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| Bryant's Barbershop in Flint, Michigan, stands as a symbol of hope and resilience amid the water crisis. The shop's owner Norm Bryant says: "I think it's only fitting and proper that we advertise how great Flint is rather than be bogged down by the water problem." |
By Peter Rubinstein
The owner,
Norm Bryant, was surrounded by shelves and surfaces plastered to infinity with
sports memorabilia, framed photos of his family and idols and haircutting
accoutrements as he reclined in one of three antique, leather chairs. The shop’s
interior, along with his ring of white facial hair and the Negro League
baseball cap atop his head, serve as visual components of a meticulous timeline
stretching through the decades that Bryant has experienced during Flint’s
gradual decline.
“I feel
like we took two steps forward and three back,” Bryant said.
Despite the
city’s disastrous water crisis and financial resentment over General Motors’
near abandonment during the 1980s, Bryant has remained a steady source of
support for a community in desperate need. He has managed to stoke embers of
passion and confidence in his fellow townsfolk that had otherwise dimmed since
his own generation’s heyday by creating and promoting a lifetime of righteous
institutions within the area.
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“The people who get elected now, they got an axe to grind and their own private agenda,” he said. “As taxpayers, we got to pay for their faults.”
— Norm Bryant
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Bryant was
born in Little Rock, Arkansas, during the late 1930s and soon moved to Flint to
attend school. He became a football and track standout at the city’s Northern
High School, and attended Arizona State University before returning to
Michigan. In 1956, he was employed at General Motors’ CPC Flint Engine Plant,
where he would remain for 31 years, he said.
At the time, the United Auto
Workers union of which he was a member was made up of 80,000 employees. Today,
Bryant said, there are only 3,000 left. The committee men that the union
trained to negotiate for the workers used to be more effective in fighting for
equal rights and fairer pay, he said.
“The people
who get elected now, they got an axe to grind and their own private agenda,” he
said. “As taxpayers, we got to pay for their faults.”
It wasn’t
until the recession during the 1980s that GM began to invest heavily in
automated manufacturing. The subsequent decline in available positions, along
with the era’s oil crisis-inspired decay that began to take a toll on Flint’s
population, eventually led to Bryant’s retirement from the company in 1987.
He founded
the Greater Flint African-American Hall of Fame four years prior, honoring the
city’s athletes, like his younger self, for their pursuits and accomplishments.
The barber shop came next, he said, and was opened between he and his brother,
Earl, during the same year as his retirement.
Since the
city’s water source was mistakenly switched from the Detroit line to the Flint
River, however, Bryant has had to work to maintain the safety and health of his
business and home in ways that he never anticipated, he said. A reverse osmosis
filtration system that he was forced to install in the shop’s back room costs
him $23 a month, he said. The additional filters he purchased were $70 each.
“I’m not
going to compromise the way I live just because somebody made a mistake down
there,” Bryant said. “The water department is the only department in city of
Flint that makes money. You see, when you borrow from yourself you don’t have
to pay yourself back.”
Despite the
extra cost of preserving usable water, he said, the comfort and dignity of
taking long showers and drinking tap water are things he never plans to
sacrifice.
But the
most central issue surrounding the water crisis, he said, has to do with the
jarring lack of organization within Flint’s communities. The reliable
homeowners of his day have mostly fled, having been replaced by college-aged
kids, he said. Those under 35 years old, like Bryant’s current employee, Roger,
now make up nearly 50 percent of the city’s population, census figures show.
The only way to effectively rally
the city’s current residents around a common effort is through social media,
Bryant said.
“You got
some of these kids, they bleed Facebook. That’s all they live on,” Bryant said.
“That’s how you got to reach them now.”
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| Roger lines the hair of a little boy as the clippers buzz inside Bryant's Barbershop in Flint and where pictures of local sports heros and others line the shop's walls. |
Roger, 34, has been working at the
shop with Bryant for three years, he said while finishing a trim for local
resident Quincee Cook. His daughter had recently broken out with rashes over
her body due to the poisoned water, he said.
“We
sometimes forgot not to use the sinks,” Roger said. “The politicians didn’t
tell us the whole truth.”
Cook, 27,
had moved back into the city from Georgia in October, he said. If given the
opportunity to speak directly to the government officials responsible for the
contaminating Flint, he would direct their attention toward the affected
children, he said. The daily hauls of bad news the residents now receive far
outweigh the good, he said.
“Every day
you hear of somebody dying. It’s hard sometimes,” Cook said. “Think about the
kids.”
The reason
these younger generations of Flint inhabitants are unable to become more
actively involved in addressing the crisis, Cook said, is due to the amount of
effort required to simply survive within it. Luckily, no one in his immediate
family has shown signs of lead-related health problems, he said.
With the
presidential election horde making its way to the city for the Democratic
party’s seventh formal debate the following evening, both Bryant and Cook
expressed hope that the ensuing media flurry would bring much needed attention
back to its residents. Despite favoring Hillary Clinton, it’s Senator Bernie
Sanders’s presence in the race that will catalyze more direct and immediate
action toward the water crisis, regardless of who wins the nomination, Bryant
said.
“The
Democratic Party is always taking black folks for granted,” he said. “By him
getting in the race, now you see black folks on both sides. Now they both got
to make promises.”
In spite of
persisting hardship and heartache, Bryant will attempt to reintroduce residents
to the city’s promise and prosperity during the following weeks, when he will
host the Hall of Fame’s 32nd induction ceremony in celebration of
the third, consecutive Flag Football Championship win by the area’s team.
“I think
it’s only fitting and proper that we advertise how great Flint is rather than
be bogged down by the water problem,” Bryant said.
Email: peterrubinstein@yahoo.com
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| Bottles of water, which line a work table in Bryant's Barbershop, are a constant reminder across Flint of the ongoing water crisis. |
