On the way home from a funeral today for 89 year friend from church,Westly, I started to notice the drivers of cars on the streets and freeways. They were overwhelming individual white men and women with no one else in the vehicle. A few drivers were African Americans but those cars there was another passenger.
The City Council just approved building a trolley system for the downtown area so more wealthy white, young people can get around. Minority communities were against the trolley because, despite some Federal money, it may take funds away for education and other necessary projects, like a transportation system in their neighborhoods. One alderman suggested we purchase some sleek looking, energy efficient, smaller buses to run the routes downtown. It can be built and expanded without the great amount of money needed for trolley cars and the infrastructure required. There are already many bus routes from all over the city that go downtown. But a trolley, unlike a city bus, would have mostly white riders who live, work or are tourist where as buses, despite using clean fuel, have minorities ride them.
Over the years the resistance to mass transportation in Milwaukee County and surrounding areas has been strong. Bigger and more freeways are being built with transportation money. But a good mass transportation system would allow minorities to travel back and forth to where the jobs are, in mostly white neighborhoods outside city.
The cars and trucks with one white person in it just keep growing and unemployment, due to lack of means to get to jobs by low income minorities, who tend not to have cars, keeps increasing. I was told to cut back on the word ‘racism’ by a friend. But is this not the epitome of institutional or structural racism? Where are all the white people going, long time driving?
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