Racism in the USA – Racist roads separating US citizens instead of one – News


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Oakland is debating whether freeways separating blacks from whites should be demolished. A symbolic step.

In June 1956, the so-called National Interstate and Defense Highways Act was passed – the largest road construction project in American history up to that point.

With an incredible 25 billion dollars at the time, more than 40,000 miles of highways were to be built all over the United States within ten years. A road network that should connect the American metropolises.

However, subsidies for returning World War II veterans created a situation that mainly favored the white population, as Ben Crowther of the non-profit organization Congress for the New Urbanism, an urban planning group, explains.

The courses of the streets were chosen primarily for racist reasons.

«When the highways were built, the courses of the streets were chosen primarily for racist reasons. A system has been established whereby a road planner will choose the path where there is least fear of resistance, both from a financial and political point of view. And that hit precisely those neighborhoods where the houses of People of Color had been devalued because of the redlining,” says Crowther.

And those were the quarters of the African American population. The quarters were poorly developed because they were neglected by the authorities. In the USA this is referred to as “redlining”.

What is redlining?


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The term redlining stands for an imaginary drawing of barbed wire in US cities and communities, which has become a perceived reality for decades, especially for African Americans. Cities were divided into A, B, C and D zones. Certain services have been denied to residents in certain areas based on racial or ethnic characteristics. For example, people in certain areas have not received loans for property. Many Afro-Americans stayed behind in often underserved districts.

The 980 freeway runs through the Californian city of Oakland. And this 980 separates the historically African-American district in West Oakland from the city center. A five-lane, lowered expressway that is 170 meters wide overall. Just four blocks from here is the mighty Oakland City Hall.

For Oakland Mayor Libby Schaaf, the 980 is depressing: “It reminds me of a moat. It always looked to me like a racial divide protecting downtown from the black neighborhood of West Oakland.”

Legend:

Oakland is intersected by several freeways, one of which separates the African-American neighborhood of West Oakland from downtown.

imago images/imagebroker/Jeremy Graham

But a broad discussion about the future of these freeways has begun. “The accelerator for this was George Floyd and the Black Lives Matter movement,” says Nate Miley. Since 2001 he has been the supervisor for the Alameda district in California, where Oakland is the largest city.

For him it is clear that this fight to dismantle the 980 is more of symbolic politics. “The dismantling of the freeway alone would not go to the roots of racism and injustice. What is clear to me, however, is that this symbolic act would show that we as a society are capable of overcoming historical mistakes made against people of color. Symbolic, but a step in the right direction.”

The History of the 980 Freeway


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The 980 Freeway was already planned in the 1960s. After many delays, it was completed in 1985. However, the actual plans for this city highway were very different. That explains city planner Chris Sensening.

«At that time there were plans for a completely new and monitored shopping center downtown. The shopping center promised many jobs. Politicians and a number of resident groups, who had originally opposed it, finally voted for the construction of the freeway. So it’s a story of power and hope that ultimately led to the freeway being built and West Oakland being separated from downtown.”

However, the mall was never built. “The idea for this shopping mall was something that wouldn’t have done the city much good anyway. The ramps to and from the freeway should lead directly into an underground parking garage,” says Sansening.

From the lowered freeway straight to the shopping temple: nobody should have even seen the streets of the African American population in West Oakland. The mall was never built, but the freeway was. Houses were torn down or moved, the freeway was built. In the end, a huge structural scar remained in the heart of the city. Not only Oakland has such a scar in the cityscape, but also New York, Minneapolis, Detroit, Miami or New Orleans.

In the infrastructure plan of President Joe Biden’s administration, funds are earmarked for the remediation of such historical mistakes in urban planning. Whether it will be implemented will certainly also depend on future majorities in Congress and on who sits in the White House. From how you look at the history of the country. In the deeply divided United States, the answer is still open.

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