WASHINGTON -- The contaminated water disaster flowing through one of Michigans poorest, blackest cities is tainted by poverty and racism.

Since April 2014, residents of Flint, a city that is almost 57 percent black and incredibly poor , have been drinking and bathing in water that contains enough lead to meet the Environmental Protection Agencys definition of toxic waste .

Theres a philosophy of government that has been writing these places off -- places like Flint get written off, Flint's Rep. Dan Kildee (D-Mich.) told The Huffington Post. And, to me, even though those people making those decisions might not see it this way, its hard for me to accept the fact that race is not the most significant factor.

At the first democratic presidential debate of the year, Hillary Clinton issued a rallying cry for Flint's predicament, saying that the crisis would have been handled differently if it happened in a white suburb outside of Detroit .

While state offices and presidential candidates have rushed to criticize Michigan's handling of the Flint water crisis, the legacy of environmental injustice and racism in the once-thriving city stretches far beyond lead pipes and discolored tap water.