Secretary of Transportation Pete Buttigieg claimed in a recent interview that racism is “physically built” into parts of the U.S. highway system.
Responding to an allegation from theGrio White House correspondent April Ryan that the interstate system was “built on a racist system” meant “to keep certain groups in and certain groups out,” Buttigieg agreed, saying, “Yeah, often this wasn’t just an act of neglect. Often this 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.”
“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,” Buttigieg continued, according theGrio. “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.”
WATCH: