Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in What the Eyes Don’t See, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Racism and Environmental Injustice
Truth vs. Corruption
Community Values and Collective Duty
The American Dream
Family, Tradition, and Strength
Summary
Analysis
Now that they had institutional review board approval, Mona and Jenny could access the blood-lead levels obtained by other doctors and clinics in Flint, as long as the labs had been processed at Hurley. Within a few minutes of submitting a data request for those numbers, they received a full data set—their sample size leapt from 350 to almost 2,000. After quickly examining the data, Mona sent a note to her team urging them to recommend breastfeeding to new mothers and to suggest those feeding their babies formula use only bottled water to mix it. Mona knew that there was still a lot standing between her and a public health advisory and she wondered—not for the first time—if that advisory was so slow in arriving because the people being affected were poor, Black, and living in a city that had been left behind.
With lots of new data, Mona was able to see very clearly that there was an irrefutable connection between the water switch and rising blood-lead levels in Flint’s children. Mona’s hypothesis had been validated—but rather than rest on her laurels, she sprung right into action, knowing that she had a duty to start speaking out about the risks associated with the water in Flint so that her community would be aware of what was happening. Mona was aware that the government was careless about Flint because they could afford to be—they believed that those affected by the water crisis didn’t matter because they weren’t as politically powerful as wealthier white citizens.
Themes
That afternoon, Mona had a meeting with Kirk Smith, the CEO of the Greater Flint Health Coalition (GFHC), about a community-based children’s healthcare initiative. After the meeting, Mona warned Kirk that the water situation and the blood-lead levels of Flint’s children were both very bad. She told him that she’d gotten nowhere with the county or the state, but that Marc Edwards was also conducting his own research—and his results were bad, too. Kirk, Mona, and several others in attendance began brainstorming about the fastest way to get a public health advisory announced. Mona felt less alone than ever before.
More and more people continued to show Mona that they were ready to do whatever they could to make sure that Flint’s residents would get the resources they deserved—and quickly. While the government was still largely silent, public health officials all over the area were beginning to understand the need for immediate action.
Themes
That night, at a board meeting of the Michigan chapter of the American Academy of Pediatrics (MIAAP), the topic of conversation was vaccination rates in the state—but Mona’s mind was still on lead. When the meeting concluded and the executive director asked if anyone in attendance had anything to share, Mona blurted out that there was a lead problem in Flint. She briefly explained the history of the water issue and her research at Hurley—but didn’t share any numbers or data just yet. The executive director asked Mona to raise the subject on the next day of the conference.
Mona’s decision to speak out at a conference of her peers illustrates her mounting confidence in her fight for Flint. Initially, the government’s pointed disinterest made Mona feel like the water crisis might be impossible to call attention to, let alone fix—but as more and more people joined Mona’s cause, it’s clear that her confidence began to mount. With enough people on her side, Mona could really make some noise about what was going on in Flint.
Themes
Throughout the next day of lectures, Mona texted with Jenny about how they should interpret the influx of data available to them after their IRB approval. They consulted with Marc about their study design, and Marc urged them to use the same months of each year in the data set—water-lead levels are affected by heat and seasons. After Jenny remedied the data set based on Marc’s advice, Mona forwarded the data to him. Marc replied immediately that he was “ashamed for his profession.”
Even though Mona was bringing more people on board, she was still exhibiting a lot of caution when it came to making sure her research was perfect. People like Marc and Mona—people who disrupt the status quo—have to be aware of what effect their whistleblowing will have, and of how to head off the blowback that will surely come their way.
Themes
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Between lectures, Mona’s colleague Dr. Reynolds pulled her into the hall so they could take a call with the Flint state senator, Jim Ananich. On the phone, Ananich told Mona that his office had been prodding the state for information about the water for a long time, but hadn’t got anywhere. When Mona told him how bad things really were, he asked Mona what he and his wife should be feeding their adopted newborn. Mona urged him to feed the baby ready-made formula, or to mix formula with bottled water only.
More support from an official in Michigan’s state government was important—especially given how few people in local or state organizations were even responding to Mona’s requests for help,
Themes
After the phone call was over, Mona and Dr. Reynolds discussed the painful problem of environmental injustice. Already, kids in Flint—like kids in Chicago, Detroit, Baltimore, and Philadelphia—generally had higher rates of lead exposure just from paint and particles. Now, they had water to contend with too—and no one was helping Flint’s poor, predominantly non-white community.
While Mona and Dr. Reynolds could see and quantify the facts of environmental racism, they knew that the very people they’d have to appeal to in order to start mitigating the effects of environmental injustice wouldn’t be so eager to identify the connection between Flint’s racist past and its beleaguered present.
Themes
