Pete Buttigieg: Racism Is ‘Physically Built Into’ Country’s Highways

Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg suggested in a recent interview that racism is built into the country’s highway system.

“There is racism physically built into some of our highways, and that’s why the jobs plan has specifically committed to reconnect some of the communities that were divided by these dollars,” the former South Bend, Indiana, mayor told reporter April Ryan this week in an interview discussing President Joe Biden’s proposed $2 trillion infrastructure plan.

Buttigieg explained that several major highways in the United States negatively affect minority communities.

“Well, if you’re in Washington, I’m told that the history of that highway is one that was built at the expense of communities of color in the D.C. area,” he said. “There are stories, and I think Philadelphia and Pittsburgh [and] in New York, Robert Moses famously saw through the construction of a lot of highways.”

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