COMMENT POSTED TO AN ARTICLE BY JOHNNY MILLER IN THE
GUARDIAN
Roads to nowhere: how
infrastructure built on American inequality
From highways carved
through thriving ‘ghettoes’ to walls segregating black and white areas, US city
development has a long and divisive history
There is truth here.
I grew up in Chicago. I knew Detroit fairly well.
However, as is the common practice with these kinds of
examinations, it is incomplete.
Not many British people will be familiar with some of the
harshest facts.
In the late 1950 and into the 1960s, it was not uncommon for
gangs of kids from the Black Ghetto's pry up manhole (sewer) covers and roll
them to a pedestrian overpass and then send it crashing down onto the road to
perhaps hit a car.
As one commentator said at the time, it was just beyond
belief, the people doing such a thing didn't know or care whether Mrs. Martin
Luther King was in a passing car.
And just so, mindless violence. As in those ghetto
neighborhoods with their countless shootings and stabbings.
That is what creating physical barriers was about, not just
an instinctive dislike of black people. It was about fear of violence.
By the way, the manhole cover fad ended when chain-link
tunnels were built above all pedestrian overpasses.
As for the general violence, just check out the statistics
for places like Chicago and Detroit.
