfortably, too,” said Rochelle resident Rufus Howard.
Howard is one of nine Rochelle residents represented by Earthjustice, who will file a lawsuit under the Clean Water Act if the city does not resolve the issue in 60 days.
see, this is why i just kept it moving with that prom story. b/c one, the integrated prom shit happens EVERY year, like i saw Morgan Freeman’s doc about that one school in MS having it’s first integrated prom back in ‘09, so i really, just, outrage fatigue at the prom thing. (and because i mean how many segregated proms happen across the country just by dent of schools being being more segregated TODAY than they were in 1960? everyone wants to point at the South and be like “oooh backwards” and let the rest of the country and the education system itself off the hook)
and two, integrated proms, hell integrated anything, DOES NOT STOP shit like this. THIS is what white supremacy looks like. THIS shit is structural. THIS is what determines whether black people live or die, or at least have wellness and health.
like, FUCK your prom.