The L.A. Weekly blared out a headline Monday that asked why white people in Los Angeles are underrepresented as a percentage of overall bus passengers.
Based on income and data compared with other big cities like Chicago and New York, there is no question whites in Los Angeles are far less likely to use public transportation than other racial groups.
One explanation is government-sponsored discrimination.
According to Jarrett Walker, a designer of transportation systems for a number of big cities, the Los Angeles bus system is designed in a way that offers better service to non-white Angelenos. No one uses the word racism, but the dog whistles in this clinical explanation will chill your spine:
But Jarrett Walker, who has designed transportation systems in multiple cities, says stigma and social standing are not what’s keeping L.A.’s white folks in their cars.
In a blog post, he points out that white residents are more likely to live in low-density areas where bus service is not common or practical. Meanwhile, the population of the area served by Metro is well over 70 percent people of color, “which means that the number of white bus riders is not far off what we should expect.”
What say we just stop with the word games, Los Angeles.
“Low density” is obvious racial coding for “You’re on your own, Whitey.” And fancy language like “the number of white bus riders is not far off what we should expect” is just another way of screaming “honky.”