Buttigieg: roads designed to kill Black people

AP Photo/Rich Pedroncelli

Pete Buttigieg, our Transportation Secretary, hates roads.

He has a point, though: roads are racist. They hate Black and Indigenous people. They hate Black people so much that they kill them at higher rates than White people.

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Racism. Is there nothing it can’t do?

Some wag on Twitter noted that the rambling discourse from Mayor Pete was so absurd that even Al Sharpton appeared not to buy it.

Perhaps, but Sharpton always looks sour and I won’t pretend to be able to read his mind, such as it is. What I do know is that Mayor Pete makes absolutely no sense and, as usual, isn’t required to explain how a road can be preferentially designed to kill Black people. Imagine if a real journalist actually asked him to explain, not just assert, this ridiculous claim.

I will take Buttigieg’s word for it that there is a strong correlation between race and traffic deaths. I’m not going to bother looking it up because…well, why? It has no relevance to my point. Given my own experience driving in my neighborhood, which is majority-minority, I can certainly believe it.

Traffic rules here are not even seen as suggestions. They are largely ignored. As are sidewalks, looking both ways before crossing the street, and all the normal behaviors that make driving or walking safer. Don’t believe me? I will take you on a drive in my neighborhood.

Is the most likely explanation that race and traffic deaths are correlated that there is some characteristic of the roads, which are not variable, that makes them especially deadly to minorities? Is there a genetic component to how a person’s body reacts to road conditions? What is the connection here?

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Hmm. If I were to design a study examining the connection I might throw in a few other variables and test whether they correlate.

  • seat belt use
  • driving style
  • speed
  • drug use rates

You could test a number of variables. For instance, in many urban areas–areas with disproportionately high proportions of minorities–driving safety is not especially valued.

Obviously, race does not CAUSE bad driving behavior, but at least in urban areas it highly correlates to it. Being Black doesn’t make you an unsafe driver, but perhaps other variables that correlate with race do.

Perhaps, then, Mayor Pete’s point is that we shouldn’t design roads to go to areas where the population is less likely to wear seatbelts, drive according to the rules, and not pull dangerous stunts.

It would be like noting that NASCAR car crashes are caused by being White since most NASCAR drivers are White.

While hardly a majority of fatal car crashes, some of the most spectacular accidents come from cars escaping from crime scenes. Lots related to carjackings too. Here in Minneapolis, the perpetrators are usually young Black teens–often younger than driving age–who are on joyrides with the intent of driving the car to destruction.

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Was it racist to build roads where they got access to victims and their cars?

Race is not an all-purpose explanation for every disparity, despite what liberals keep asserting. You know that. I know that. And liberals like Mayor Pete…

He knows that too. He has better access to the statistics than you or I. Not that he cares about them.

Which all goes to show that you can trust absolutely nothing a liberal says. It’s not that they are always lying; it’s that they are utterly indifferent to whether they are.

They have a point they want to make for whatever reason, and they will shape the “facts” to make the point.

I am certain that Mayor Pete could come up with some reason why roads are sexist, anti-transgender, hate gay people, or are designed to murder Muslims.

Name a victim group, and Mayor Pete will explain how the White heteropatriarchy is using roads to destroy their well-being, and how investing trillions in light and high-speed rail will save victims’ lives.

Never, ever trust a liberal.

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