Can you believe that roads can be racist?
Well.....our new Transportation Secretary thinks they are:
"US transport secretary Pete Buttigieg said highway designs in the country were “racist,” and claimed that the new infrastructure bill would help fix it.
Mr Buttigieg was asked about the bipartisan infrastructure bill that was passed by Congress last week during an interaction with reporters on Monday. He was also questioned about his plans to “deconstruct the racism that was built into the roadways.”
This was in reference to his earlier stand that racism was “physically built” into highways.
“I’m still surprised that some people were surprised when I pointed to the fact that if a highway was built for the purpose of dividing a white and a black neighbourhood, or if an underpass was constructed such that a bus carrying mostly black and Puerto Rican kids to a beach — or that would have been — in New York was designed too low for it to pass by, that obviously reflects racism that went into those design choices,” Mr Buttigieg responded.
“I don’t think we have anything to lose by confronting that simple reality,” he added. “And I think we have everything to gain by acknowledging it and then dealing with it, which is why the Reconnecting Communities — that billion dollars — is something we want to get to work right away putting to work.”
When pressed about whether any highways would be removed, he said the approach would vary by community.
“It’s going to vary by community and we have to listen to the community,” Mr Buttigieg said. “Sometimes it really is the case that an overpass went in a certain way that is so harmful that it’s got to come down or maybe be put underground. Other times maybe it’s not that way. Maybe the really important thing is to connect across, to add rather than subtract.”
Comments spark mixed reactions on social media, with conservatives such as Ted Cruz mocking him
news.yahoo.com
