Pete Buttigieg Goes After Phrase ‘Wrong Side of the Tracks,’ Says it Shows How Infrastructure Can Divide on Racial Lines
Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg is taking on a new challenge, bridging the physical divide infrastructure has caused in America.
Buttigieg joined Trevor Noah on last night’s episode of The Daily Show to discuss his agenda.
“I know you made headlines when and correct me if I paraphrase you incorrectly, but I mean, you basically said that America’s roads are racist, right?” Noah began.
“Not exactly what I said,” Buttigieg laughed. “…The point is, look, there are many places in the us where a road or a railroad was used to divide or segregate or even remove a neighborhood, typically a black neighborhood.”
“I completely understand,” Noah replied.
“The very fact that we have the phrase ‘Wrong side of the tracks’ in American English language tells you something about how infrastructure which is supposed to connect can also be used to divide, often on racial lines and we’ve gotta face that and we can do something,” Buttigieg added.
When Noah pressed on the details of his plan to “right the wrongs,” Buttigieg replied, “…We’re gonna get it right. And that includes recognizing that infrastructure is supposed to connect, not divide some places that might mean that you’ve got a road that’s cutting up a neighborhood. It needs to go underground. And then you can put a cap over and then you can put a park on that cap and create value in the whole neighborhood.”
“…Everybody wins when we do this, nobody’s worse off when we reconnect areas that have been separated or segregated. And I don’t know why anybody would be against us doing that when the whole point of transportation is to connect not to divide,” he concluded.
Listen above via The Daily Show.
