Pete Buttigieg: ‘There is Racism Physically Built’ in American Infrastructure

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Transportation Secretary Pete Buttigieg, during an interview with theGrio’s White House correspondent April Ryan, asserted that “there is racism physically built” into American infrastructure.

Buttigieg explained that many bridges, overpasses, and highways were often meant to racially divide 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 added. “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.”

Buttigieg is currently working with President Joe Biden on his eight-year $2.25 trillion infrastructure plan, which is looking to create more equitable American transportation systems.

“This wasn’t just an act of neglect,” said Buttigieg of American infrastructure, adding that it was a “conscious choice.”

“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,” added the transportation secretary.

Former Obama administration Transportation Secretary Anthony Foxx echoed Buttigieg’s point, noting that American infrastructure was designed, built, and paid for prior to the Voting Rights Act of 1965.

“That was a time before Black people were at the table,” he added.