Image Credit: Oscar Wong / Getty 
Social media users have begun to suggest the Jackson, Mississippi water crisis was merely a manufactured crisis.
At a press conference last week, Jackson Mayor Chokwe Antar Lumumba told reporters it could cost up to $1 billion to fix the “indefinite” water issue.
However, following President Joe Biden’s emergency declaration, the Army Corps of Engineers and Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) arrived on the scene, and within 24 hours, the city’s water crisis was fixed.
The EPA and Army Corps showed up and fixed the “issue” quickly and easily. Social media users have begun to speculate why Mary D. Carter, the Deputy Director of Water Operations for the past 8 years, could not fix the “problem” herself.
If the city’s water infrastructure truly failed, why hasn’t Carter, the person in charge of Water Operations, been held accountable for this, one user asked.
Media outlets and leftwing activists jumped to blame “racism” to be the root of the Jackson water “crisis.” NBC News’ Kat Tenbarge, citing the 80% black population of Jackson, said the system failed due to “environmental racism.”
“More people need to be talking about Jackson, Mississippi. The city ran out of bottled water to give residents yesterday. It’s the largest city in Mississippi. It’s 80% Black. Their water system is failing because of years of neglect. This is environmental racism,” Tenbarge tweeted.
Tenbarge did not mention how since 1997, the mayor of Jackson has been black, or how the Director of Public Works, Charles Williams Jr., and the Deputy Director of Water Operations is also black.
Various Twitter users believe Carter should have been able to fix the water crisis due to her job experience and role. “So ‘systemic racism’ leading to infrastructure deficits can be resolved by a few competent people by flipping a switch one afternoon,” one user commented.
Political commentator Jesse Kelly echoed the narrative that this problem was due to corruption. “It’s legitimately sad the people of Jackson, Mississippi don’t have water and it’s even sadder that we’ll never have an honest conversation about why that’s the case. People do not know the level of corruption that happens in local politics. It is the worst,” Kelly stated.
News outlets like MSNBC blamed “racism”, one outlet blamed “capitalism”, and NPR blamed “climate change” as the driving factors behind the water crisis.
Mainstream media coverage blaming Mary Carter or Jackson city officials for their incompetence cannot be found.