The Trans*atlantic, blue space racism, and Flint, Michigan: Water as a means of oppression
When the Trans*Atlantic slave trade was being constructed by white men, water became a site of oppression for African people. The Door of No Return was a physical representation of dispossession, loss, and colonial violence for Black people. Looking through the door of no return you could see an endlessly blue ocean.
Over these oceans, Black people endured horrific voyages into horrific bondage. In this sense, water was the backdrop of suffering. In the Slavery at Sea Soundtrack, played by Amalgemy for Sowande Mustakeem's novel of the same name, the musicians attempt to express this suffering through the sonic language of drums. With this soundtrack as the auditory foundation of this section on water, we can hear how this initial interaction with water shaped the Black people who were subjected to the Trans Atlantic slave trade and their descendants.
Images of water fountains seperated by "whites" and "colored" have been long propogated as an exemplar of segregation. The concept of seperate but equal dominated this time, which supposedly was meant to be fair for both Black and white alike; however; this was not the case. Roberts' concept of blue space racism encapsulates how racism functions in water spaces like pools, oceans, etc. of the water fountains, school systems, and infrastructure in Black communities were severely underfunded and poorly maintained.
Segregation during Jim Crow era in the U.S. brings into clear focus what the authors Davis and Todd discuss in their article about the apocalypse exisiting for Black and Indigenous people long before white people. While white people created a system that gave them the cleanest water and best infrastructure, Black people were made to drink water of subpar quality and lived in environments that were lesser maintained.
Even once segregation was made illegal, it has persisted around the world in a more subtle way. Gentrification pushes Black people out of city centers and into communities that are less accessible, with less infrastructure, and poorer water quality. A very popular case of this was in Flint, Michigan. Where the community repeatedly made U.S. national news due to the high levels of lead in the city's water supply. The entire situation having been caused by gross negligence and pernicious incompetence.
What unites all of these smaller stories into a greater telling of this Black anthropocene is that when taking all of these stories together we see the way that water has been regulated by white people reflects how Black people are subjected to the system of power. Still, this view of water only tells part of the story. At no point in this retelling have Black people been passive agents. If water can be seen as a site of oppression, it can too be seen as a site of freedom.