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Replace "poor" with "black" and you have the reason public transportation has been suppressed in large parts of the US. When I lived in Atlanta a suburban city
by subpixel 10y ago
Replace "poor" with "black" and you have the reason public transportation has been suppressed in large parts of the US.
When I lived in Atlanta a suburban city official explained that "we all know the sort of people who hang around bus stops" while killing plans to expand bus service.
- Karunamon 10y agoI'm sorry but that official's statement does not even kinda imply race. Like it or not, bus stops and train stations accessible by everyone are hotbeds of panhandling, pickpockets, and sometimes worse. An area where people just pass through on their way to somewhere else far away, distracted and in a hurry, is a great place for criminal behavior.
- tzakrajs 10y agoIt's a dog whistle for racists. Please don't apologize for racists.
- Karunamon 10y agoYour proof that the statement is some kind of coded language is what, exactly? Parent's assertion? Please don't assume racism where none has been proven to exist. I absolutely refuse to cease challenging unsubstantiated statements because of this conceptual boogeyman, and so should you.
- dsr_ 10y agoYou are arguing about whether a non-attributed quote which was explicitly intended to show racism via coded language actually shows racism via coded language. If this were an attributed quote, you could go look up the source and argue context. It isn't.
- deleted 10y ago[deleted]
- smileysteve 10y agoI added a quote from a Cobb County (Atlanta Suburb) in 1971 from a GA House Representative. http://www.mdjonline.com/news/marta-s-expansion-remains-controversial/article_287d7e88-f5f4-57e3-8c83-f042a02a5767.html http://www.mdjonline.com/news/marta-s-expansion-remains-cont...
- subpixel 10y agoTo understand the context, this was a white suburb in a largely segregated city twenty years ago. And in that context, the racial implications were very clear. If you read up on the history of public transportation in the US, you will be gobsmacked by the racism at play. To wit: in NYC, the highway to the beach was explicitly designed with overpasses too low to accommodate buses, to keep blacks from the beaches and the white suburbs that surrounded them: http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/politics/216905-the-lingering-effects-of-nyc-racist-city-planning http://www.hopesandfears.com/hopes/now/politics/216905-the-l...
- Karunamon 10y agoThis is information that was not in play in the original statement - without it, there is no context to make the proclamation in the first place.
- wcummings 10y agoTrain stations are as safe or safer than the surrounding areas if crime statistics are to be believed.
- smileysteve 10y agoAlso from Atlanta. Here's a quote from 1971 Wilson gave to the media at the time, which said, “People fear that rapid transit would give Negroes greater mobility and consider the $0.15 fare as a gift to ‘a certain segment of the population.’”